Category: History
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Sopwith Pup – Part Three – Anzac
Interestingly enough, this turns out to be an aircraft of the RNAS. Was it flown by someone from Australia or New Zealand? never mind – the decals are excellent and have gone on with no silvering at all. They are not so complex as to require softening solutions, either. A thoroughly enjoyable two days build…
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Swedish Hampden – Part Four – The Trials Aircraft
One only – that’s all the Swedes ordered in 1935 – and it took three years to get it to Sweden. It was partly an experiment and partly a political football – the Swedish air force actually wanted Junkers bombers and eventually got them under licence. The single Hampden was never armed, but did go…
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Short Skyvan – Part Five – Glide Like A Brick
One can only imagine what the situation would be if one or both of the engines of the Short Skyvan quit working. It is bad enough when one of the four engines of a big airliner powers down – or when one of the military engines on a Nimrod needs to be stopped. In the…
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If The Light Is Lousy
Shoot in black and white. This advice applies for most realistic shots of the early twentieth century. Most were taken with monochrome film or plates and appear in our consciousness as such. Now, of course, AI and ambition colourise the older photos and we get a better idea of what things might really have looked…
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Canada Geese
In Autumn, you can hear them in the sky as they fly south: ” Honk, Honk, Honk “. In Spring you hear them flying north. ” Eh, Eh, Eh…” You sportsmen and sporting gals get to gun them down on the journey south but the Mounties’ll arrest you if you do the same on their…
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The Curse Of The Rivet
The curse of the riveted kit is most often seen with the older moulds. The days were when it was simpler to represent the details of an aircraft fuselage or wing by drilling minute depressions in the mould block. Everyone did it, and only in the last 20+ years have they made an effort to…
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Waiting For The ROBERT E LEE
And waiting a long time. I once built a Pyro model of the steamboat ROBERT E LEE. It was a gift at Christmas and possibly the largest thing I’d tackled at the time – the sort of model that a rural shop might stock but not hope to sell. I’ll bet the shopkeeper breathed a…
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The Makers Of The Kits Do Not Make Them For Your Pleasure
They make them for your money. Anything downstream of this is just an extra. Remember this when you look at the Verell kit that costs $ 35.00; the 1:53.5 scale one that has “ 1951 ” moulded inside the wing. It has been returning cash to the pockets of Verell for 75 years and pretty…
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French Lancaster – Part Four – The Flying Bribe
I’ve been reading about the donation of WU 16 – a Lancaster patrol aircraft of the Aeronavale to Australia in 1962. The story is detailed elsewhere so do go google it up. It seems to have a number of amusing elements; requests from the local RAAFA for a time-expired Lancaster – refusal by the French…
