Category: History
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Handley Page Heyford – Part Three – All The Appeal..
Of a hairless cat… The period between the wars was a time of increased streamlined elegance in the design world. Cars, locomotives, buildings…they all got sleeker and more aerodynamic. How ironic that the HP Heyford – designed to fly through the air – should do so looking like a washing machine. I attached the upper…
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Nieuport 17C – Part Five – Silver Beauty
I intended this build as a little stop-gap project to fill the time until Matchbox March. It has proved to be a rewarding gem. The Revell kit was unprepossessing enough – indeed most of the tiny WW1 planes from this firm are old kits and you find yourself prejudiced because of it. Of course, if…
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Nieuport 17C – Part Four – Lumière Frères
The Revell box art for the Nieuport 17C does not match the colour call-out. Which is correct? M. Google, please step forward… And he advances magnificently. On the Wikipedia site, the entry for the Nieuport 17 shows a premier image of a 17 sitting quietly in a field. There are no other aircraft seen, and…
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Nieuport 17C – Part One – 1957 Again
1957 was a big year for me. My dad’s firm failed and we had to move to Quebec for him to continue in the heavy construction business. I had to learn school French – fast. And I got to see a whole new world of scale model kits that never made it out to Western…
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True Scale No. 2
Second issue of the newsletter for the Scale Modellers Club Of Western Australia. The presses are rolling… Editor: Dick Stein Mild-Mannered Reporter: John France
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Airspeed Envoy – Part Three – The Governor’s Plane
And not a British governor, either. The Airspeed Envoys that went to China were for the use of Chinese provincial governors. Presumably not of the poor provinces, either. Careful observers will see that a rocker-cover fairing on the starboard engine has been dented. This was in the days before bird strikes could get past the…
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The Rise Of The Decal
Once upon a 1950’s time, when all good boys deserved models, there were large airplanes with small sheets of decals. Then times changed and the proportions reversed. As a 1:72 builder I am dealing with the small end of the market…small as to individual size but large as an overall genre. It is ideal for…
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Lockheed Vega Model 5 – Part One – Legacy Stash
John Evans bought this model from Stanbridge’s model shop may years ago. Unfortunately neither John, Jack, nor the shop still exist. But that doesn’t stop us from remembering them fondly. My part in this will be to build up the MPM model of the Lockheed Vega Model 5. I suspect that John planned it to…
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F-82 Twin Mustang – Part Nine – Northwest Air Defence
I had no idea as a kid. ( I don’t have much more sense now. ) But I sure wish I had known about the F-82 Twin Mustang long before my old age. I might have been able to see one in real life – because they flew from an air base near to a…
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F-82 Twin Mustang – Part One – SOOTB Interception
I had no idea I needed it… Until I stated googling the business of North American air interception in the late 40’s. I identified an interceptor base near to where I once lived and looked over its roster. I was amazed to find the F-82 and to read that it was an effective unit. Then…
The Little World 