Category: American aircraft
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Swedish NA 16 – Part Six – Uncle Dick’s Kit O’ Doom

Inside every silver lining is a cloud. My week building the Beechnut Models CAC Wirraway into a Swedish NA 16 trainer was a humbling experience. No, that is not quite right – that should be ” bumbling “. With a kit this bad you are feeling your way from the start – over a carpet…
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Will The Robber Baron Succeed Where The Red Baron Failed?

Will Trump manage to shoot Snoopy down? If the Petulant of the United States succeeds in nailing his tariffs to the fence and/or increases them to an unsustainable level, will he put the nail in the coffin for imported model kits? Will US citizens be restricted to what they can buy from US moulders? Will…
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Two Feed Gates Joined To A Sinkhole

By flash… The Far King L Scale Model Company has released its latest kit – a 1: 21.5th reproduction of the strutless biplane: the Christmas Bullet. It is tipped to be every bit as successful as the prototype. Modellers who are discouraged by other biplane kits will love the Bullet. The wings are cantilevered out…
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More Fire Tankers Needed

And not just in the summer months. The increasing problem of bushfires worldwide means more tanker aircraft are being used. The variety of planes that have been brought to the service is astounding. I have looked at a number of the bombers and surveillance planes I’ve built in their military configuration and realised that I…
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Pick On Someone Your Own Size!

And your own scale! Do you have models in your collection that are all different sizes? I do. Are they all different scales? Generally, no. This may not be a problem for you if you are a widespread modeller. But if you want a consistent collection that can tie together, you need to discipline yourself.…
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Sikorsky H-19 – Part Four – Utility

I often used to watch a television program in the 50’s and 60’s called ” Whirlybirds “. It featured adventures and rescues centred around two pilots and a Bell 47 helicopter – the US Army Sioux. I realise now that Hollywood made the 47 do a lot more than ever it could. It is a…
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Sikorsky H-19 – Part Three – Squish

I don’t know if joining the two hull halves is a stressful time for ship modellers. Listening to the noise from the bench at my scale model club would suggest that it is. I can feel their pain – I experience some of it each time I join two fuselage halves. Depending upon where the…
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Sikorsky H-19 – Part Two – The Common Colour

In scale model building the two most common colours are Thewrong Green and Thewrong Grey. I have elected to use the first of these as the interior shade for the Sikorsky. It is related to the inside colour of USAAF planes and is likely to have carried over to Army and Marines aviation after the…
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Sikorsky H-19 – Part One – So Many Choices

The Sikorsky S-55, or H-19 Chickasaw was a helicopter of many armies and air forces. The decal sheet of this Italeri kit provides for France, USMC, USCG, and Royal Navy. Other issues in the past supplied RCN and the USAF. Just a little googling suggests Indian Air Force, Turkey, Israel, and Chile are possible with…
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It’s Only Gotta Work Once

A cynical phrase, but perfectly true – if you are talking about kamikaze planes, nuclear bombers, or interceptors. The occasions upon which they are used to fulfil their dire fates are such that they only need to work the one time – but that needs to be done with a degree of success. No kamikaze…
