Category: Museums
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The Mark II Had The Window On The Left

And they never painted the underside blue. And so starts another anorak dogfight. The two combatants have both seen pictures of the Fosdyke-Heppelberry ” Flapdoodle ” in RAF service and both are convinced that they are the recognised experts on the type. Both are unwilling to give up the title. The pictures they have seen…
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Build What You Know

Not what you don’t. This doesn’t mean you have to restrict your building to domestic objects or your own trade. Scale models of insurance policies are probably exquisite but few people bother to read them in 1:72 scale. You can do anything you like, of course, but you’ll be happier doing something that you understand…
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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,…
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Dornier Do 27 – Part One – The Plastic Baggie

The title image for this little kit is a little dull – it is taken from the monochrome instruction sheet as there was no box to the kit. It is a legacy kit bought from a stash and even in its heyday, probably was not a major-factory product. I have tried to get a line…
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Is There A Permanent Museum Of Scale Modelling Anywhere?

I’ve been fortunate enough to see scale models of different things in military museums all over the world. I suppose there were a few in North America when I was a kid, but most of the ones I remember have been seen in Britain and on the continent. There are a few here in Australia,…
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Canadian Valentine Tank – Part Four – Borden Baby

Or ” The Jolly Green Midget “. Say what you will about the green paint on this Valentine, it is the closest I can get to the distinctive colour on this tank and an adjacent Matilda as they sit in the CFB Borden museum right now. The colour illustrations that show these are taken in…
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Canadian Valentine Tank – Part One – Well You Had Me At…

At Canadian, actually. Anything with a maple syrup glaze. This was not a model I saw in a local shop – it was ordered from the eastern states after a dangerous internet browsing session. It came with another Canadian armoured vehicle, but unfortunately I had not looked closely at the web page – that one…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Four _ THM

It may seem foolish to bypass much of the effort that Airfix went to when they designed this model. But that is what I did when I started researching the Canadian connection for this aircraft. It would appear that there were a number of them in RCAF and RCN service during and after WW2. And…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part Three – A Bubble In The Desert Sun

It cannot have been much fun to climb into a Bell 47 bubble in the desert sun of the Negev. Even on a cold day, it would have been hot in there and the overhead fan would not have helped if you had the doors shut… The Italeri kit has proved as good as it…
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Renault R 35 – Part One – The Little Frog

I bought this Tamiya tank kit on a whim – and a case of mistaken identity, too. But I am not disheartened. Because I went to another shop and purchased the one I was originally thinking about later. Yet this Renault light tank is the one I’ll be building first. The kit is pure Tamiya…
