Tag: old kit
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Boeing B-17G – Part One – Academy

Or is that Minicraft? The box for this old B-17 lists both companies and a recent announcement from Academy in South Korea says that the assets of this older American company have been acquired by them. This box looks to be slightly old and slightly squashed and the instructions date the Academy sheet at 1992.…
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Potez 540T – Part One – From The Back Of The Cabinet…

Another forgotten orphan comes in from the storm – a Smêr kit of the dear old Potez 540 from 1986 – a rebox of a 1967 Heller kit. I welcome it as a companion of my youth. Well, not exactly my youth – but someone’s. This kit was started but never got past the fuselage…
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Revell Sopwith Camel – Part Two – Those Were Apparently The Days

And I was just the right age -14 – to fail to appreciate just how awful the Revell kits were at the time. I had built Revell planes and ships since the 1950’s and they were a sort of base standard upon which other maker’s efforts were judged. Aurora was worse, Monogram was better, Eaglewall…
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Albatros D.III – Part One – The Competing Baggie

When I looked at this 50¢ baggie that my friend Paul gave me, I wondered if it was a remould of a previous Airfix product. No, apparently – the old Albatros I built in 1959 was a D.V and this one is a D. III…at least dating from 1963. The look of the thing is,…
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Nieuport 17C – Part Five – Silver Beauty

I intended this build as a little stop-gap project to fill the time until Matchbox March. It has proved to be a rewarding gem. The Revell kit was unprepossessing enough – indeed most of the tiny WW1 planes from this firm are old kits and you find yourself prejudiced because of it. Of course, if…
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Beaufighter TFX – Part One – The Alternate Version

I built an Airfix Beaufighter model a year or so ago – the modern kit – and was extremely pleased with the result. It was completed as an RCAF model with a famous pilot in it. This Beau is a very much older version of the plane from Airfix. Scalemates tells me it is a…
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Nieuport 28 – Part One – The French Connection

The discovery of yet another neglected old Revell WW1 kit for a very small price led to the the determination to build ’em all. That led to the internet search to find out how many of them there were…and Revell was very prolific in the 70’s with these little models. I have a couple more…
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Canadian Car And Foundry Harvard II – Part One – The ’62 Model

Well, that’s the number engraved on the inside of this Airfix kit’s wing. It has a very long history – with this re-boxing probably being put out in ’79. I am fortunate in being able to remember both years, though I struggle to tell you what I had for tea two weeks ago. The kit…
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Curtiss Hawk Model 75 – Part One – Good Fortune

I am blessed with good fortune; a loving family, a comfortable retirement, a mind that still feels enthusiasm. I am also blessed in friendships. One of these friends read my post about trading scale model cars to make space for scale model airplanes and stepped in to make the situation ever so much worse… In…
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Grumman Widgeon – Part One – The Small Goose

The Sherriff’s Mini Cars shelves had some of the best and oddest kit shopping I have been able to do for some time. Stashes had disgorged treasures and/or trash and they were sensibly priced for all that. I have no idea how new the Widgeon is, not how long it may have mouldered on the…
