Category: American aircraft
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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.…
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FROG Stash Avenger – Part Three – The Avenger Meets The Blob

Sounds like the title of a Marvel Comics movie, doesn’t it? The problem was there to be solved – and it is one that has occurred on previous models of the Grumman TBF. The .50 machine gun needs to be installed in the turret and the turret installed in the fuselage before you close it…
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FROG Stash Avenger – Part Two – A Fine Frog

The reputation of older kits is low, but I think this can be undeserved judgement. This FROG moulding is all that one could decently want for the original cost and hits well above its weight at the stash price. The seams have met my expectations – and more importantly, the other parts they were designed…
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FROG Stash Avenger – Part One – Inadvertent Baggie

Got for a very low price in a plastic freezer bag, this FROG Avenger of 1973 is going to be a beautiful model to build. The parts photo shows some work already done at the SMCWA clubrooms: cutting and sanding plus Sprue Goo filling of numerous FROG sinkholes. The week’s interval between club dates means…

