Category: Civil aircraft
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Academy C118 Liftmaster – Part Three – Presidential Plane
There were a number of choices of livery for this Douglas aircraft kit. I chose the Republic Of China version as it was a presidential transport for a number of decades – replacing a previous DC-3. It is hard to find positive evidence on the net about the Academy decals but the actual plane itself…
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Academy C118 Liftmaster – Part Two – It’s All Outside
One of the distinct advantages/failings of the 1/144th scale kit is the fact that the insides are rarely seen. Indeed, for many of the airliners there are no side windows to cope with – it is all to be done at the decal stage. I welcome this if the decals are decently printed. However, you…
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Academy C118 Liftmaster – Part One – A Deliberate Choice
Having been given a number of 1:144th scale aircraft and successfully completed them…I have decided the scale is a good thing. My main collection is 1:72, of course, but many aircraft are just not made in this size. If they are, the larger ones like transports and bombers become behemoths that devour display space. It…
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Norcanair Bristol Freighter – Part Six – Manitoba
Winnipeg, actually. Remarkable place. When I was a child I spent a month there one week and I shall never forget it. The pills help, though… It is the site of the museum that houses CF-WCE – the Norcanair Bristol Freighter. Ex-RCAF, it served many years flying out of Saskatchewan to points north. Now it…
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Norcanair Bristol Freighter – Part Five – Winging It
At a certain point in the build, your new airplane becomes a nuisance. Up until then, it is a manageable fuselage, some tailplanes, and a pair of wings. Or many wings, if you are making a bi or tri-plane. All the parts can be kept in the original box. When the erection stage comes around,…
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Norcanair Bristol Freighter – Part Two – The Evitable
You can only put off the inevitable so long. Eventually it becomes horribly evitable and you either have to shit or climb off the pot. I finally had to start sawing on the Bristol. The vac-form plate was a surprisingly easy task. I’d YouTubed a group of modellers in Canberra who were discussing vac-form modelling…
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Norcanair Bristol Freighter – Part One – Airfix Again
And I could not be more delighted. Some years ago I purchased an Airfix kit for a Mk32 Bristol Superfreighter at WASMex. It cost a dizzying $ 10 and included a vac-form part for a new nose and tail assembly. I decided to build the Superfreighter in the original Airfix form and configure it as…
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Bristol Mk32 Superfreighter – Part Four – Ferryfield
Also known as Lydd Airport. Still exists in Kent and does a roaring trade in light plane movements. But the Bristol 170 era was the 50’s to the 80’s before roll-on-roll-off ferries at the seaports took the vehicular Channel traffic and the Channel Tunnel took the train passengers. They were flying an amazing number of…
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Bristol Mk32 Superfreighter – Part One – The Prize Of the Weekend
Remember the Newcastle song; never let a chance go by. This was my big chance at the model stash sale. I knew the box instantly in the stack, and the price was very low. I’d the money out before anyone else had the chance to think, and I’m always wise about stash sales – I…
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If It Is Not The Best Model That You Have Ever Made…
Is it the worst? Let’s face it – we do have failures from time to time. Things start out fine and end up slightly horrid. We may have done what we always do, expecting a win…and ended up with a loss. The finish was off, the shape was off, the build was off. We were…
The Little World 