Category: British aircraft
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Vickers Wellington Mk 1C – Part One – Sold Down The Aisle

If ever there was an example of successful box art it must surely be this Italeri 1:72 Vickers Wellington Mk IC – successful for me and for the hobby shop. The end flap illustration caught my eye in Hearn’s Hobbies in Melbourne and I was sold as soon as I slid the box down off…
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Gloster Meteor F.1 – Part Four – The Bomb Buster

The Gloster Meteor F.1 is done. And I couldn’t be more pleased with a new kit maker. Dragon Models is a winner in my books – with only a very few slip-ups during the entire process. I shall now look them up in the net to see if there are any more 1:72 items they…
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Gloster Meteor F.1 – Part Three – Just Outta The Paint Shop

Well, it has been a couple of days. We are in spring*, which means we should be getting warmer weather soon. But we also get the tail end showers of winter with the ensuing bad paint conditions. So I have been dodging in and out of the Little Workshop catching my opportunities as they arise;…
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Gloster Meteor F.1 – Part Two – A Grey Week

Actually it has been quite a bright week, weather and all things considered. But it has been a week of grey toil on the Gloster Meteor – and here are the results so far on the Ess Bend shop floor. The heading image is a dry fit of fuselage to wing unit. I need to…
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Gloster Meteor F.1 – Part One – V-1 Vs F.1

When I saw the Dragon model of the Gloster Meteor on the shelf of the little local model specialty shop, I leapt at it. I have a set of decals for an Israeli jet and I thought my luck was in. As it happens, the IAF Meteors were a noticeably later model, with distinctive nacelles…
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Tail Feathers

I have always been curious about anything connected to the decoration of aircraft. Look out your picture book of WWII aircraft and turn to the RAF section. Note the insignia applied to the average fighter or bomber: a. Two upper wing roundels in red and blue – in some cases quite dark but quite large.…
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The Masked Man – Part Four – The Leap Of Faith

Every model kit build has a point that I hate – in the case of the R/C ships a half-century ago, it used to be the carving of the hulls. Now its the masking of the canopies and the cockpits on small airplanes. The tasks were and are small but the daunting is big. As…
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Percival Provost T Mk 1 – Part Three – A Decent Set Of Clothes

The Percival Provost is done – and inside of a week. I am not surprised, as it is a rather simple kit on a mechanical basis. That is as a trainer should be – after all, the student pilot needs all the help he can get and the flying school doesn’t want to do more…
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Percival Provost T Mk 1 – Part two – Just Wants A Red Nose

And clown shoes. And a tiny little car to leap out of… I am quite taken with the Percival Provost as a sensible little training aircraft. The idea of putting the student and instructor side by side is excellent, and the fact that it can be done behind a radial engine even better. The landing…
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Percival Provost T Mk1 – Part One – The Box In A Box

I was delighted when my friend Warren presented me with this Matchbox Percival Provost – inasmuch as it has passed through three sets of hands for free I hope to make mine the last ones before it becomes an airplane. It was found inside another model box purchased at a secondhand arms and militaria fair…
