Category: Decals
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Bellanca Pacemaker – Part One – Or Is It?
I have become suspicious about this Dora Wings model of a Bellanca CH-300 now that the box is open and I can see the instructions. They refer to it as a ” Peacemaker “. Was I meant to have a B-36 in the box? Never mind – I’ll build what I found. And what I…
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Tupolev ANT-5 – Part Four – Trebly Armed…
On a wing and a half. This model of the Tupolev ANT-5…or 4 – it’s hard to make head or tail of the Soviet numbering system – is a curate’s egg in many respects. The basic kit is buildable, but there are breakable parts that do so and then need to be joined with cement…
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Gloster Gladiator Mk I – Part Three – The Mandate Of Heaven
Or of the Gloster Aircraft Company. The Gladiator is complete and ready to join the Swu Ping Provincial Air Army. The delightful thing about the SPPAA is that they have a variety of paints with which to decorate their aircraft. Oh, they do follow the guidelines provided by Nanking, but Nanking is a long way…
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Gloster Gladiator Mk I – Part One – I’m 14 Again
The last time I built an Airfix Gladiator I was 14 and had 50¢ to spend. I am older than that now, and richer, and glad to see that Airfix have kept up the pace – issuing this new kit a couple of years ago. It is vastly more detailed, with weighted tyres, alternate propellers,…
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Westland Whirlwind – Part Three – The Admiral’s Barge
Part of my research material about this green -and-white helicopter suggests that it wore these colour so that it could function as an ornate flying Admiral’s barge for part of the Royal Navy. Other sources assign it a training role at a Naval Air Station. Whichever is correct – and they both may be –…
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Westland Whirlwind – Part One – A Green Stranger
The Vintage Classic shelf again – this time something I have never built before – the Airfix Westland Whirlwind HAS.22. In reality, it was a Sikorsky S-55 sold to the Royal Navy. The original kit is apparently of late 50’s vintage though I never saw one in shops in Canada. Basic, as you would expect,…
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Roland C II – Part Two – Blue Whale
Say what you might about the shape of the Roland C II, it makes for a good small scale model. The interplane struts are broad plates and there are no cabanes. There is a good exposed engine, unusual fuselage windows, and two German fliers in enthusiastic positions. The gunner is attending to his duties, but…
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Decals of Death
We’ve all bought an old kit from a garage sale or a swap meet. It may have started out in perfect shape, but then so did Hannibal before he crossed the Alps. Some of the kits I’ve bought still have elephant poop in the crushed old boxes… And they have sad sheets of decals. Sheets…
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Messerschmitt 410 – Part One – Family Connection
You might be surprised at a family connection with a German night fighter, but there is one. Not my family – the wife’s uncle. A Mosquito pilot in the RAF in 1944, he was on night-fighter patrol over France when he encountered a Messerschmitt 410 Hornisse. He shot it down, the thing was confirmed on…
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Science To The Rescue – Part Two
How many ships have foundered in the Succitan Sea? There is no better way to find out if an old bomb is a dud than hitting the fuse with a hammer. Or, in the case of home-made decals, soaking them and trying them out. The 7 candidates were soaked, applied over Mr. Mark Setter, and…
The Little World 