Category: American aircraft
-
Convair 440 – Part Four – When Life Gives You Lemons…
That meme and its associated parodies running through the brain, I’ve been doing a little research on the Mach 2 Convair 440 kit that I bought. It seems that there are a number of variants of it that share the plastic but change the decals, and a number of companies that have produced custom decals…
-
Convair 440 – Part Three – She’ll Be Right, Mate…
If ever there was a phrase that captured the spirit of Australia, that is it. Forget Hoges and his shrimp on the barbie ( and they’re prawns down here…)and the Crikey bloke. Pure Hollywood scriptwriting. The real Australian uses ” She’ll be right. ” to cover a multitude of situations and a myriad of sins.…
-
Convair 440 – Part Two – How Much For That Busted Box?
When I was engaged in retail trade in cameras and photographic goods we would occasionally receive a shipment of equipment that had a tough passage. External cardboard cartons might have been roughly handled by the shippers and ended up dented or breached. We rarely had evidence of tampering or pilfering, but it was possible. Trucks…
-
Convair 440 – Part One – The Visitation
I went to a new hobby shop – Hobby Mania. It was up a flight of stairs and shared premises with an accountant’s office. No-wonder – the accountant has the shop as a personal hobby venture. He must be doing well enough – he had an employee there to show me the room of stock…
-
Messerschmitt 109 – Part Five – The Captive Bird
A surprising number of airplanes have been captured in war and returned to flying on behalf of their enemies. Some as service machines, some as decoys, and some as test beds. This might seem to be a bonus for the people who capture the enemy’s warplanes, but remember that they also need to capture the…
-
Douglas Dakota – Part Four – X
I think this was the best introduction I could have had to the Italeri brand of model kits – It had everything; good moulding, sensible build complexity, good material, and an economical price. The fact that it fits into my time period, nationality, and historical significance is a bonus. Plus there are numerous internet images…
-
Douglas Dakota – Part Three – If They’re Not Shooting At You…Paint
There are many reasons for camouflage paint schemes on aircraft: a. A disrupted earthen top pattern prevents the enemy from seeing the plane from above while it is parked on the ground. b. A solid blue or white top pattern can also prevent the enemy from seeing it from above when it flies over water…
-
Douglas Dakota – Part Two – The Wonderful/Horrible Net
My determination to build a Douglas Dakota in Canadian markings was aided wonderfully/horribly by the internet. It was able to tell me exactly what I did and didn’t need to know, but unfortunately did not put a divider between the two types of information. It’s sort of like trying to read a modellers Talmud…except you…
-
The Big Green Things Made Of Wood
You know. Branches, trunks, roots, bird nests. Those things that stand there in front of the forest and obscure it. Whaddaya call ’em…starts with a ” T “. I’ll think of it in a minute… Well modelling can be like that. You do all the research in the world – spend days on the internet…
-
We Need The Tiny Tin Can
I am looking at small and large cans of paint – spray paint, as it happens – and wondering at the rationale around it. The can contained a grey Tamiya primer. I’ve just sprayed the very last of it on a 1:72 aircraft and can feel satisfied – it completed the job just before it…
The Little World 