Category: airliner
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SNCAN Martinet – Part Four – Swedish Spy

That might seem a bit harsh, but the decal on the side of the fuselage and the Wikipedia entry both identify this post-war aircraft as part of the cartographic services if the Swedish government. They may have flown over Sweden mapping, but they could also have been taking vertical pictures elsewhere. There are several internet…
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SNCAN Martinet – Part One – A Siebel By Any Other Name

Christmas was coming to the hobby shop and it was time to choose my present. In this case before the actual day, so I got a fresh choice. The SNCAN Martinet was a Siebel 204 produced in France during the occupation and afterwards. It was used by the French air force and then sold on…
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The Light Plane Kit Vacuum

And I don’t mean vac-form either. I mean, where are the light plane kits in the scale modelling world? You can buy as much armour as you can carry, and as many fighter planes, bombers, and battleships as you might get through the front door – but if you want to have a shelf full…
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” Slice Me Off About $ 5.00 Worth, Love…”

” And is the polony fresh…? “ A reader of this column who lives in my same town has raised an interesting question re. the dearly-remembered Antonov AN 225 cargo jet. Apparently there is a 1:72 kit of it from the Ukrainian maker ” Modelsvit “. A massive thing, of course, and one of those…
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Modelling The Misery

We have a European war going on right now with death and destruction on a terrible scale. We’ve had these since the time of the Roman Empire, but this is one in real time with live video coverage. And it has some people we know in it…people we care about. The modelling hobby and the…
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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:…
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Farman – NC 223.3 – Part Five – Almost A Sailplane

Well, you could be fooled into thinking that if you just saw the fueslage and wings, couldn’t you. Angular, but sleek. No-one in the SCNAC stayed sleek for long – eventually their Gallic desire to attach a strut, a window, or a café awning and chairs asserted itself and before you knew it you had…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Four – Faire Soi-Même

Or you won’t be faring at all. Scratch-building at the order of the kit maker is a strange feeling. I do not shy from it, as I scratch build many of my airport structures, but it still smacks a little of ” don’t care ” when the instructions demand it and there are no parts…
