Category: airliner
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Two – Dual In The Skies

Students of middle European history cannot be unaware that Ruritania is surrounded by Germanic and Slavic nations. While they have neever been quite completely occupied by invaders, they have never been completely free of them, either. This may seem to sit oddly with the decidedly British title of Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force. This is…
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The Play Set

I just figured out why I like my model airfields so much. They are the best play set I’ve ever had. The Louis Marx company play sets that appeared in so many North American Christmas catalogues in the 50’s were wonderful things. You could get Fort Apache, The Alamo, The Army Camp, Cape Canaveral, Cops and…
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Boeing Vertol CH 147 Chinook – Part Four – The Blue Mask Of Courage

No, you haven’t wandered into a Marvel comic – the blue mask of courage does not fight crime. It covers things up…rather like a bottled version of a parliamentary enquiry. Except it smells better. Youve read here of my efforts to mask clear canopies on 1:72 scale aircraft by various means; tape squares, Humbrol rubber…
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Lockheed Lodestar Part Six – Finished For The Time Being…

The Mannix Ltd Lodestar – CF-TDI – will land at Wet Dog Regional Airport tomorrow and be hangared for a space. It waits on the appearance of clear Testor’s decal film in the local hobby shops – there is really no other practical way to get the speed lines and the company logo on the…
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Lockheed Lodestar – Part Five – My Father’s Son

I’ll say this now, at the risk of a haunting tonight – my father had some strange ideas. Not strange as in socially strange or religiously strange – his were more mechanically strange. They were generally a result of a problem that had to be solved, no fancy equipment at hand, and the availability of…
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Lockheed Lodestar – Part Four – The Grey Ghost

Limited as I am to only a half-dozen photos of the actual plane I’m modelling – CF-TDI – I am having to squeeze the last drops of information from each image. The heading one is the chief image I use, as it was evidently taken with Kodachrome in the late 40’s or early 50’s and…
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Lockheed Lodestar – Part Three – But Wait, There’s More…

I am starting to get smarter when I open the box of a new kit – I dive for the instruction sheet. The thing I want to see straight away is the diagram of the sprues with the ID numbers on the bits that I will use and the greyed-out portions that indicate things that…
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Lockheed Lodestar – Part Two – Knifing A Lockheed

Those of you who have never seen me in a tee-shirt may be a little startled at the top image. I am hoping it has that effect on the owners of the construction company that used to own the Lockheed Lodestar CF-TDI…the one I am building at present. I sent them a letter yesterday asking whether…
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Lockheed Lodestar – Part One – Personal Plane

I just barely squeaked into respectability – this column was typed on the 31st of December at about a quarter to midnight. The respectable part was actually starting a kit within the year of buying it. A slow builder, not a hoarder… The Lockheed Lodestar leapt at me from the shelves of Metro Hobbies and…
