Category: Model Airplane
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LeO 45 – Part Two – This Is Fine…
The initial burst of admiration for this Heller kit has been tempered by building it. The wings are on, and at a reasonable dihedral – set by the internal tab on each wing sliding all the way across to the opposite side of the fuselage and locking itself in place. This is admirable. Less so…
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LeO 45 – Part One – The French Fish
This title is prompted by the shape of the Liore et Olivier 45 bomber – the last time you will see the entire name in this report. It is a fish – a codfish or salmon, by the look of it – attached to two streamlined wings, two streamlined nacelles, and two inverted rudders. This…
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Forbidden Modelling
What an odd concept. Who can forbid scale modelling? Well, quite a few official bodies, as it happens. Try to fly a model airplane, run an R/C car or boat, or scramble about the local oval with your model tank and see what a squawk it raises. These restrictions multiply when there are clubs and…
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De Havilland 60 G – Part One – Too Long On The Shelf
Actually, too long on several shelves… This model was purchased at my favourite local hobby shop to rescue it from obscurity on the back shelf. It had lain there – along with a number of obscure Soviet experimental and propaganda ships – for as long as I had been going to the place. Finally they…
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The Toy Train People Have An Advantage
Model railway builders who exhibit their layouts have a pretty big task to do – they have some major haulage and construction to do to set up a display. Once done, however, they have a distinct advantage over the model builders who make plastic kits; the toy trains move. The model railway maker might be…
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Schmattarim
Stop groaning. It’s my model airport and I get to make the jokes. Actually, it’s a museum layout – a very useful way to display a variety of aircraft. In this case they are Israeli, and the idea is patterned on the real IAF museum at Hatzerim. I’ve built enough models to mount two separate…
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Let and Hindrance
Ever stop to consider how often the demands of other people rule your life? I mean your hobby life. If you are a target shooter of any sort the police regulations are strict and getting stricter. You are at the command of every police officer, departmental clerk, or politician. You are hemmed in by journalists…
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Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Six – Jarvis, Ontario
No 1 Bombing And Gunnery School RCAF. The Battle was used extensively in Canada as a training aircraft and target tug. Kept well away from the Luftwaffe, its only enemies on the prairies were the cold, the students, and gravity. Slow, heavy, but a good flier for limited purposes. The RCAF even fielded a variant…
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Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Five – The Hangin’ Tree
I am not a naturally cruel man, though I have trained in the art… Nevertheless there is a certain grimness about constructing a gallows on which to execute a model airplane. You start to think of Sidney Carton or Till Eulenspiegel… The advantage of it all is the ability to spray from all sides in…
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Fairey Battle Mk I – Part Four – Broken On The Wheel
In Prague they have a tradition of throwing difficult people out of third-story windows. Look it up. I can certainly agree with this when it comes to scale model designers who decide to make a resin hub and separate injected plastic blades for a propeller. I should be happy to set punji stakes or hungry…
The Little World 