Category: American aircraft
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Martin Canberra – Part Three – Da Nang 1966
With three good choices for a scheme, it was only the toss of a coin that painted this bomber high speed silver. The paint itself is the good old French silver grey melange now topped up with more fresh silver for a shinier finish. One of the extant B-57 aircraft at a museum in the…
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Martin Canberra – Part Two – Dry Fit Champ
As soon as the cockpit tub went in – along with the 3/4 of a musket ball – I knew I was on a winner. A fuselage cementation stage can be heaven or hell, depending on whether the moulders have proportioned the cockpit tub or platform to the actual inside of the shell. Many Czech…
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Martin Canberra – Part One – Old Italeri
I am always on the alert for Italeri kits – I find them an ideal blend of simplicity and precise moulding. This Italeri No 144 box was no exception – it was half-way down a pile of unwanted kits at a recent stash sale for the very reasonable price of $ 20. I balanced my…
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Stealth Aircraft – Part Four – B2 Spirit
Northrop are finally vindicated. After suffering the indignity of having their pioneer flying wing bombers canned by the US Air Force in the 1940’s due to commercial and political pressure, they have won the day by producing the B2 Spirit stealth bomber. It is in service and has done service. It will likely be replaced…
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Stealth Aircraft – Part Three – F117 Nighthawk
Do Not Place In Dark Cabinet… Or you might as well have not built it. This is four parts and a stand, there is no glazing except over the eyes of the modeller. There are few details, but I shall attach a note saying the cockpit is fully detailed. It looks as if it should…
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Stealth Aircraft – Part Two – Painting The No-See-Um
I’ll bet you’re just itching to know what a No-See-Um bite feels like… The colours of the F 117 and the B2 are quite different, though in both cases the paint is part of the circus trick. The night attack aircraft is very dark grey/black and the strategic bomber nearly as dark, but with gradation…
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Stealth Aircraft – Part One – The Unseen Gift
The 1/144 scale kit for the B2 bomber and the F-117A fighter snuck up on me at the modelling club. Rick Slattery presented them to me as a gift – he usually concentrates upon larger scales – and I was delighted to take them. I am starting to appreciate this simplified scale as a way…
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Looks And History
This so often devolves into ” or ” rather than ” and “. Aircraft are designed by people with different senses of aesthetics. Add to this the different operational requirements, purchasing wishes, and actual manufacturing ability, and you can see why there have been so many flying duds. In some cases the crash of the…
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Douglas Skyraider – Part Two – The Five-Point Shot
Photographic shot, that is. The acquisition of a new Fujifilm camera with a touch screen has led to adoption of a new procedure for scale model photography. I can now doe focus-stacked images much more easily. It’s not my invention – it’s been going on for ages -but now it is very simple for tabletop…
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Douglas Skyraider – Part One – Abandoned On The Shelf
Started, but incomplete. Very low price – my kind of kit. And a definite prototype in mind for the finished build. The previous owner had cemented the wing and fuselage halves together and done a pretty careful and precise job of it. The kit is designed so that the cockpit tub slips inside before the…
The Little World 