Category: American aircraft
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Piasecki Army Mule – Part Two – Army Mule = Navy Retriever.
The Piasecki H25 Army Mule helicopter was not a very big lifter – even for a twin-rotor aircraft. None of the helicopters of the 50’s period were – they were limited by what their aero engines could do. The H 25 has a twin-row radial engine buried in the fuselage, but it is a small…
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Piasecki Army Mule – Part One – Buy Me, Boss…
Trolling the aisles of Hobbytech recently I was feeling discouraged – they’d had a big Christmas and sold off a lot of goods – but there weren’t many small kits left that fit my criteria; cheap, simple, and a western prototype in the propeller or early jet eras. I wasn’t able to spend big on…
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Bell Iroquois – Part Two – It’s ALL Insides
The new Bell Iroquois helicopter is proving to be a series of revelations – occasioned by the fact that I have not seen inside a helicopter since 1961 – and that was one with a giant perspex bubble on the front and a big piston engine. It would appear that the advent of the gas…
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Bell Iroquois – Part One – The New Currency
Move over, Dollar. Step aside, Euro. Bitcoin, I laugh at you. I have my own medium of exchange now. I am no longer tied to your paltry numbers. I am accepting payment in model kits. Recently I took a series of portrait photographs for a friend at his request. Rather than charge studio rates to a…
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The Long-Started Kit
A very long time ago I bought a plastic model kit for my daughter. This sounds like the standard modeller’s joke excuse, but I assure you that it was not that at all. My daughter and I had just flown in an Ansett Airways Boeing 767 – 200 to the eastern states for a holiday…
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The Museum Approach
Go to your local museum – it doesn’t matter what type you choose; art, science, technology, cars, planes, boats, dolls. If you’ve got an interest, go spark it at the museum. While you are oohing and ahhing at the exhibits, look about you at the facilities. The architecture of a museum can be as interesting…
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Chance Vought Corsair – Part Three – We Have Liftoff
I am pleased to report that I have gotten my mojo back. The Hobby Boss F4U-1 is complete and on the tarmac at Wet Dog Regional beside her sister craft – The F4U-1 pre-built model from the same maker. Think I have done as decent a job as the makers themselves, and have certainly restored…
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Chance Vought Corsair – Part Two – New Model Just Release!
You buy now. We ruv you rong time. Someone told me I was getting cynical in my old age. I have my high school yearbook and the entry with my photo says I have an ironic wit. I am not an old cynic – I was a smart arse in 1966. All this because I…
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Chance Vought Corsair – Part One – Familiar Territory
As you’ll have seen from my earlier postings, this kit build is a confidence-building exercise occasioned by a recent failure. It is the second Corsair to get on the deck but this time it will fly. The Hobby Boss presentation is familiar – a clear plastic tray that corrals all the sprues and parts. I…
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The Same Kit Again
I have yet to make the same kit again in my current modelling – but it came close with one of the Airfix offerings. Fortunately between Mk I and Mk IV a great deal had happened so the two models are quite different looking, The real problem would be if one tried to make a…
The Little World 