Tag: Airfix
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Lockheed F80C Shooting Star – Part Three – O Amigo Da Onça

” You are looking very well today, Senora…” And if you are old enough to know the joke to which that is the punch line, you may keep reading. If you know who Amigo Da Onca is, you may sit right down here with me and we’ll share a bottle of cachaca. You may wonder…
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Lockheed F80C Shooting Star – Part Two – The Smooth Bullfrog

No, it’s not a Frog model – it’s still the bargain Airfix kit. But the more I look at the basic shape of the Lockheed F80C in the grey primer, the more I’m reminded of an amphibian. You have to admire Clarence Kelly and his designers for making such a sleek thing using an engine…
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Lockheed F80C Shooting Star – Part One – When Men Were Men…

And boys were boys…and kit manufacturers were not afraid to put silver colour into the plastic models. This old Airfix Shooting Star was in the $ 10 rack at the Sandown Park model show and as it was complete, I couldn’t resist. Even if it did not strike my main chord as a jet ,…
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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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Blackburn Buccaneer – Part Two – The Hollow Man
No, wait – that was Bing Crosby. This Airfix model of the naval strike fighter is nowhere near as empty as he was…but nevertheless there’s a lot of unused space inside. Note that the dear old instruction sheet makes this painfully clear – though I will say that it is entirely adequate for the job.…
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Blackburn Buccaneer – Part One – Not A Straight Line…
Note: This is the post I meant to put up today…but failed to find. I repeated myself re. the Spitfire, so I have taken down the morning’s column and published this one instead. Not a straight line anywhere on this plane, I should think. But that’s not a bad thing – there were few straight…
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North American Mitchell – Part Three – Cementing A Friendship

The world seems to be divided into two camps – those who don’t care about Brexit, and those who don’t care about Justin Trudeau. There are a few of us who have sought to bridge the gap and heal the rift by not caring about both subjects at the same time. Given a cup of…
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North American Mitchell – Part One – The Lead Ship

The purchase of the Airfix B25 Mitchell was a bit of a coup – a local shop supplied it and I saved the cost of postage from the eastern states. But I did not realise until I opened it that it was a trap*. Oh, I knew the model itself was good – I do…
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Douglas Devastator – Part Three – Did I Get My Money’s Worth?

That’s always a pertinent question as far as my hobbies go. Indeed it also applies to clothing purchases, dinners at restaurants, and holiday trips. Sometimes the answer is no – for instance when they bring a tiny dinner out on a vast white plate and then hover like a Sikorski asking whether it is to…
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Douglas Devastator – Part Two – Crates

” My God, Carruthers! They’re sending boys up in crates like those…” Well, don’t write off the Douglas Devastator TBD so soon. Admittedly they did not have sterling success as fighting machines in the battles they fought…but they did get some torpedo strikes. If the US Navy had addressed the problems of the Mk XIII…
