Category: History
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Curtiss SBC-4 – Part Three – The Bad Bargains
The French paid through the nose for the Curtiss SBC-4 Helldivers. They were compelled to pay in gold bullion hauled to the USA by the aircraft carrier BÉARN, then forced to load them in Nova Scotia after they were towed over the international border, then forced to abandon them in the West Indies when metropolitan…
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Curtiss SBC-4 – Part One – The Old Photo In The National Geographic
I used to pore over wartime copies of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. I found a trove of them in a school library in the 1960’s and read all I could. I wasn’t after pictures of native girls with bare chests – I wanted colour photos of fighter planes. NG had access to the US Navy and Kodachrome…
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Where Does The Money Trail Go To?
When we buy a model kit, or a pot of paint, or a roll of masking tape, where does the money we pay go? I shop at a local dealer who has a good stock – I occasionally go to rival firms if they have special goods. In all the shops, I pay my money…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part Four – It Was A Good Idea At The Time…
Plywood wing, tube-frame fuselage, tiny 4-cylinder engine. What could possibly go wrong? Well you have to hand it to Hillson Praga. They were stylish. The little Air Baby looks good from many angles, and if the history of the type in Australia is to be believed, the three examples that got here were successful. Part…
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The Valid Decision
If you want to drown in Official-Speak, go to Google and start looking up ” valid decision “. I often go and see what poking the bear will do before I write these things. In this case I have been preceded by academia, politics, and the sort of management that can close down a successful…
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Ruritania Poste – Part Five A – RT-ASA
Before I present the newest mail-planes of Ruritania Poste I must address the members of my model building club. Yes, gentlemen, I know we have a motto that extolls being true to scale and true to life. I am always encouraged by this when I see see the egg planes and cardboard police cars in…
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North American F-100 – Part Four – When NATO Meant France As Well
And the French needed American aircraft to fulfil their own defence needs. A long time ago… Long enough to be before the Area Rule in aircraft design – allowing the designers of the Super Sabre a big fuselage space in the mid-rear for the engine. A contemporary of Soviet fighters and interceptors of similar bulk.…
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Handley Page Jetstream – Part Four – Beinbruch Air Ambulance
If you look carefully you can find a use for everything. This was the principle behind the acquisition of the Handley Page Jetstream aircraft that were to have been a part of the USAF transport fleet. Eventually rejected by the US Air Force due to delays and engine problems, the medical turbo props were sold…
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What If It’s Misnamed…?
” What If ” modelling – colloquially known as Whiffery – is an established genre in the scale world. It is the basis for a good deal of science fiction work, and can be very well thought-out indeed. It permeates the doll house genre and appears in many hot rod builds. But it is most…
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RCAF Privateer – Part One – Hello, Old Friend
The last time I saw you, you were in three colours in a Matchbox kit. Scalemates says that you have been sold to Revell and reboxed. It also said that you were originally fitted out with alternate nose and tail sections to make an RCAF transport aircraft. Is it possible that you still have those…
The Little World 