Category: Uncategorized
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MiG 15 – Part Eight – Is Ready For Uszhitmi Air Show

The Uszhitmi Air Show has always been the premier display of Soviet – and laterally Russian – air power since the early 20’s. Starting as it did with flying tractors and merry peasant dances on the tarmac between crashes, it progressed to formation passes made the giant creations of the 30’s that were ever larger…
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MiG 15 – Part Seven – Supercheap To The Rescue

Do you remember my series of tests done to find out which acrylics, enamels, and lacquers would spray best? And the subsequent quest for clear coatings that would let me do decals and then protect the models? Well I looked out my sample tablets today and reassessed them. The local version of a floor polish…
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MiG 15 – Part Five – Science To The Fore! Onwards To Socialism!

Whoops, sorry about that. The Radio Havana broadcast was turned up too high… But let us not allow politics to interfere with science – particularly with the science of the model airplane. The Little Workshop is proud to announce the introduction of a new instrument into the world – the Stein Staterometer. You won’t find…
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MiG 15 – Part Four – Seams To be Working

The anhedral of the MiG 15 wings… -3º…was cranked into the build today and I like to think it was successful. You’ve seen the jigging in the last post. The cementation was Mr. Cement Deluxe smeared on both the wing and the fuselage. It sets up pretty quickly and goes hard enough for jazz well…
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MiG 15 – Part Three – You Have Chosen Wisely, Grasshopper

The MiG 15 is somewhat of an iconic aircraft – albeit Soviet, derived from German research. It lasted well after contemporary Meteors and Sabres were shuffled off to client nations and thence to museums. Indeed aircraft of this era are now only found as museum exhibits – flying or otherwise. Oh, and a Canadian private…
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MiG 15 – Part Two – Bring On The Clowns, Popov

Well, I stared and stared at the colour call-out and decal sheet for the MiG 15 and just couldn’t get excited. The entire outside of the airplane was aluminium colour – with only a little red or blue on a tail or nose. I am not against aluminium colour per se but I’ve recently built quite a…
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MiG 15 – Part One – Plunging Off The Cliff

Every one who leaps off the edge of a cliff in the face of a stiff breeze wearing a set of nylon wings exhibits a degree of faith and hope…and wishes sincerely for charity on the way down. They have to risk something valuable…ie their neck…to get a benefit. I am going to have to…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Six – The Strelsau Line

Air defence in the 1930’s was a complex thing – most nations had various plans in hand for offensive strategic war against their most likely enemies – and in some cases against their most likely allies. In some case the former was the least likely… There were also equivalent plans for air defence, though it…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Five – Strategic Supply

Every airforce needs certain givens; air space, landing fields, aircraft, fuel and armament, and personnel. An enemy to fight is also useful for purposes of publicity. The RRAAF was no exception to this. They had potential enemies enough, airspace limited only by mountains and fogbanks, and enough flat ground near to the town to allow…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Four – The Royal Trainees

Every Ruritanian boy has a burning desire to fly – frequently far from home and the endless cultivation of vegetables in the cold, damp soil. In the centuries before flight this urge was satisfied by sneaking over the border into Austria, Hungary, Poland, Russia, or Germany. There, the life choices of the Ruritanian peasant could…
