Category: American aircraft
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Batch Processing*

I have spent the last three days batch processing US Army fighters, attack planes, and bombers. It started as a whim, became an experiment, and is looking to be a darned good technique for the future. It started with an idea – in my case these may be vast ideas or half-vast ideas, but you…
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The Return Of The Chinese Junk

When I was a kid in the 50’s there were dime stores that sold goods cheaply. In some cases they were cheap goods – particularly if they were plastic toys from Hong Kong. There was a particularly brittle form of plastic that was used in toy factories that was moulded into all sorts of workable…
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OD’ing On Olive Drab

Is it just me or is it hard to find The True Meaning Of Olive Drab? I need to paint a number of USAAF planes and I am going to avoid the flashy multicolour of nose art and loud decals. I just want cooking quality Army ships for a diorama. You’d think that Olive Drab…
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Walk In Or Walk Out?

And we’re not talking about wing walks either. I want a kit. And a specific kit – having done my research in regard to it. Its the best for my purpose – and good news – it was a new Airfix release late last year and has been seen in the local hobby shop in…
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Sandown Park 2019 – Part Eleven – What’s Big And Pink…?

And full of high explosives? Why Strawberry Bitch, of course. Not a popular airplane in Romania, though it did visit there some years ago. Not that it hung around – just popped in, dropped something off, and popped out again. Sort of like a pastel-coloured courier van. No-one signed for the parcels… The real SB…
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Sandown Park 2019 – Part Eight – Chop Till You Drop

I really must make more of a study of model helicopters – having built four of them for my own small airfields. Thankfully, the kit industry has as much affection for them as for fixed-wing aircraft and there seem to be varieties from every country on offer. If you were a dedicated helicopter modeller you…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Three – Build Up To Obscurity

As the war clouds darkened over Europe in the 1930’s, the government of Ruritania realised that the defence of the realm would require additional spending – both for ground and air forces. Fortunately the kingdom is entirely land-locked and has no need for a navy aside from Customs and Excise boats on the lakes to…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Seven – A Calm And Serene Day

The last day of a model build is either going to be Shangri-la or Stalingrad. Either you are merely dusting it with a feather or grinding the tailplanes off with a chainsaw. In the case of the Avenger it was all peaceful. Well, peaceful after I glued the fake .50 into the turret. I am…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Six – Hande Hoch!

Und if you do not obey ziss varning – zere vill be conzeqvences… The consequences will be fingerprints in the clear varnish on the model. I know – I’ve been here before and done this very thing. And had to discipline myself not to do it again. The Mk III jig helps – I got…
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Grumman Avenger – Part Five – Half-Dressed

It is unfair to take a photo of a lady when she is only half-dressed…unless she specifically wants pictures of herself in that condition. I was reminded of this when I thought to picture the Avenger TBF-1 in her masking tape. But as this is a new departure – a three-level USN paint scheme –…
