Category: Czech models

• 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…

  Dick Stein

  June 19, 2023

  1:72 scale, British aircraft, Colour Schemes, Czech models, Decals, Model Airplane, Painting

  colour call-outs, Decals, RAF, Wellington bomber

• 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…

  Dick Stein

  June 16, 2023

  1:72 scale, British aircraft, Colour Schemes, Czech models, frugality, Model Airplane, Model building club, research, Scale Models, Secondhand

• 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…

  Dick Stein

  June 12, 2023

  1:72 scale, Canadian aircraft, Colour Schemes, Czech models, Decals, Lacquer, Light plane, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models

  Bellanca, bush plane, Canada, colour

• Bellanca Pacemaker – Part Four – PE P/O

  

  Or what to do when you cannot get your hands round the throat of the person who designed the kit. I make no complaint about the mould-cutting shop. Or the injection plastic line. The design department are mostly blameless as is the decal office. My venom is reserved for the acid-pocked faces of the photo-etch…

  Dick Stein

  June 12, 2023

  1:72 scale, Canadian aircraft, Czech models, design, Light plane, Model Airplane, Scale Models, subassembly

  control horns, Czech kits, photo-etch kits

• Vultee Vanguard – Part Five – Hint of Wings To Come.

  

  Look closely at some lines on this Vultee fighter and mentally add a bent wing and bigger engine. Yep. It would have been interesting to see what might have been if the later Corsair was available for China in the early 40’s. lad-based aviation would have been less critical in landing than naval service and…

  Dick Stein

  May 3, 2023

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Chinese aircraft, Colour Schemes, Czech models, Lacquer, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models

  China, fighter design, Vultee

• Vultee Vanguard – Part Four – Mind The Gap

  

  Fitting an eastern European model together is like opening Forrest Gump – you can never tell whether you have a soft centre or not. In the best kits the parts fit, and in the rest they nearly fit. You are fortunate if the gaps are symmetrical and the surfaces parallel. Plastic strip and sheet can…

  Dick Stein

  May 3, 2023

  1:72 scale, Czech models, design, Model Airplane, Scale Models, subassembly, Uncategorized

  Czech models, design, fit

• Vultee Vanguard – Part Three – Hate, Loathe, And Despise

  

  If I told you I hate, loathe, and despise kits that have separate blades and hubs for their propellers you might get the wrong idea. Many 1/72 planes have this feature and the two, three, or four-bladed props sandwich in between a hub and a spinner and end up looking fine. I reserve my negative…

  Dick Stein

  May 1, 2023

  1:72 scale, Czech models, design, frugality, Model Airplane, Scale Models, subassembly

  Czech kits, propellers, short-run technology

• Vultee Vanguard – Part One – Stash Sale Star

  

  The acquisition of a Vultee Vanguard was one of those serendipitous moments – a stash was being thinned, the sales day was ending, the owner was marking things down, and I had $ 15 left. Now the painful part – the decision whether to assign this one to the USAAF, the RCAF, or the Nationalist…

  Dick Stein

  April 30, 2023

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Czech models, frugality, Model Airplane, Modelling exhibitions, Modelling Supplies, Scale Models

  model exhibition, stash sale, Vultee

• Kawanishi Norm – Part Four – A Powerful Flop

  

  From all accounts great things were expected from the Kawanishi reconnaissance float plane. And then the contra-rotating propellers and jettison-able float proved problematical and the service missions undertaken with the type were failures. So it was quietly shoved back into a training role. The appearance of the aircraft in the box art was what attracted…

  Dick Stein

  March 22, 2023

  1:72 scale, Czech models, frugality, Japanese aircraft, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Secondhand

  experimental, floatplane, Japanese, prototype

• Kawanishi Norm – Part Three – Sprayin’ Weather

  

  This last week has been good weather for spray painting. Clearish, dryish, and warmish…enough to be able to manage lacquers with regular thinner and also spray rattle cans of clear. The shop heater has been on to make a warm box but this is less of a problem now that I have overcome my fear…

  Dick Stein

  March 20, 2023

  1:72 scale, Colour Schemes, Czech models, Japanese aircraft, Lacquer, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, subassembly

  airbrushing, Kawanishi, prototype