Category: Czech models
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Boeing X-Plane – Part Four – Long Range Bird On Spindly Legs
I wonder what the US Navy might have nicknamed this Boeing fighter/bomber if it had ever proceeded into service? There had been few Boeing fighters before this – I can only think of the P26 ” Peashooter ” that the Army flew. Not a very prestigious name but fairly apt considering the tiny size of…
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Boeing X-Plane – Part Three – Big Donk
This is the biggest small piston engine in my collection – until I locate a 1/72 B-36… The four-row piston engine – 28 cylinders and I suppose 56 spark plugs – was a massive effort to put more power into the air. It was so powerful that it needed to be split between two contra-rotating…
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Boeing X-Plane – Part Two – Mind The Gap…
I was greatly encouraged while during open stage of fuselage construction by the fact that the two halves fitted together almost perfectly. And the big, sturdy wing halves did the same – even the wing tips had minimal ledging. This can be a real problem for some kits as there is little to fill or…
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Boeing X-Plane – Part One – The Nearly-Rans
I am no great fan of ” what-if ” modelling. Much of it is speculative and not a little disturbing. I see attitudes in the builders that are not supportable in real life. But I will admit aircraft and other items that were actually built to try to win government contracts. Even if they did…
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AI And The Scale Modeller – Part Two – The Electro-Boss
Let us imagine for a moment that the model making firm of Plasti-Prag decides to download a computer program for AI to help out the staff. In it goes to the works Mac or PC, settling in amongst the porn and unpaid invoices, and the design section tries to use it to draw up box…
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Potez 540T – Part Two – Two Days Later
My faith in this old Smêr kit is being vindicated at every stage. The paint came off – the parts came apart – and the reconstruction began. The windows are still running on the original cementation, so they got masked for the internal re-spray. The FF company harkened to their pre-war colour with a very…
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Potez 540T – Part One – From The Back Of The Cabinet…
Another forgotten orphan comes in from the storm – a Smêr kit of the dear old Potez 540 from 1986 – a rebox of a 1967 Heller kit. I welcome it as a companion of my youth. Well, not exactly my youth – but someone’s. This kit was started but never got past the fuselage…
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RAF Wellington – Part Five – Desert Heavy
Well, not that heavy – remember that this bomber is twin engined to a pre-war design. But the theatre at the time saw few combat aircraft much bigger. The Vickers Wellington Ic is decked in a Western Desert night scheme drawn directly from the instruction call-out. The odd wavy top edge to the coal-black under-colour…
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RAF Wellington – Part One – Another Legacy Bomber
This kit is the second legacy purchase from a deceased estate. The club member who passed away had not started it. A short google search turned up a number of RAF squadrons who flew this type and several clear illustrations showing camouflage pattern and squadron markings. As I had built a Wellington Mk 1c before…
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Bellanca Pacemaker – Part Five – Wop May
Wilfred ” Wop ” May apparently had the distinction of being the target that Baron von Richthofen was chasing when he was shot down. There is a perpetual controversy about who did that shooting, but I’ll bet Wilfred was glad of it anyway. He went on to form a bush-flying company out of Edmonton that…
The Little World 