Category: Canadian aircraft
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De Havilland Heron Mk II – Part Five – Whew

Well, the colour coats are done – the trim stripe is done – the decals are on. The various pieces are being cemented and snapped in. The air crash did not destroy the bird. Every speculative colour scheme that you think up – every set of decals you print yourself – every artistic decision you…
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Beechcraft Model 18 – Part Four – Spirit Of Lodgepole

CF-ACL is ready for service. The Spirit of Lodgepole is named after a small town in the Pembina that serves the oil industry and was once the main service town for the Brazeau Dam project. It had an RCMP post, a hotel, a school, and a general store, as well as repair shops for the…
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Beechcraft Model 18 – Part Three – A Pleasant Surprise

Remember I was worried about the plastic surface of the PM Models Beechcraft Model 18…worried that it was too rough to take a good coat of paint? Well, my worries were laid to rest over the last two days. GSI Creos to the rescue yet again. I employ their paints and finishes whenever I can…
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Beechcraft Model 18 – Part Two – Individual Excellence

The new model is going together very quickly – aided by reasonably accurate fit in the disparate sub-assemblies. I use the term disparate, because while these components are well suited in themselves…they all hold a proud independence in their geometry. In simpler terms, they fit, but not to each other. This was a phenomenon noted…
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Beechcraft Model 18 – Part One – The Promising Twin

I was ambushed by this kit through an email from a Melbourne hobby shop. They send out regular lists of new arrivals and this was in the same order as the Hawker Sea Fury. It also came with a companion Beech 18 – a USAAF AT-11. The cost of this kit is $19 and the…
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Fokker F-27 Friendship – Part Four – More Planning Needed

Relax, folks..all is going well. But I cannot help but think that it could have gone well more easily. I am not a patient man with puzzles. I can stand about 15 minutes of a jigsaw before I go out looking for strong drink. I do not read mysteries. I should have set fire to…
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Fokker F-27 Friendship – Part Three – The Prime Example

You may be a little surprised to see me priming the F-27 fuselage separately from the wings. The reason is that the wings will not be cemented on until the very last moment – they are a different colour than the fuselage and their absence will make the fuselage painting so much easier. I’ll be…
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Fokker F-27 Friendship – Part Two – Paying Customers

I admire Italeri greatly for including the interiors on their airliners – after all, these are planes designed to carry people for money, and just moulding up a bare interior is a slack way of doing it. I am prepared to put up with the absence of overhead luggage lockers as these can be made…
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Fokker F-27 Friendship – Part One – The Shelf Sitter

This Italeri Fokker F-27 Friendship kit sat on the Hobbytech 1:72 shelf for the better part of a year, along with a number of other modern jet models. The fact of the long wait for a buyer might argue that the kit is bad or the price is too high – yet neither of these…
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Bristol Beaufighter – Part Four – EE-U

It is not often I get to build a model of a different real aircraft. Of course the makers of the kits pattern them off real ones that they find in museums – and these can be built from the box. But if you do, you are just building what everyone else who has purchased…
