Category: 1:72 scale
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Fiat CR.32 – Part One – ” Chirri “

Not just the bare bones, but the entire animal! A nationalist Chinese fighter of the 1930’s straight out of the box! And it is one I haven’t built before. How could I refuse the email lure from Metro Hobbies? And it’s an AZ model from the Czech Republic so I know it’ll eventually be good.…
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Fokker Eindecker – Part Three – Stick and String

Well, that was a surprise. I actually enjoyed the process of rigging this little fighter plane. It doesn’t have all the wires it is entitled to, but it has as many as I have the patience to attach. The local hobby shop man didn’t have the Ezy-line that I thought was needed but he did…
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Fokker Eindecker – Part Two – Is This Thing Actually Lego?

You might be tempted to think so as you assemble it – the squareness and the simplicity. Antony Fokker was a genius, no doubt – he could get the most out of the material available to him by seizing upon the simplest of forms. It apparently had a workable synchronising mechanism for the Spandau machine…
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Fokker Eindecker – Part One – $ 2.00 special

Those of you who have accused me of being a cheapskate are wrong – dead wrong. I’ll have you know I spent $ 2.00 for this kit and I did not even cry out in pain as I paid. I winced, but it was silent. The box was in a parcel left for sale at…
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Cessna Dragonfly – Part Three – ROKAF

The dragonfly is ready to go into the collection and I am delighted with the choice of ROKAF. I shall complete more for this division in the future. The scheme for this plane’s upper works is as much a nuisance as any other tri-colour pattern. Whether it is French, Soviet, or whatever, I always instinctively…
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Cessna Dragonfly – Part Two – Weighty Nose

You only have to forget once to weight the nose of a three-wheeled plane to impress it on your memory forever. And there is no effective way to excuse it when you are faced with the fact – other than accepting your fate, putting the wheels up, and the model on a flying stand. I…
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Cessna Dragonfly – Part One – The Bagatelle

Some models leap off the shelf into your hand. Others cringe round to the back and must be got out with hooks. And some just call to you, but you don’t know why. The Cessna A-37B was a kit I bypassed frequently, but one day I glanced at the price and noted that it was…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Eight – Air France Libre
My first aircraft model with the Free French cross of Lorraine and it has been quite an experience. The Farman in warpaint would have been simple enough to do, and the camouflage would have disguised many of the difficulties encountered, but the appeal of the ivory paint and those FF insignia won out in the…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Seven – L’Éminence Grise

By the time a large scale model gets to the Mr Surfacer 1000 stage I no longer have any authority over it – the command structure is reversed. In a way, it is comforting to surrender the initiative in this way. Oh, there will be patching and sanding and other attendances but the die has…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Six – Praise Courageous Me

Thank you, thank you. I fully deserve your applause – I have made propellers and engines the HARD way. Not that I had any choice in the matter. The parts were there and the instructions were uncompromising – ” Do as we say or die “. Or, in the case of the engine mounting struts:…
