Category: 1:72 scale
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PZL 23b Karas – Part One – Oh, What The Heller

My local hobby shop gets in batches of Mister Craft kits every year or so. They stick around a long time, as some of them are repeaters – say a Focke-Wolfe mould just reboxed endlessly with different decals. Others are unique and you snap them up as they appear – always hoping that they are…
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PZL 37a – Part Two – Club Time

This PZL bomber was reserved for a club time build and missed out on some of the workshop photos that other builds get. But in the end it came out well. The frontal view of the aircraft tells a unique story – the dual wheels set onto the landing gear legs. It is the first…
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PZL 37a Los – Part One – Heart In Hand…

Or mouth, as the case might be. I plucked this Mister Craft bomber off the hobby shop shelf as part of a Christmas present…wondering if I was going to get another dud. Mister Craft can mould some real curate’s eggs… In thus case I was not too dismayed by the sprue trees, but I did…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Four – The Winter Coat

Part of the appeal of the Grigorovich is the seasonal one…the fact that it’s a winter fighter with skis for landing in the snow. I am not an Australian fan-boy for snow…I passed my childhood in Alberta and I got all the show I needed, thank you. The skis are a novelty, but so is…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Three – Close Enough For Jazzski

And there I was, getting along so very well…and then winter set in. I knew it was winter because the snow started drifting into the gaps between the wing roots and the fuselage on this Avis model. I was delighted, as it obscured the giant trenches that had appeared. But come spring, the ruse would…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part Two – The Soviet Engine

I might not have been paying attention in the past to the details of aero engineering…but I do now that the kit makers are making much more detailed efforts. For instance, I always built the Airfix and Monogram fighters with radial engines that fit inside cowlings. In many cases they were just engine fronts inside…
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Grigorovich IP-1 – Part One – Out Of Left Field

The rise of the eastern bloc modelling industry is a blessing and a curse – the former because it gives us good models to build and the latter because it chooses some of the most obscure prototypes. At least they are obscure to a modeller in Western Australia. They might be household names in Minsk.…
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PZL P.11c – Part Three – Krakow Cracker

If ever I go to a peaceful, clean, cheap, and safe Europe, which is probably never, I hope to see Poland. And I hope to see the planes in the aviation museum in Krakow. One of which would be the PZL P.11c. This kit has entirely turned around my regard for the Polish moulding industry.…
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PZL P.11c – Part Two – Volte Face

Ahem. This may be difficult. I need to change my mind without giving the impression I was ever wrong. I mean, I don’t want to rend the fabric of the universe, now do I? But I need to change my mind about the Polish model moulding business. I once was of the opinion that the…

