Category: British aircraft
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Beaufighter TFX – Part One – The Alternate Version

I built an Airfix Beaufighter model a year or so ago – the modern kit – and was extremely pleased with the result. It was completed as an RCAF model with a famous pilot in it. This Beau is a very much older version of the plane from Airfix. Scalemates tells me it is a…
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Westland Wallace – Part Four – Struttin’ Wid Some Barbecue

Or ” Jigging On The Spot “. The prospect of attaching eight interplane struts and four cabanes on the Westland Wallace called forth the engineer in me. Also the foam board fanatic. The basic requirement was that the struts sit straight but canted forward from the lower to the upper wing and that they allow…
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Westland Wallace – Part Three – A Life Of Their Own

Plastic models seem to take on a life of their own. And it may not be what the maker intended. I blame the restless nature of the modeller and the ready availability of the internet to supply pictures and histories. You start out with a bog-standard box designed to do nothing more than attract money…
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Westland Wallace – Part Two – In West You Build Model

In Russia, model build you! It certainly builds your basic modelling skills, as well as your stoicism. The ill-fitting parts, flash, and suspect plastic make sure of that. This kit started in 1964 as a FROG Trailblazer, and the trail has long since been lost – overgrown in weeds. Even when explored by a small…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Four – Splish Splash

If I was a kid in a bathtub I would be sorely tempted to play battleships with this Fairey float plane – probably to its detriment. As it is, I will have to think up some way of simulating water to display it – and that is a tough thing to do. The final result…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Three – They’re All CAD’s These Days

That’s when they are not being narcissists – the new buzz word that you use to complain about your ex on Facebook. It suggests that the guilty party only looks at themselves. In reality, the fact that they are now your ex, lady, suggests that they took a long, hard, look at you… But I…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Two – Quo Vadis?

Redirect your mind from the old religious movie – this is serious. What version of this plane do I make? There are always a number of questions about any new build. What are my criteria for choosing a kit and then choosing a scheme? a. It is a kit. I have enough money to buy…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part One – Tradesies

I know the most interesting people. A friend contacted me on Facebook and asked where she could get a 1:12 scale lamp post. It so happened that I had a new one – long spare from an old project that had passed by. She offered to trade for it and I named a 1:72 model…
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Jet Jig Jive

I’ve just used the second of my new Slovakian assembly jigs for a jet. It is the Tornado GR.1 from Italeri – a perfect testing piece for the tool. There are square fuselage panels to rest upon. The geometry is markedly different from the WW2 small jig – though the construction materials are just the…
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Handley Page Jetstream – Part Four – Beinbruch Air Ambulance

If you look carefully you can find a use for everything. This was the principle behind the acquisition of the Handley Page Jetstream aircraft that were to have been a part of the USAF transport fleet. Eventually rejected by the US Air Force due to delays and engine problems, the medical turbo props were sold…
