Category: American aircraft
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Chance Vought Cutlass – Part Three – Bit By Slow Bit

And if you rush it, the demons leap on you out of the shadows… I have rushed it before – and I can show you the demon scars. Kits that started well and finished poorly – because I rushed a stage through. This Cutlass was not going to be one of the sad cases. The…
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Chance Vought Cutlass- Part Two – Fit

Whether it is dry or wet, the fit of a kit is the factor that most determines our satisfaction. Or to put it succinctly – it either will or it won’t. My praise to the Fujimi people for this one – it did. Not all their offerings in the past have, but here we have…
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How Do You Second-Guess The Factory?

With boldness, one would suggest. Scale model kit makers get it right most of the time. Their products are meticulously designed, moulded, and packaged. They are sold at reasonable prices by retailers who have the best interests of the modeller at heart. And every time you wish upon a star a Fairey gets it’s wings…
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US Navy Carrier Deck – Part Two – Ready To Launch

As soon as I find some deck crew and a mule tractor. And I am looking – the Italeri kit has turned out a beauty, a one-day build, of course, and I got to use some of he enamel paints that were kindly given to me. The intricate blast shield mechanism came out perfectly. As…
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US Navy Carrier Deck – Part One – Building The Stage

This kit was a stash buy – Otherwise I would never have contemplated getting one. But I can readily see the usefulness – particularly for a small-scale photographer. I am hoping there will be enough surface area covered by this kit to let me take usable shots. And it will be a matter of a…
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Consolidated B-24 D – Part Five – Unloved 23790

I am not going to assign a position to Unloved in the various waves of USAAF bombers that hit Ploesti in Romania. There are scholarly books that can report on every ship and crew that made the raid. I am just satisfied that it has most of the salient features of that early B-24 model…
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Consolidated B-24 D – Part Four – If It Was Any Uglier

It could stand for Parliament in a Queensland marginal seat… As it is, the basic airframe is a beauty – straight and true and that with very little filling or fettling. The wings slipped into a recess in the fuselage sides so that the cement joint was completely hidden. I am a nervous modeller and…
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Consolidated B-24 D – Part Three – Take That, Ya Basket!

A new selection of things to add to my least-favourite kit experiences. Don’t get me wrong – after smoothing the lumpy exterior of this old Revell casting, the parts have gone together pretty well. I used the progressive cementation method and the workshop clamps coped with the complex forces needed – the fuselage and wings…
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Consolidated B-24 D – Part Two – The Toxic Rivet

Or should that be noxious? Whatever, the exaggerated rivet detail on this old Revell kit is probably what causes it to be rejected by the modern builders. Yet, under the spotty exterior is a pattern of decent engraved panel lines. I researched other’s efforts and found one ambitious chap who sanded the rivets off entirely.…

