Category: British aircraft
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Vickers Viscount – Part One – A Dollar Bet
Ever the gambler, I decided that this one-of-a-kind Hong Kong kit was going to be built. It was one of a legacy stash, and totally unique. The firm that made it, Kader, seems to have started in 1970 with a range of British-prototype aircraft kits. Internet searching turns up a number of box-scale offerings and…
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Short Stirling Mk IV – Part Three – V3 To Canada
A very specific aircraft on a very specific mission. And no bombs carried. This Short Stirling was flown from the UK to Canada in the 40’s as a training aircraft to familiarise the trainees of the BCATP with the then-new H2S ground-view radar. You’ll see the characteristic H2S streamlined dome under the rear portion of…
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Short Stirling Mk IV – Part Two – The Experiment
Suggested by an illustration. The WW2 bomber in standard British night bomber colour scheme is a three-coloured beast – coal black undersides and green/brown upper surfaces. But as seen on the Stirling, the black extends a long way up slab sides – and the Stirling has lots of slab to it. The top bit is…
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Short Stirling Mk IV – Part One – A Very Specific Aircraft
Many modellers build generic aircraft. A Spitfire. A Mustang. A Messerschmitt. Others build specific ones. The Spirit of St Louis. Enola Gay. The Wright flyer at Kittyhawk. I draw myself up somewhere in between. An internet search for a particular air force. Narrow down to a theatre. Then a unit or a time and I…
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Lockheed Ventura – Part Two – Assembly LIne
Well, it worked in Burbank – it’ll work in Bull Creek. I tackled the Lockheed Ventura in two club meetings as well as here at home by the simple process of parcelling it out into sub-assemblies and assigning them to places where the work could be done with the most facility. This was exactly the…
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Lockheed Ventura – Part One – Stash Mistake
At recent scale model exhibition – the 2024 WASMex show – I rushed out to the stash sale tables as soon as the doors were open. I am always concentrating on 1:72 aircraft so I can spot the boxes on the tables quickly. In the case of this model I saw it snuggled down in…
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” Model Not Recommended For Novices “
I have seen this on reviews and appended to the end of kit boxes. It warns the unwary that the designers have exceeded their dosage again and moulded up something that is near-on impossible to build. It is even more poignant when it appears next to a completed model – making you wonder if somewhere…
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De Havilland 60 G – Part One – Too Long On The Shelf
Actually, too long on several shelves… This model was purchased at my favourite local hobby shop to rescue it from obscurity on the back shelf. It had lain there – along with a number of obscure Soviet experimental and propaganda ships – for as long as I had been going to the place. Finally they…
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Historical Friends
I hope that’s right – I tried ” Hysterical Friends ” and the auto-correct passed that as well… One of the groups I belong to is called ” Historical Modelling Friends “. We meet either at the Cambridge Public Library in Floreat or at my studio in Willetton. The sessions are always modelling afternoons –…
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Do You Advance?
Is each build making you a better modeller? It can, if you let it. If you learn one new technique, or have one new disaster, or accomplish one new task each time you complete a kit, you are on the road to success. Hopefully, you will not reach it – else what’s a Heaven for?…
The Little World 