Category: research
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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part Seven – Challenges Must Yield To Science!
Part Six of the DH Mosquito Mk II saga showed the dull and sad paint job that I ended up with after failing to think properly about what I was doing – I sprayed a matting acrylic too heavily and cured it under too high a temperature. I regarded the result as a failure on…
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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part One – 12:35 In The Morning
6 July, 1944. Western France – near the Pas de Calais. One of HM aircraft on a Serrate mission was lost. It crashed with my wife’s uncle in it. His navigator was killed, he evaded capture, and was eventually delivered back to England by the French Resistance. He wasn’t allowed to fly over enemy territory…
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Messerschmitt 109 – Part Three – Suspicions…
I am not a naturally suspicious man, as anyone who has seen me in the police lineups will attest. I am ready to take anyone at face value…as long as I can pronounce them guilty. This benign attitude even extends to looking at pictures of fighter planes and trying to figure out their colour schemes.…
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Hawker Hurricane Mk II – Part Five – The Newfie
Those of you from the Dominion of Canada will know I speak with affection about Newfoundland – The place where this Hawker Hurricane was based. Specifically at Torbay in 1943 when German U boats were feared. They had successfully sunk ships nearby in the previous year and the RCAF needed to have a quick-response answer.…
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Douglas Dakota – Part Two – The Wonderful/Horrible Net
My determination to build a Douglas Dakota in Canadian markings was aided wonderfully/horribly by the internet. It was able to tell me exactly what I did and didn’t need to know, but unfortunately did not put a divider between the two types of information. It’s sort of like trying to read a modellers Talmud…except you…
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When You Had No Idea Before…
Scale modelling has many surprises – not the least of which are the prices of the after-market accessory packs. But even if you do not go that far, there are still discoveries to be made: a. The size of things. Here one must have some sort of yardstick to measure what is seen in…
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Macchi C.200 Saetta – Part Four – Il Co-Belligerante
Well, it’s finished. The kit that started out as just a whim has turned out to be a delight. I solved a problem for myself with the livery and found a way to enjoy future aircraft building. The final verdict is in on part of the finishing system, and Hobby Boss have acquitted themselves magnificently…
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Macchi MC.200 Saetta – Part One – The Lawyers Called, Mr Chang.
I can see that there has been a phone call from Italy. Hobby Boss has put out their 1:72 model of the Macchi MC-200 Saetta fighter plane with no reference to ” Macchi ” on the box. It is referred to only as ” Italian ” and ” Saetta “. It’s the same story as…
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Bristol/Fairchild Bolingbroke – Part Three – Are We Hobbyists Or Detectives?
I bought the Avia book about Canadian aircraft of WW2 on a whim at Hylands Bookstore in Melbourne earlier in the year. Hylands is a peripatetic purveyor of printed matter – I have been to 4 of their premises in the CBD of Melbourne over the decades and each time it has been a unique…
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The Big Green Things Made Of Wood
You know. Branches, trunks, roots, bird nests. Those things that stand there in front of the forest and obscure it. Whaddaya call ’em…starts with a ” T “. I’ll think of it in a minute… Well modelling can be like that. You do all the research in the world – spend days on the internet…
The Little World 