Category: Model Airplane
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Matchbox Helldiver – Part Three – The Hubley Kit
If you are from North America you’ll recognise the name Hubley. They were a die-cast toy maker of the 40’s and 50’s who made larger size offerings. I owned a Hubley Bell telephone truck with working winch and pole trailer – surely an odd choice of prototype even for the times. I observed other kids…
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Matchbox Helldiver – Part Two – Wing It Or Sling It?
Here’s a dilemma. I’ve pictures of the prototype SB2C with folded wings. And the Matchbox kit has folding wings. But they are folded on the toy principle and look bloody awful. I have low standards but every now and then something shows up that undercuts them. I have built folded wings on an Airfix Devastator…
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Matchbox Helldiver – Part One – Progressing Backwards
I already own two Curtiss SB2C models – one a US Navy version and one a USAAF A25 Shrike. They were respectively a Sword and a Dragon kit. Both characteristic of their countries of origin – the Czech one a challenge of approximation and the Hong Kong one a masterpiece of precision. But two were…
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How Many, Oh Lord?
How many Messerschmitts can people buy? How many do they need? What are they doing with them? I asked this in grey desperation as I cruised the kit aisle of three of Perth’s hobby shops searching for cheap new models of interesting subjects. I saw kits from what must be two dozen various makers and…
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Perverse Hopes
Relax. This is Safe For Work. If they have accepted the fact that you build plastic model kits, the worst is over. You can stop pretending to respectability and go back to looking at Airfix magazine in the toilets. The perverse hopes we speak of are: a. The hope that a major manufacturer will mould…
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Lockheed CT-133 Silver Star – Part Four – Moose Jaw, Here We Come
The real 261 is flying the Canadian air show circuit , to judge from the photos found on the internet. I was delighted to see it as it combined the features I love; RCAF prototype,simple colour scheme, decals I could duplicate. That, BTW is the big one. I use inkjet printing and have a few…
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Lockheed CT 133 Silver Star – Part Two – You May Have Noticed…
You may have noticed that the box art shown in the first episode refers to a T-33A aircraft – a Shooting Star. Well by the time the RCAF got their Canadian-built variants of this US trainer, it had become the CT-133 Silver Star. There were a few modifications; a different thickness of perspex in the…
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Lockheed CT-133 Silver Star – Part One – The Brand I Trust
Let me start out by disclaiming any business connection with the Italeri company – or with any of their distributors or retailers. I am just a customer – but I am a satisfied customer. I have never had a product from Italeri with which I was unhappy. You may deplore my skills and expertise as…
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Mirage F.1C – Part Four – I Must Build More
a. More French aircraft. b. More jet aircraft. c. More Hasegawa aircraft. d. More varied operators. The completion of the Moroccan Mirage F.1C has been a real pleasure – a kit that had few flaws to trap me. Of course I made mistakes but I made them early and easy. And this is the point…
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Mirage F.1C – Part Three – Like Webster’s Dictionary
Or Hope and Crosby…We’re Morocco-bound. Why Morocco? Never been there myself – never expect to visit. Wish them well and hope they do not slide off the edge of Africa into the Atlantic ocean. But their chief advantage to me is their choice of Dassault fighter planes – they fly the Mirage F.1C. They also…
The Little World 