Category: Scale Models
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Seven – Why Was It Not Named?
Dauntless, Helldiver, Avenger, Hellcat…all good historic names for US Navy aircraft. The Army Air Force had Mustangs and Thunderbolts and such. Why was the BT 1 just a code, instead of a name? I suspect it is because it never established itself in the affections of the press – or at least in the press…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Six – The Arcane Scheme
I occasionally go to our local bottle shop and buy beer or wine. It is a big shop and has hundreds of varieties of booze, and the only way to differentiate before you buy is by the labels. I have given up being a gourmet or a gourmand and have finally come down to being…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Five – A Pit Of Cocks
Settle down class. Stop giggling. You in the back, too. The cockpit on the BT 1 had every chance of being awkward – PE rudder pedals and control knobs and such Czecherie – but I refused to let it daunt me. I have already made a Douglas SBD-4 and I am dauntless… The green colour…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Four – The Donkey
And I spent a morning pinning the tail on it. No blindfold. Czech and other short-run airplane kits have many flaws, but one of the most worrying is the fact that they often provide no way of attaching the tail securely. If there is a tab and slot it is rudimentary, clogged with flash and…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part Two – Teeth Gritting Time
The start of a build is either going to be heaven or hell. The choice of which is largely up to the builder, but it can be more attitude than anything that determines which destination you’re heading for. In the case of a lot of short-run kits the removal of parts from the sprue tree…
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Northrop BT 1 – Part One – The Bargain Bomber
I took advantage of a stash sale one time to purchase a number of never-to-be-seen-again model kits. You’ve already seen one of the Eastern European maker’s short-run planes – the Mitsubishi ” Ann “- in this column before. This Northrop is the accompanying model – a contemporary in the air in the early 1940’s. This…
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Repairing Our Mistakes
If we repair our mistakes we gain a great deal of control over our modelling. And it can make us better workers. a. We recognise a mistake. This is better when we do it before we commit it…sort of dry-fit your way out of danger – but even if we have gone all the way…
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Piper J3 – Part Five – The Universal Cub
The best thing about the Piper J3 Cub is it is so darned cute. The second best thing is that it is ubiquitous. It can sit on the tarmac of any of my airports or air museums from the 1930’s onward and be perfectly at home. The kit has proved to be a beauty –…
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Piper J3 – Part Four – The Irish Jig
Faith and begorrah, and here’s to the Auld Sod. I mean the one who invented jigs to assemble airplanes. I have reviewed all the commercial aids for assembly – the plastic, wood, and metal jigs that are touted on the modelling sites. Also the ones that appear in catalogs from places that will not ship…
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Piper J3 – Part Two – Inky, Winky, and Dinky
I don’t think I would be able to build things in smaller scale than 1:72 unless they were of very big prototypes – the parts would be too small. As it is I curse the nonsense of PE and resin details. The heading image shows a pretty good result for the interior of the J3…
The Little World 