Category: History
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Seven – Why Was It Not Named?
Dauntless, Helldiver, Avenger, Hellcat…all good historic names for US Navy aircraft. The Army Air Force had Mustangs and Thunderbolts and such. Why was the BT 1 just a code, instead of a name? I suspect it is because it never established itself in the affections of the press – or at least in the press…
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Grumman Goblin I – Part Six – Ol’ 340
Ol’ 340 is finished and will take her place on the main runway of RCAF WET DOG, Students of aviation may wish to adopt the methods of Sherlock Holmes; observe and then make deductions. The basis for the decision to build this plane this way came from Harold Skaarup’s vast collection of Canadian airplane pictures.…
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Wait For It…Wait For It…
The state government in Victoria has just announced that it will introduce legislation in 2022 to ban the public display of Nazi symbols in public. This sort of legislation exists in Germany, Austria, Poland, Ukraina, and France and has existed for quite some time. Exceptions seem to occur for museums or other institutions but the…
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Revell Brewster Buffalo – Part Three – Good Enough For the Dutch
Poor old Hollanders. They never seemed to have a good time of it in their wars. The English beat them off the sea in the 1700’s and the Japanese scoured them out of the Dutch East Indies in the 1940’s . I wonder if they have ever won anything? Perhaps they do when they retell…
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Respecting Scale Model Authoritah
I do not know if Eric Cartman was a scale modeller. If so, I should like to have seen the models he chose to build. Police cars, pie wagons, and wide-bodied jets come to mind, but that may just me being mean. In any case, Eric was portrayed as a child with a firm grasp…
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Petlyakov Pe-2 – Part Four – Yet Another Soviet Triumph
Pardon me if I start to sound a little cynical – I’ve been reading Soviet accounts of their air force in the Great Patriotic War. In various articles I’ve been told that three separate Soviet aircraft were the most produced planes of all time and won the war. The articles originate from within what was…
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Kawanishi George – Part Three – George of the Jungle
Watch out for that tree! The Kawanishi George is complete, after a week of delight. I have never spent $ 5.00 better, and that is truly all that came out of my pocket for this fighter. Not a scrap of filler anywhere, scraped seams, and no weathering needed. It is a museum piece after all.…
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Boeing P26 – Part One – Two Shameful Confessions
I have two painful confessions to make in regard to the Boeing P-26 peashooter fighter plane. The first was in 1961 when I was in the 9th grade. I formed a friendship with a kid in my grade at school who was also an enthusiastic model airplane builder. He introduced me to matte paints –…
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Is Unseen Unknown?
Welcome to Scale Model Philosophy 101. You may take notes but remember that there is no exam at the end. Instead we have a sponsored argument. When we see a scale model for the first time it can be an electrifying experience. – particularly the older 240 volt versions with the cloth wiring. You have…
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Play With Their Minds
If you visit museums, exhibitions, and toxic waste disposal sites you can have a lot of fun by playing with the minds of the people who run the places. The organisers, curators, and assistants are scholarly, dedicated individuals who deserve everything that happens to them. Try one of the following: a. Locate a German WW2…
The Little World 