Category: British aircraft
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De Havilland Heron Mk II – Part One – Raised Expectations
And raised rivets, too. I had a happy childhood, and a great many of the happy occasions revolved around model kits. This included a number of the 1950’s and 60’s Airfix products. Merit, Monogram, Aurora, and Revell as well. So it’s with great delight that I see Airfix re-issue classic models from the era. I…
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Avro Tutor – Part Four – The Yellow Sheep Of The Fold
Well that was an instructive two weeks. I’ve had as much as I can take and the Avro Tutor has had as much construction as it is going to get. Purists will cavil at the lack of rigging but I know my limitations. I will eventually try to rig something but it’ll be a better…
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Avro Tutor – Part Three – Aptly Named
The Avro Tutor may have taught hundreds of British and Commonwealth pilots to fly. The AZ kit of this has certainly taught me something: never buy another Czech biplane kit. It is a bloody nightmare. A variation on the bad dream that was the Avro Anson ( is it Avro…? ). In this case the…
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Avro Tutor – Part Two – So Far, So Good
The assembly of the AZ Avro Tutor so far is encouraging. the fuselage is straight and the interior built up nicely – I even managed the photo-etch seat belts as the cockpit is open. The landing gear is solid once the three struts are braced against each other. The tail wheel will never last…
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Avro Tutor – Part One – A Venture Into The Unknown
I am not a novice in the business of a Czech kit. I know that there are beauties and beasts amongst them – I cut my teeth on one of the latter and am always grateful now when I meet with the former. This AZ model was ordered in the same batch that saw the…
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Hawker Tempest V – Part Three – The Buster Built
Five cold and wet days in Perth saw the roses in the front garden blown down, the cat reduced to tears, and the Hawker Tempest V completed. It started out as a vehicle for experiment and in the end has proven its worth. The thing is garish, and deliberately so. After WW2 the Tempest was…
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Hawker Tempest – Part Two – It Might Just As Well…
It might just as well be a Buster…and it might just as well be a Hobby Boss kit rather than an Academy product. The building experience has been just as rapid. I washed the sprue trees for this Tempest at about 12:30 – the basic airframe enclosing a painted cockpit was ready for the photo…
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Hawker Tempest V – Part One – The Elegant Buster
Fired with enthusiasm for a new technique, I set out in quest of a Buster – a kit cheap enough to act as sacrificial styrene so that I could see in 3D what I had just ben trying on scraps of wood. The trip to Hobbytech is always fun, but it is always anguishing as…
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Heinkel He 111 – Part Seven – RAFwaffe
The Heinkel He 111 is done and I am very pleased. It has already visited RCAF WET DOG and been photographed. She’s got no guns or bombs aboard, but three RAF test crewmembers are buttoned up in there – as period photos show. Presumably the RAF A/B upper scheme and bright trainer yellow undersides would…
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Heinkel He 111 – Part Six – The Irresistible Shot
If you go to any book on the Battle of Britain or any Google site that deals with the Heinkel bombers you will eventually see a shot of the crew inside the glass-nosed cockpit. It will have been taken from the bomb-aimer’s position looking backward at the pilot’s seats and will likely have been shot…
The Little World 