Category: Model Airplane
-
CAC Wirraway – Part One – The Challenge

Apparently that is what the word translates to from one of the aboriginal languages. In modern day terms it was one of the licence-built derivatives from a North American design – the root of which gave us the Yale, Harvard, Texan, and NA 16. And probably a Soviet copy somewhere, if they ran true to…
-
Super-Detail The Coffee Cups

On the navigator’s table – in your 1/144 Wellington bomber. Buy our after-after-market pack of resin, PE brass, and precision-milled titanium castings and get that 1940’s RAF vibe going. $ 46.98 is nothing at all when you consider the level of realism that you will see on your workbench. The fact that no-one else in…
-
RCAF Hudson – Part Four – 145 (BR) Sqn

Eastern Air Command, Torbay, Newfoundland. Well, if you cannot have dedicated patrol bombers from the British Air Ministry, you buy or borrow them from the USAAF. Pressed into service for a long time, they did succeed in sinking a U-Boat and damaging several, The last few years of their service was arduous and even the…
-
RCAF Hudson – Part Three – Mother Hubbard’s Hudson

She went to the cupboard – or in this case the interior of the bomber – and it was bare… Just as well my model of the Lodestar from Special Hobby has a full passenger interior- even their Harpoon had a better cockpit. About all you can say for AIrfix is that the bulkheads fit…
-
RCAF Hudson – Part Two – I Been Airfixed Again

And I didn’t even know it until now… Look at Part One for the parts layout picture. Note that only one elevator panel is shown on the shot. I did not pick this up until I came to assemble the horizontal stabiliser. Airfix had dudded me again. But I don’t dud easy. I remembered what…
-
RCAF Hudson – Part One – At Long Last

I have skirted around the Lockheed Hudson for decades. My collection includes a Lodestar, a Ventura, and a Harpoon – all fun to build and successful finishes. Yet the basic Hudson has eluded me – until Airfix decided to revive a Vintage Classic. I’ve been haunting the red-box shelves in two shops for months –…
-
The Bad Batch

Whenever something goes wrong we search for an explanation…that’s just human inability to accept fate. Sometimes it turns out not to be our fault – though smart money always bets the other way. When it is genuinely not us, it can be the maker. The kit that is moulded wrongly. Or warped in the packaging.…
-
Academy C118 Liftmaster – Part Three – Presidential Plane

There were a number of choices of livery for this Douglas aircraft kit. I chose the Republic Of China version as it was a presidential transport for a number of decades – replacing a previous DC-3. It is hard to find positive evidence on the net about the Academy decals but the actual plane itself…
-
Academy C118 Liftmaster – Part Two – It’s All Outside

One of the distinct advantages/failings of the 1/144th scale kit is the fact that the insides are rarely seen. Indeed, for many of the airliners there are no side windows to cope with – it is all to be done at the decal stage. I welcome this if the decals are decently printed. However, you…
-
Academy C118 Liftmaster – Part One – A Deliberate Choice

Having been given a number of 1:144th scale aircraft and successfully completed them…I have decided the scale is a good thing. My main collection is 1:72, of course, but many aircraft are just not made in this size. If they are, the larger ones like transports and bombers become behemoths that devour display space. It…
