Category: Model Airplane
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Beechcraft Model 18 – Part Three – A Pleasant Surprise
Remember I was worried about the plastic surface of the PM Models Beechcraft Model 18…worried that it was too rough to take a good coat of paint? Well, my worries were laid to rest over the last two days. GSI Creos to the rescue yet again. I employ their paints and finishes whenever I can…
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Beechcraft Model 18 – Part Two – Individual Excellence
The new model is going together very quickly – aided by reasonably accurate fit in the disparate sub-assemblies. I use the term disparate, because while these components are well suited in themselves…they all hold a proud independence in their geometry. In simpler terms, they fit, but not to each other. This was a phenomenon noted…
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Beechcraft Model 18 – Part One – The Promising Twin
I was ambushed by this kit through an email from a Melbourne hobby shop. They send out regular lists of new arrivals and this was in the same order as the Hawker Sea Fury. It also came with a companion Beech 18 – a USAAF AT-11. The cost of this kit is $19 and the…
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Heinkel He 111 – Part Seven – RAFwaffe
The Heinkel He 111 is done and I am very pleased. It has already visited RCAF WET DOG and been photographed. She’s got no guns or bombs aboard, but three RAF test crewmembers are buttoned up in there – as period photos show. Presumably the RAF A/B upper scheme and bright trainer yellow undersides would…
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Heinkel He 111 – Part Six – The Irresistible Shot
If you go to any book on the Battle of Britain or any Google site that deals with the Heinkel bombers you will eventually see a shot of the crew inside the glass-nosed cockpit. It will have been taken from the bomb-aimer’s position looking backward at the pilot’s seats and will likely have been shot…
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Heinkel He 111 – Part Five – On Your Feet
I am always eager to get a plane on its feet. And then I’m not, when I look and see what the manufacturers have moulded. So many of them make a set of landing gear that can never support the plane and is miserable to install. It is one of the stations on the model-building…
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Heinkel HE 111 – Part Four – The Elegant Wing
Some aeroplane wings are ugly things. Go look at the Junkers Ju52 in broad daylight. Some are incredible – get out a picture of a B-36. And some, like this Heinkel HE 111 wing, are pieces of real sculpture. Don’t look too long at the engine nacelles – they were covered in an earlier post.…
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Heinkel HE 111 – Part Three – The Aerodynamic Engine
I do not know enough about the differences between British and German aero engines to be able to debate their good and bad points. Suffice it to say I think the British practice of mounting the Merlin engine upright seems to be a darn sight more sensible than the inverted Daimler Benz of the German…
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Heinkel HE 111 – Part Two – Nothing Looks Like An Airplane…
You can get into a rut in model airplane building. I do planes that are mostly British or American types. Sometimes a Soviet job, or the rare Japanese one. In all these cases they have distinctive national characteristics quite apart from paint jobs or insignia. There are styles of fuselages, wings, and engines. Some are…
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Heinkel HE 111 – Part One – Welcome To The Rafwaffe
Yes, you read that right. Rafwaffe. Specifically 1426 Flight RAF. The unit that took captured and abandoned German equipment and tested it for the RAF. At Duxford and RAF Collyweston. They got one of the Heinkel 111’a that had been downed to a soft landing early in the war over the UK and repaired and…
The Little World 