Category: Czech models
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RCN Avenger – Part One – The Eh Model

Another Sword model in the post – this one was a certain purchase as soon as I saw it had Royal Canadian Navy markings. The ASW and replenishment role that the Avenger took after service in the US Navy and Royal Navy in WWII eventually brought them to the RCN. It got rid of the…
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Vautour IIN – Part Two – Czech This One Out

I am becoming a critic of instruction sheets. Though I might have become a literary or food critic in another career, I now look closely at the sheets and books that we get when we buy a kit. Part of the job of a critic is to praise, but it’s low-down on the list. Most…
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Vautour IIN – Part One – Who Made it?

I initially thought it was Dassault. Then I thought it was SNCAO or SNCASE and then Pret a Manger and then eventually I didn’t care any more. It was designed and produced by someone in France, for some reason, at some stage of the game. Many were made and quite a few flew. Past that…
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Martin B 10 Bomber – Part Seven – The Japanese Raider

The original of this Martin B 10 bomber was not a hangar queen. Part of a 10-plane shipment to China, it and one other were the last of their lot as war took its toll. I get the feeling that there were issues with aircraft maintenance, airfield protection, and crew performance that gradually took out…
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Martin B 10 Bomber – Part Six – Far Side Of The Hill

And we know what colour that is because it featured in a folk song… The shade of green that the Martin B 10 wears as a Chinese Nationalist Air Force plane is speculative – there are a number of sources that insist upon olive drab and an equal number that place the hue closer to…
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Martin B 10 Bomber – Part Five – Naked Whale

Well, you can see the corrugated strakes on the top of the Martin, and I assure you they are there on the bottom as well. I’m going to be grateful when it comes to the decals that – unlike the JU 52 – these ripples do not interfere with the decorations. The seams of the…
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Martin B10 Bomber – Part Four – If I Want A Pretzel…

…I’ll go to the bakery. The production of a complex fuselage is…well…complex. And sometimes the strange shape must cause the final product to come out of the mould a little distorted. I suspect this was the case with the Martin B 10. There was enough of a warp to render it impossible to set all…
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Martin B10 Bomber – Part Three – A Split Personality

And split on the horizontal plane, not the vertical. This form of model design is not as common as the vertical, but in this case I think it is perfectly logical. The Martin B10 has a sinuous body – and the proportions remind you of the Handley Page Hampden or the Dornier Do 17-K. The…
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Martin B10 Bomber – Part Two – Parts Not Needed

The advent of the multi-build kit these days is both a boon and a curse – particularly if you are a fussy sort of modeller who wants to get the thing just right – the particular mark or serial number. The maker may have given you just the pieces to do it with, but they…
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Martin B10 Bomber – Part One – The Flying Whale

When I set about looking for the nickname of the Martin B10 bomber I was sent to the Lockheed Martin site. They laughingly admitted that it got this from the press of the time because of the size. However, when you look at some of the corrugated surfaces on the fuselage, they do have some…
