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Can A Manchester Or Lincoln Be That Far Away?
I am a solid fan of the Airfix company’s plastic model kits. I cannot remember ever having a really bad, unbuildable one from them. Some of their offerings could be a little crude, but they were of their time and reasonably priced withal. They did concentrate on British marques and that was fine – they…
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Hangaring Out With With The Big Birds
I do love a good hangaring, don’t you? Walking around a vast space filled with extremely expensive aluminium and trying not to let any of it drip hydraulic fluid on you. Occasionally hitting your eye on a propeller blade ( or on a turbine blade if you are nosy and short-sighted…). Tripping over hoses and…
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Henschel Hs 123A-1 – Part Four – The Penny Packet Of Dive Bombers
Poor old Chinese. They were at war with everyone – including themselves, often as not. They seem to have fought the Russians, the Japanese, the Americans, The British, the Canadians, the Turks, and the Koreans at some stage of the game in the last 150 years. And not a lot of wins on the board,…
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Henschel Hs 123A-1 – Part Three – Lt. Yuen
Lieutenant Yuen* has command of his aircraft. He’s joined the 15th Squadron flying Henschel dive bombers. Let’s hope he is successful. Lt. Yuen was a bit of a handful to sandwich into the cockpit. I had originally thought to follow normal practice and finish the fuselage before cementing the pilot in. Not on the Hs…
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Henschel Hs 123A-1 – Part Two – After Dinner
I washed the kit parts for the Henschel before dinner – they sat drying as I browsed and sluiced, and were ready for a start as soon as the coffee was served. What you see in the heading image is less than two hours later – all the major parts de-burred, edge-cleaned, and assembled. Tomorrow…
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Henschel Hs 123A-1 – Part One – 15th Squadron
Well here we go again with the Airfix Classics. And this one is destined to be quite different from what Airfix envisaged. The plane is intriguing – one of the last of the serving biplanes…or this might even be considered a sesquiplane. It is deceptively fighter-like but in actuality is a dive bomber. When the…
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The Weak Link
In every chain they say the weak link will break first. So with every scale model. It changes with each type that you build. Do a few and you’ll know what to expect. You can fortify yourself against the troubles if you get in first. a. Aircraft are weakest in three areas; landing gear, antennae,…
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Mess With Their Minds
Scale model builders are in an enviable position; they are considered harmless and childish. This is ideal cover from which to snipe at passers-by… a. Build a perfectly standard kit of a common airplane. Perhaps a Spitfire, Mustang or Messerschmitt. Pick an average kit, and it need not be an expensive one. Assemble the fuselage…
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Canadair CT-116 – Part Three – Cold Lake Toy Fighter
All Good – after several false starts and a few execrable errors, the Cold Lake CT-116 is ready for the apron. I patterned the build after an internet image of a 116 over the Alberta tundra. The in-flight shot was perfectly exposed and opened all the markings up beautifully. The model could be measured and…
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Canadair CT-116 – Part Two – Putty Queen
Every kit fits. Some do so in the same places as the prototype does – some do wherever the parts touch… This ex-Mastercraft PM model is one of the latter variety, albeit with a few good features. The fuselage halves are straight and can be clamped into being gap-less. The wing is another matter. You…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 