I love it when a plane comes together!

[klr]

Speaking of aircraft that were highly dangerous to their pilots - and in this case, ground crew as well:

[klr]

Paints ... you gotta have lots of 'em. I have about 260 different paints, plus loads of spare tins. And there are still plenty of times when I don't have the right colour.

Here's most of the important stuff:

[Clinton Huxley]

It's therapeutic, this thread.

[klr]

It's therapeutic, this thread.

Wait until you see the squadron of Hurricanes roll off the production line in a week or two.

My last offerings for today, and some of my smallest aircraft kits.

The De Havilland Canada Chipmunk:





The kit is being re-released this year by Airfix, which is just the ticket as I still have another couple of versions to build.

And another trainer, the Miles Magister:





This is a positively ancient kit - an old Frog mold - but worth the effort.

[klr]

One thing that definitely is not as good as it used to be is boxart ... time for some classics:

[Thinking Aloud]

One memorable day, I was in Haworth in West Yorks, and a little way up the hill on the opposite side of town from the Brontë's place was a tiny model shop. I wandered in and found the most unexpected kits: I know I bought an Mi-10 and Tu-144, but I'm sure there were more equally unexpected Russian aircraft on sale. The kits themselves seemed to be very old already - yellowing plastic, packets of pre-set glue, and so on, but hey I could have Concordski if I was happy to ignore the mismatched seams. About 1:100 scale, I think. A quick google isn't showing me anything familiar though...

[klr]

One memorable day, I was in Haworth in West Yorks, and a little way up the hill on the opposite side of town from the Brontë's place was a tiny model shop. I wandered in and found the most unexpected kits: I know I bought an Mi-10 and Tu-144, but I'm sure there were more equally unexpected Russian aircraft on sale. The kits themselves seemed to be very old already - yellowing plastic, packets of pre-set glue, and so on, but hey I could have Concordski if I was happy to ignore the mismatched seams. About 1:100 scale, I think. A quick google isn't showing me anything familiar though...

The Tu-144? Now there's a blast from the past. I never got a kit of that, or of the Concorde either for that matter. The scale is certainly odd. I would have expected 1/144, although Heller used 1/125 for its airliner kits for some reason. Certainly, there were a lot of odd scales in the very distant past, when manufacturers scaled the kit to fit the box, rather than standardise on scales.

Back in the 70's, one of my brothers built a couple of airliners (including one in Aer Lingus livery), but they are not my scene. Not jets anyway. I do have 1/72 scale kits of the Lockheed Super Constellation and the Douglas DC-6 though. Both were both for peanuts in the early 90's. The "Super Connie" kit in particular will have be prised from my cold, dead fingers ...

[Thinking Aloud]

One memorable day, I was in Haworth in West Yorks, and a little way up the hill on the opposite side of town from the Brontë's place was a tiny model shop. I wandered in and found the most unexpected kits: I know I bought an Mi-10 and Tu-144, but I'm sure there were more equally unexpected Russian aircraft on sale. The kits themselves seemed to be very old already - yellowing plastic, packets of pre-set glue, and so on, but hey I could have Concordski if I was happy to ignore the mismatched seams. About 1:100 scale, I think. A quick google isn't showing me anything familiar though...

The Tu-144? Now there's a blast from the past. I never got a kit of that, or of the Concorde either for that matter. The scale is certainly odd. I would have expected 1/144, although Heller used 1/125 for its airliner kits for some reason. Certainly, there were a lot of odd scales in the very distant past, when manufacturers scaled the kit to fit the box, rather than standardise on scales.

I wish I could recall the name of the manufacturer, but it was one I'd never heard of then, and haven't heard of since. This was the mid-late 1980s. It may well have been Eastern European, and you could be right about them fitting the kit to the box! I wonder if I've got any photos??? *goes to look*

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Modeling nut fan I knew in the Navy had Yamato that was nearly five feet long, and a "Enola Gay" with a wing-span of 36". Don't know if either was store bought or DIY, but they were impressive. Whenever he was transferred his new command always found a place to display them both.

[klr]

Modeling nut fan I knew in the Navy had Yamato that was nearly five feet long, and a "Enola Gay" with a wing-span of 36". Don't know if either was store bought or DIY, but they were impressive. Whenever he was transferred his new command always found a place to display them both.

A 1/48 scale B-29? 1/48 is not my thing, but apparently Monogram did indeed produce such a kit:

One memorable day, I was in Haworth in West Yorks, and a little way up the hill on the opposite side of town from the Brontë's place was a tiny model shop. I wandered in and found the most unexpected kits: I know I bought an Mi-10 and Tu-144, but I'm sure there were more equally unexpected Russian aircraft on sale. The kits themselves seemed to be very old already - yellowing plastic, packets of pre-set glue, and so on, but hey I could have Concordski if I was happy to ignore the mismatched seams. About 1:100 scale, I think. A quick google isn't showing me anything familiar though...

The Tu-144? Now there's a blast from the past. I never got a kit of that, or of the Concorde either for that matter. The scale is certainly odd. I would have expected 1/144, although Heller used 1/125 for its airliner kits for some reason. Certainly, there were a lot of odd scales in the very distant past, when manufacturers scaled the kit to fit the box, rather than standardise on scales.

I wish I could recall the name of the manufacturer, but it was one I'd never heard of then, and haven't heard of since. This was the mid-late 1980s. It may well have been Eastern European, and you could be right about them fitting the kit to the box! I wonder if I've got any photos??? *goes to look*

There are/have been a lot more kit manufacturer than you might think, and there were certainly some pretty obscure Eastern European manufacturers during the Communist era. A related problem is that even major manufacturers like Revell, Italeri, Airfix, etc. will often box another manufacturer's kit, and sell it on as their own. Caveat emptor!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A 1/48 scale B-29? 1/48 is not my thing, but apparently Monogram did indeed produce such a kit:

I just remember that the guy didn't much care for "constructive criticisms".

[klr]

A 1/48 scale B-29? 1/48 is not my thing, but apparently Monogram did indeed produce such a kit:

I just remember that the guy didn't much care for "constructive criticisms".

In the Navy, criticism flows downwards, not upwards. And what was a U.S. Navy man doing with a kit of US Army Air Force plane, even if it was the Enola Gay?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A 1/48 scale B-29? 1/48 is not my thing, but apparently Monogram did indeed produce such a kit:

I just remember that the guy didn't much care for "constructive criticisms".

In the Navy, criticism flows downwards, not upwards. And what was a U.S. Navy man doing with a kit of US Army Air Force plane, even if it was the Enola Gay?

What was he doing with a Japanese battleship, one wonders.

[klr]

A 1/48 scale B-29? 1/48 is not my thing, but apparently Monogram did indeed produce such a kit:

I just remember that the guy didn't much care for "constructive criticisms".

In the Navy, criticism flows downwards, not upwards. And what was a U.S. Navy man doing with a kit of US Army Air Force plane, even if it was the Enola Gay?

What was he doing with a Japanese battleship, one wonders.

"Because we sank it ..."

Hmmm ... there was a 1/200 scale kit of the Yamato produced by a company called Nichimo. That would come out at about 4ft. 2in. long. That's probably the one.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Because we sank it ..."

Hmmm ... there was a 1/200 scale kit of the Yamato produced by a company called Nichimo. That would come out at about 4ft. 2in. long. That's probably the one.

Does it include a figure to the captain on the bridge mooning something overhead?