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Douglas Havoc – Part Eight – The Faulty Gear
Looks like 42547 will be sitting for a bit longer on the hardstand at RCAF WET DOG. The Russian ferry pilot has complained about the front landing gear strut – and we can’t say we disagree with him. It has been put on the service sheet for a rebuild. The front gear leg does indeed…
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Douglas A-20 Havoc – Part Seven – The Work Of Art
Masking tape is one of the few artistic mediums overlooked in the catalogues of the famous galleries. Yet it is the chosen vehicle of expression for so many of us. And it is such a transient thing – here one hour and stripped off and thrown in the trash the next. Truly a metaphor for…
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Douglas A-20 Havoc – Part Six – A Pleasant Surprise
After the trauma of the undercarriage construction on the Havoc, I was not looking forward to the assembly of the rest of the nacelle. I had done some preliminary dry fitting and trimming of the housing – noting that the aft fairing was going to need either a great deal of putty or forgiveness. As…
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Douglas A-20 Havoc – Part Five – Just Because Someone Was A Fool…
…Doesn’t mean you have to follow them. This might be the phrase best suited to the stage of building that we are up to today – the landing gear on the A-20 Havoc. It is tricycle gear and the original designers of the ship wanted to make the wheels and tyres disappear from the airstream…
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Douglas A-20 Havoc – Part Four – I’m Starting To Like…
Well, I am starting to like the Havoc. And not just the plane itself, but the new materials and techniques I’m using on it: a. The plane itself is interesting – the pronounced dihedral and the cant of the tailplanes looked to be daunting when seen in plans, but the makers of the kit have…
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Douglas A-20 Havoc – Part Three – Subassembly Time
The Douglas Havoc by MPM models ( are they the same as Special Hobby? I’ll have to Czech up on that…) is old school in that it is all injection moulding – no resin or brass to confuse the issue. I welcome this but will have to do some cheap detailing in the cockpit if…
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Douglas A-20 Havoc – Part Two – You Just Have To Search The Net Long Enough
Pardon the red eyes – I have been searching the images section of Google for particular views of the Douglas A-20 Havoc. There are a lot of pictures there and a lot of repeats – but if you look long and hard enough you can find photo evidence to support a build. My friend Warren…
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Douglas A-20 Havoc – Part One – Search The Sprue
I’m starting to know how to play the game – at least recognising some of the new rules. It’s changed since the 1960’s… Back then, plastic model kits gave you only a very few choices – the AMT 3-in-1 cars had extra parts that you could glue onto them to make racing cars or customs.…
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The Airfix of Old Is Dead
And from the corpse has risen a new and shining phoenix. I, for one, am delighted. When I commenced a new Airfix bomber kit – one of last year’s releases – I was blown away in just one day of assembly – the level of detail moulded into the parts was outstanding and the sensible…
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” The Mk IV Is Different From The C Model…”
” But only in the under-flange. This is 13mm longer than the 1943 modification. Few modellers realise this.” Not surprising, Chief. 13mm in 1/72nd scale is .18 of a millimetre and very few modellers can see that small – or care that much. We are struggling to get parts off a sprue without digging holes…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 