Category: Civil aircraft
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Čmelák – Part One – Oh, I Don’t Know
” I’ve never built an Eduard kit – I might as well… And here are two versions – the Profipack and the Weekend. Three dollars difference in them…but I suspect that the dearer one would have photo-etch that I hate. Why not save a few bucks? Looks like I get four choices of Czech markings…
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Pitts S2A – Part One – Leonardo’s
My daughter visited Japan some 5 years ago – pre Covid. I tasked her with bringing me back something that wasn’t available in our local shops. Fortunately she wandered into one of the Leonardo’s shops in Akihabara and was able to talk to the sales staff. She selected 4 models that were old, odd, and…
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RWD 5bis – Part Three – Bon Dia
Or Dzień Dobry, if you are just starting out. Because this little 450Kg light plane flew from Warsaw to Brazil. Not in one leap, nor in one day, but it started and finished a winner. For a long time the lightest aircraft to cross the Atlantic. The model is also a winner, and will take…
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RWD 5bis – Part Two – The Solo Monoplane
Whenever you see the word ” monoplane ” you know you are looking at a period design. Because there were other choices – biplanes, triplanes, sesquiplanes, etc. These still exist today, but only in oddity or X-plane form. The big feature of this little airplane is the fuel tank – sandwiched into the tiny interior…
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Vickers Viscount – Part Four – Smooth Success
My internet enquiries have failed to turn up a list of names given to the Vickers Viscount aircraft flown by Trans Canada Airlines and then by Air Canada – just a corporate change. However they were titled, they seem to have been quite a success on the Northern American routes – passengers noting the smooth…
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Vickers Viscount – Part Three – The Picture of Dorian Grey
All beautiful and serene on the stand…but up in the attic… Under three layers of masking tape and two vinyl gloves… If you can’t stand horror, do not start airbrushing your models. At some stage of the game it will all start to look like a Hammer film. You must screw your courage to the…
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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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Norcanair DC-3 – Part Three – A Return To Sanity
One can only build obscure European designs from the 1930’s so long… Eventually your gall bladder starts to complain. There is only so much weird and ugly that it can take. A French bomber in the block-of-flats style tends to stretch the imagination past the snapping point – eventually you have to return to reality…
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Norcanair DC-3 – Part One -The Ex-Dakota
A former Canadian airline, Norcanair, probably got their fleet of DC-3 aircraft from the RCAF – if the big side cargo door is anything to go by. This is wonderful – I need a distinct type for my Canadian airport and as this kitted so widely by Airfix and Italeri, I am spoilt for choice.…
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The Home Printer
A guide for the scale modeller. I have long come to grips with the business of home printing. It started in the dear old darkroom days of film photography and locked the family out of the bathroom/darkroom many a night. Now we are digital, they can get in at any time, and I just sit…
The Little World 