Category: Model Airplane
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Pride Is A Cheap Emotion

Well it is, if you do it right. Scale modelling can be done with pretty nearly any purse…though the hobby shops would like you to browse on the expensive shelves. The prices can rise to pretty nearly any level that you could name. People who purchase and build the expensive kits can generally be assured…
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SAAB J22 – Part Three – Defender Of Neutrality

You have to give the Swedes credit for neutrality. Otherwise they might sell themselves to your enemies. Perhaps this is a little harsh on them. They have not been officially at war for over 200 years, though they were key players in Scandinavia and Middle Europe prior to that. They made a number of enemies…
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SAAB J22 – Part Two – Dry Swede

Or, the first series build for the Little Workshop. I have just completed three big builds for the collection. They were spread over three work areas and many weeks. There were problems that held matters up and were then solved. I learned a couple of new facts. And noted an unsettling thing with the workflow;…
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SAAB J22 – Part One – Small And Cheap

And it doesn’t come with meatballs or an Allen wrench. Here is yet another newie for me – a genuine Swedish home-grown fighter moulded in Lund, Sweden. Box long gone, but the top and sides preserved to give a colour reference. The plane is a well-designed stop-gap Swedish product along the lines of the CAC…
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Douglas Skyray F4D – Part Three – Good For One Thing

And very good, at that. The Douglas F4D Skyray was built to intercept Soviet bombers as far away from American aircraft carriers as was possible. This was in the mid 1950’s when the threat from manned aircraft was at its height. The airframe – derived no doubt in some wise from a Lippisch design –…
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Douglas Skyray F4D – Part Two – Peacetime Colours

Or at least as peaceful as a Cold War aircraft could get… I am always happy to see military aircraft in bright colours – the yellow wings of the pre-war US Navy – the dazzling squadron codes of the pre-war RAF – the bright stripes of the pre-war Italians. Because brightly coloured aircraft are not…
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Douglas Skyray F4D – Part One – Unloved Tamiya

Don’t raise your eyebrows and make that noise – this Tamiya kit was half the price of other 1/72 models from the same maker in their Warbirds range. That tells me that it is not a big seller – rather like the Japanese submarine seaplane in the same line. People concentrate on the famous fighters…
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Geezers

Pilots, aircrew, figures…whatever you prefer to call them. They were once included with all scale model aircraft kits – now they are rarely seen. The only reason my RCN Grumman Tracker has them is that it is a very old stash kit. The quality of the mouldings is marginal, but far surpasses those moulded in…
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Dornier Do 27 – Part Four – Dror

Hebrew word for ” freedom ” or ” sparrow “. I favour the latter meaning when applied to this little Dornier observation aircraft. They were active in the IDF between 1964 and 1981 – a very active period. The internet says they were initially attached to the delightfully-named ” flying camel ” squadron. Observation, liaison,…

