Category: Model Airplane
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MiG 15 Bis – Part Two – The Profi Parts

Well, you could avoid them, but then you’d be wasting your three dollars. I mean the business of using the Profi-Pack parts for an Eduard kit. The difference between the Weekend Edition and the Profi-Pack seems to be masking, decal choice, and a PE brass fret. The kit makers do provide plastic parts as alternative…
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MiG 15 Bis – Part One – Czeching Out The Next Stage

A few months ago I purchased an Eduard kit from Hobbytech Toys in Myaree – a Weekend Edition of a Czech crop duster. It was delightful. Encouraged, I returned to HobbyTech one Sunday and picked up a Profi-Pack Edition of this classic Soviet fighter. I wanted to see what differences Eduard would provide. I noted…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Seven – G-AMFJ

Or 2813 of 141 Sqn. This aircraft is counted as an Airspeed Consul – the civilian version of an armed Oxford. It was acquired in 1951 and flown by the 141 Sqn. The type was used as a VIP aircraft, multi-engine training, navigation and radio training, and as a light transport. It lasted only until…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Six – French Silver Grey

The Mr Color pot of French silver grey may have started life as a grey – or a silver… I can’t remember which. Over several years it has been topped up with a dash of whichever sliver I have in the airbrush pot as a left-over – and equally be whatever light grey is swirling…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Five – Wild Blue Yonder

And off we flaming go… Someone at Tasman was enamoured of the vacuum moulding machine – the one they used for clear canopies – and of the possibilities that it presented. So they made a decision to try something that is – so far – unique in my model-building experience. They vac-formed the canopy a…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Four – While The Goo Sets…

Busy your hands, to stop your mind from screaming. The engine cowlings on this model have become a standard mark in my workshop. They form the nadir from which anything else is better. I have joined the halves and lit a votive candle. The interior is bare, but surprisingly neat. It is simple, of course,…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Three – Oh, Just Grit Yer Teeth…

Pull up your Big-Girl panties, and get on with it. It’s not going to make itself. The first thing that has to go is the upper turret. Tasman have made a decent job of it, and the whitemetal gun mount will be saved for the future, but the aircraft I’m modelling has no turret. so…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Two – The Apology

At least Tasman Models are scrupulously honest. They recognised the problems of short-run manufacturing and the times when it just doesn’t come out like a Disney movie. The under-wing parts of this model apparently were consistently short-shooting at the wing tip. They realised it , modified the panel on the mould, and added two extra…
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Angels

The second squadron of Plasticville fighters. My purchase of three Plasticville airport hangars some years ago added more aircraft to the pile. For a while I thought of them as US naval jets, but a Plasticville on-line forum identifies them as Douglas X-2 Skyrockets. I think this is right, but it didn’t stop me from…
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Lockheed S-3A Viking – Part Three – I990’s

The chief raison d’être for the S-3A was hunting Soviet submarines in the 1970’s and 1980’s. With the 1990’s and the Reds beaching most of their fleet. the plane was reconfigured for surface surveillance and attack and garnered war honours in several conflicts. The ability to haul bombs and rockets as well as targetting gear…
