Category: helicopter
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Bell AH-1 Z -Part Three – The Viper Vinished
I really should have taken more pictures whilst building the Viper, but it was a Club Day build and went ahead by leaps and bounds. The final product has proved yet another lesson for me; one may be pleasantly surprised as readily as be dismayed. I’ve experienced the latter enough times with eastern European kits…
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Bell AH-1 Z – Part Two – A Pleasant Surprise
I was prepared for the little Marine attack helicopter kit to be two things; crude and unshapely. It may be the latter but it certainly is not the former. The plastic from which it is moulded is a little more brittle than Airfix but not by much. It sands and cuts well, and the feed…
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Bell AH-1 Z – Part One – Freak it
Sorry, that should have read Free Kit. This is a donation from Kevin, who is a master modeller in his own right. He does marvellous things with larger aircraft…and people who know him donate kits. If they are like this unprepossessing Hong Kong helicopter he donates them right on again. It is a kit maker…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Seven – The Heliflopter
Walter, the toy industry is the lifeblood of the Little World. We often forget that what we adult modellers make is toys. Oh, we call them scale models and we join clubs and have exhibitions and spend scandalous amounts of money on the kits…but they are toys in the end. The sad thing for adults…
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Piasecki Flying Banana – Part Four – I Love it…
I love it when a plan comes together – and equally when a collection of sub-assemblies can be piled into each other to yield a finished product. The last day building on a project is always a surprise. For some people it slows down – like a video of dogs catching frisbees – and for…
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Piasecki Flying Banana – Part Three – The Jesus Nut
My friend Warren tells me Air Force facts and trivia gleaned from his years of service. One of the latest bits is the slang term for the nut that finally secures a helicopter’s rotor to the vertical shaft that drives it – the Jesus Nut. If it fails you go to… Well, joking aside, I…
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Piasecki Flying Banana – Part Two – My Ambition Acheived
I have nursed an ambition for some while – ever since I saw pictures of a number of western helicopters that had red troop seats. The seat backs seemed to be made of red nylon webbing and hung loosely over solid fabric bottoms. I suspect they were a dual purpose thing – the solid cloth…
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Piasecki Flying Banana – Part One – You Had Me At…
They had me at the name – ” Flying Banana ” is not something that you can pass by in a neutral fashion. You either love it or hate it. I have fond memories of these helicopters as Revell kits in the 1950’s. This one is Italeri – itself a recommendation – and when I turned…
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Piasecki HUP Retreiver – Part Five – The Droop
I am alternately delighted and saddened by my first Piasecki. Delighted that it could be made as a Canadian aircraft and in a service that I have not yet explored – the Royal Canadian navy. Delighted that the lacquer paints turned out so well. Delighted that the tiny details of the landing gear actually worked…
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Piasecki HUP Retriever – Part Four – The Model As Teaching Aid
As a kid interested in mechanical devices and particularly in aircraft and cars, there were a number of remarkably stupid ideas in my mind at the time. I would look at some fabulous machine and admire the external styling without the slightest notion of what might be going on inside. That’s pretty standard for a…
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