Category: Civil aircraft
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Scaling Up Your Scaling Down
When you are presented with requests. You give positive answers. Someone wanted decals for a model aircraft but couldn’t find them on the net. I did, but that probably wasn’t the question anyway. Fortunately the decal sheet needed was simple and illustrated cleanly in colour. Getting it onto Photoshop Elements was simple. Not so simple…
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Boeing 314 Clipper – Part Two – Slicker
And as slick as only a flying boat can be – particularly if it is not an amphibian. Not too many designs of the flying boat era eschewed outboard pontoons or floats. Whether they were local or overseas designs, few used the hull-and-sponson configuration to stop the boat tipping to the side once landed. And…
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De Havilland Kate Moth – Part Two – Bobbing On The Lake
Nothing said sport flying like a Kate Moth on floats. Whether it was in the Yukon or Ontario, the Kate Moth formed reliable transportation for hunters, fishermen, and prospectors. Of course nothing heavier than a dead chipmunk could be flown out strapped to the floats, but these were prized anyway. Red floats are good for…
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De Havilland Kate Moth – Part One – Airfix of Middle Age
Grown old in the mould – but tarted up with a new box. This Airfix model is a 1990 re-box of a series of Moths that originally hatched in 1957. It started in a plastic baggie cocoon but eventually graduated to the small cardboard box. At least that allowed Airfix more surface area to print…
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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…
The Little World 