Category: History
-
Handley Page Heracles – Part Four – Night Flight To Hyderabad
This aircraft model gave two choices of registration – G-AAXC or G-AAXF. I chose the latter – ” Helena ” and noted that it was assigned to eastern flights for Imperial Airways – when there was an empire in the east to fly to. As I intend to do with most 1:144 models in my…
-
Scale Modeller’s Adolescence
If you have not experienced an adolescence of any sort yet, you may wish to loosen your clothing and put down newspapers over the good flooring… Scale modellers pass through adolescence any number of times. There’s the original one that breaks the voice and soils the sheets, and that’s a lot of fun. There’s the…
-
Rounding On The Roundel
How many times have you put the decal on wrong? More that you’d think… The use of a distinctive insignia or roundel for any particular air force has been mandated for over a century. It was difficult for pilots to identify friends or foes if they have to land and ask a series of questions…
-
Use It Or Hoard It?
What do you do with the valuable old kit? If you have been stashing or buying for some time, you will eventually stumble across an unbuilt kit that is actually valuable in some respect: a. It has climbed in resale value as it has aged and other similar kits fallen by the wayside. If you…
-
Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Four _ THM
It may seem foolish to bypass much of the effort that Airfix went to when they designed this model. But that is what I did when I started researching the Canadian connection for this aircraft. It would appear that there were a number of them in RCAF and RCN service during and after WW2. And…
-
The Prefab Model
You might justifiably say that all plastic model kits are prefab. If something is moulded and needs no shaping it is the factory modelling – not you. But we all realise that there is a great deal of re-shaping in most kits before any assembly can be contemplated. The sprue tree – that basic component…
-
McDonnell Douglas Phantom – Part Two – Vietnam Era
Little of my aero collection so far shows schemes of the Vietnam War period, but gradually this will change. Many of the kits now seem to have decals for the period and If I can overcome my aversion to both stencil decals and three-colour camouflage schemes, I can go right ahead. The call-out for this…
-
Supermarine Swift FR.5 – Part Five – NATO Eye
Call me suspicious and cynical if you wish – I mean a person like you would…but I suspect that the ranks of photo reconnaissance aircraft are generally made up of fighter failures. They are either not fast enough, nimble enough, or well-enough armed to succeed on the battlefield, and are relegated to flying above it…
-
The Old Kid Modeller
As a young kid, your scale model building is limited by one thing: money. You have little of it and are largely dependent upon birthdays and Christmas to supply you with your kits. You may have desires, but you recognise that you’re going to be building whatever you are given. If you are articulate and…
-
The Arrogant Strut
Those who saw Mussolini were impressed with the way he strutted. Likewise with Al Jolson and Kaiser Wilhelm II. However, none of them were as arrogant as the Airfix company when it comes to strutting…as witnessed by their production of a 1:72 Bristol F.2B. They have produced a kit that is nearly impossible to assemble.…
The Little World 