Category: Model Airplane
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Polikarpov I-1 – Part Two – The Corrugated Cat
I think Junkers and Ford have a lot to answer for in what they did to aviation design. The Stuka and the Tri-Motor were certainly successful in themselves, when applied in the right way, but they must have led many others astray – Polikarpov amongst others. The temptation of a monocoque skin in corrugated aluminium…
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Polikarpov I-1 – Part One – One Tin Fighter
Captain Frugal here. I have been given an ICM kit – or I may have bought it…I cannot really remember. But it did not cost as much as the examples on the shelf of my local hobby shop. It is, however, every bit as good as the higher-priced spread, and good for me, too. The…
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The Beauty Of Preserved Aircraft
Don’t edge away – I’m not going to go all sentimental here. I salute the people who discover, recover, restore, and preserve aircraft. And who then let the general public and the model engineers in to inspect them. They do us all a great service. Because there are only so many old photos that you…
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The Sparkless Stash…
Or the stashless spark. Is it better to have no kits but brilliant plans, or plenty of kits but no interest? There are any number of people with big stashes who lack the motivation to build anything. They look listlessly at the shelves of plastic in boxes and nothing at all calls to them. It…
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Roland C II – Part Two – Blue Whale
Say what you might about the shape of the Roland C II, it makes for a good small scale model. The interplane struts are broad plates and there are no cabanes. There is a good exposed engine, unusual fuselage windows, and two German fliers in enthusiastic positions. The gunner is attending to his duties, but…
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Roland C II – Part One – Unwanted Baggie
If you wanted to know what the box art for this 1987 Airfix Roland C II looked like, see the heading image. It was one of the sad rejects in the club junk bin. Box long gone and no future for it. These were the Humbrol years for Airfix – spiralling down into a mess…
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Fiat BR.20 – Part Four – The One And Only
My Nationalist Chinese Air Force is growing like Top Tze. Another bomber to join the Martin B10. Talk about strategic command of the air… This Fiat BR.20 was originally sold to the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force as part of a couple of stopgap squadrons until a native-built bomber fleet could be completed. It saw…
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Fiat BR.20 – Part Three – Nearly All Good
Nearly. 90% of this airplane is a dream to build and the last 10% is the sort of dream you get with too much cheese at bedtime. It’s the nose, you see. Italeri were faced with the need to make a set of windows as well as a revolving front turret and elected to mould…
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Fiat BR.20 – Part Two – What Are You Lot Waiting For?
Italeri are very wise kit makers when they include crew members for their aircraft. They and Airfix are two of the few who recognise that you can fill a cockpit with something rather than etched brass. And the modeller will have less hassle and frustration all during the build. My people-painting skills are non-existent. I…
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Fiat BR.20 – Part One – Birthday Bomber
Part of my big birthday buy-up last year was this Fiat bomber. It was a last-minute selection in a shop I rarely visit – but I am delighted with the prospect. Italeri kits always please me, and none more so than their Italian aircraft. They seem to put an extra level of care in the…
The Little World 