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Republic Thunderflash – Part One – The Flying Photographer
Without realising it I completed a couple of builds that could start a new shelf in the Air Museum – and now I have No. 3 and No. 4 in the stash; a Republic RF84F Thunderflash and A Lockheed RT33. Together with the P-38 PRU and Spitfire PRXIX they are the eyes in the sky…
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Do You Need An Idea Or An Argument?
Also known as – do you need to be correct or right? – because they can be two different things. And never more so than with paint colours. I will be writing for several readerships here – some will be from Australasia – some from North America – some from The United Kingdom. The advice…
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Lockheed Starfire – Part Three – We Win Through In The End
You’ll have seen my post about backtracking with the Beagle Boys a little while ago; September 20, 2020. It detailed my wilful errors in painting that were corrected late at night. Since then I have played the soft pedal for this build and have been rewarded in the end with a delightful result. The clear…
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Lockheed Starfire – Part Two – Dry Fit Respect
I have a great deal of respect for whoever Emhar models really are. In my encounters with their products I have found them to fit together excellently. In the case of the featured image, the cockpit tub is cemented together and the fuselage sealed…but everything else is just a dry fit for confirmation purposes. This…
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Lockheed Starfire – Part One – My First Airplane
If the first plastic model kit I remember building was a Revell 5-ship set in the mid-1950’s, the first plastic airplane kit I remember seeing was a Lockheed F-94 Starfire. It was being built By Mike Baker – a kid across the street. He was also engaged in building a wooden model of a B-50,…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Four – Stalin’s Falcons
Well, they had to be different from the Adlers of the Germans and the Bald Eagles of the Americans. And these fighters were tiny things – so it was either going to be Falcons or Tits. And you can play with tits as much as you wish… Actually, I think the Falcon name was attached…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Three – Sandwich Size
The primer stage emphasises just how small this fighter is. And how much effort was put into streamlining it in an art-deco fashion. The side panels fit very well, the horizontal tail plane locks the fuselage halves together, and the tailpiece smooths the rear. I’ve followed the practice of temporarily sealing the landing gear covers…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Two – The Donk
If someone is so kind as to prepare an entire aero engine for me, I should be very ungrateful not to take notice of their effort. This is the philosophy that compelled me to construct a tiny, hidden component for the I-16. It has worked out beautifully, and I am loathe to close it in…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part One – What Animal Is That?
Is it a mule, a fly, or an ant? All three nicknames have been used for this small Soviet fighter plane from the 1930’s. It was a somewhat revolutionary craft at a turning point in aviation that went from biplanes to monoplanes. One might have expected the Soviets to follow their standard Russian pattern of…
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Colour Choice In A Paint-Starved World
The racks in my favoured place of worship are looking bare. Time to put some more heretics to the question… Calm, down Torquemada – we’re talking about the paint racks at the local hobby shop. The Tamiya and Gunze sections are getting sparse as shipments are delayed around the world. Other sections are full –…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 