Category: 1:72 scale
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My New Air Friend
I have had a number of air friends in the past; The RCAF, the IDF, and the Ruritanian Royal Army Air Force amongst others. They feature largely in my collection, and more examples of aircraft will be added as the years go by. But I have a new friend, and it looks like I’ll be…
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The Curse of the Were-Decal
A modeller’s Halloween horror story… I had just gotten to the decal stage for a new model – a tiny little Academy 1:72 Sopwith camel. Lovely model, with interplane and cabane struts that just fell into place. And a simple colour scheme for mine – the RAF museum plane at Hendon; khaki and linen. The…
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Sopwith Camel – Part Five – Hendon’s Prize
On some occasions I will have all I need to decorate a model but miss out on one thing. In this case it is a set of small decals for the airframe number. There is one on the Academy decal sheet, but it’s wrong for the Hendon camel. I adopt a sensible attitude to these…
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Sopwith Camel – Part Four – Marking The Territory
And the next time I do, it will be with an incontinent dog. The colour scheme chosen for the Academy Sopwith Camel is the closest I could come to the preserved example in the RAF museum at Hendon. Working on the assumption that if any knew what a Camel would look like it would be…
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Sopwith Camel – Part Three – Decision Time
Decision time comes at many stages of a build – Shop, Shelf, Box, and Bench. For the desperadoes amongst us we can add the Screen. a. Shop. Which one to go to? The closest one? The one with the biggest range? The one who gets the newest kits in? The one with the best prices?…
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Sopwith Camel – Part One – A Kind Gift
A gift camel. I feel like a middle eastern potentate. Actually a second gift Camel. One came from my friend Paul and one from my friend Warren. This latter one is the Academy kit, and as I’ve just completed a Revell WW1 fighter, I thought I would have a change and do the Academy. It…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Seven – Why Was It Not Named?
Dauntless, Helldiver, Avenger, Hellcat…all good historic names for US Navy aircraft. The Army Air Force had Mustangs and Thunderbolts and such. Why was the BT 1 just a code, instead of a name? I suspect it is because it never established itself in the affections of the press – or at least in the press…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Six – The Arcane Scheme
I occasionally go to our local bottle shop and buy beer or wine. It is a big shop and has hundreds of varieties of booze, and the only way to differentiate before you buy is by the labels. I have given up being a gourmet or a gourmand and have finally come down to being…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Five – A Pit Of Cocks
Settle down class. Stop giggling. You in the back, too. The cockpit on the BT 1 had every chance of being awkward – PE rudder pedals and control knobs and such Czecherie – but I refused to let it daunt me. I have already made a Douglas SBD-4 and I am dauntless… The green colour…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Four – The Donkey
And I spent a morning pinning the tail on it. No blindfold. Czech and other short-run airplane kits have many flaws, but one of the most worrying is the fact that they often provide no way of attaching the tail securely. If there is a tab and slot it is rudimentary, clogged with flash and…
The Little World 