Category: American aircraft
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Douglas C-47 – Part Two – Honeymoon Express

The plane I’m building has a real history – apart from being a special scheme on a set of aftermarket decals. ” Honeymoon Express ” was the lead ship on a paratroop assault on Nadzab in New Guinea in 1943 in conjunction with an assault on Lae. It is a good point of interest as…
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Douglas C-47 – Part One – The Gooney Bird Again

I built a Canadian Gooney Bird a last year as part of my Air World collection – a Burma Biscuit Bomber that has been preserved in the Canadian museums as a flying tribute. That should have finished my fascination with the Dakota/C-47/Skytrain/ Gooney bird for some time. Not a bit of it. I had collected…
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Brewster Buccaneer – Part Three – A Small Change Of Plans, Eh?

I keep telling myself I will not do this, and I keep ignoring myself. The Buccaneer for Special Hobby is about to change hands…into the care of the RCAF at Suffield, Alberta for “special duties “. While my meagre internet resources do not yet say what these duties are, I can guess: Beer runs. Large…
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Brewster Buccaneer – Part Two – It Fits!

Those two glorious words… The interior for the Brewster Buccaneer is a complex thing – Special Hobby have made use of tiny little injected pieces as well as the resin and PE and it took a day and a halve to finish the flight deck. But I have to give the Czechs credit where it…
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Brewster Buccaneer – Part One – ” On The Sides Of Our Buccin’ Heads…”

The classic answer to the question of where are our Buccaneers… Now that we have that out of the way decorum can return. The Special Hobby 1:72 Brewster Buccaneer was the result of doing what I told myself I would not do; go to the Post -Christmas sales. To be fair, the sales came to…
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Douglas B-18 Bolo – Part Three – The Museum Ship

Is there any reason the US Army referred to their aircraft as ” ships “? I wondered at that – the US Navy referred to them as aircraft, and that’s not surprising as they would also have had to use the word ” ship ” in other ways…dealing with sea-going vessels. Why did they both…
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Douglas B-18 Bolo – Part One – The First Idea Was The Right One

Readers of this column will have seen my report on the Special Hobby 1:72 Douglas Digby Mk I – the RCAF version of the USAAC B-18 bomber. I was thrilled to find that kit and quite enjoyed the building experience – even though some parts of it went down the silly rabbit holes of too…
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Republic Thunderjet – Part Three – Polish-ed Silver

They said it couldn’t be done. They said it shouldn’t be done. But I did it. Now tell me why I did it…because I am not that convinced that it was a good idea. I have completed as much work as I intend to do on the Mister Craft Republic F-84G Thunderjet. It is stand-off…
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Republic Thunderjet – Part Two – ” Warsaw, We Have A Problem…”

When I introduced this Mister Craft model last post you may have gotten the impression that I was making fun of it. Nothing of the sort. I am coming to the conclusion that there is no fun to be made with any part of it. The good news is the wing top and bottom halves…

