It’s been another slow month at the bench. Watching a lot of the Giro d’ Italia hasn’t helped keep up time spent playing with bits of plastic and resin. Lockheed F-104C in 1/72 by ItaleriI’m told that this kit is the old Esci kit that was first published in the early 1980s. If this is … More Models for June 2023
Big Eyes in the SkyRepublic XF-12 – Lockheed U-2R – Northrop Grumman RQ-4 This week let’s look as three aircraft that go about their business quietly and at a great distance. Perhaps the first military role given to aircraft was to look down upon the surface to see what is happening so that the decision … More The Curator’s Choice 66
Vought Corsair I – Vought F4U-1D – Vought F4U-7The Curator’s Choice 65 One of the most distinctive shapes of all World War 2 aircraft is the bent wing of the Vought F4U Corsair naval fighter. It came from the desire to fit the most powerful piston engine possible to a fighter to give it outstanding … More Bent Wing Birds
Boeing 727-200 – Boeing 737-800 – Airbus A.320The Curator’s Choice 64 Everyone knows that I think airliners are way cool. I like them because, with very rare exceptions, they have never deliberately killed anyone or destroyed anything. Their business is to carry people and freight from place to place as safely as possible. In other … More Three Airliners in Six Decades
Douglas X-3 – Bell X-5 – Lockheed X-9The Curator’s Choice 63 There is something romantic about the early X-planes. The whole idea began towards the end of World War 2 when various organizations in the United States, including NACA, the USAAF and USN, wanted to conduct research into high speed flight. The first X-plane was … More Early X-planes
It has not been a very productive month but things are starting to get rolling again and the a couple of things have rolled off the bench. One of the major distractions was the Modellers of Ballarat annual (except for covid) display day. It was a fairly modest event in comparison to some previous years … More Models for April 2023
BAC TSR2 – Northrop YF-23 – Dassault Mirage IIIVThe Curator’s Choice 62 The history of aviation is littered with aircraft designs that never made it off the drawing boards, many of them good ideas that weren’t needed or were impractical. There are also many good designs that were built but never entered production. Sometimes they … More Lost Designs
The Curator’s Choice 61Aermacchi MB.326H – Aermacchi MB.339CD – AESL CT/4A It is now a little over a century since soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps ‘were butchered like lambs at the slaughter’ on the beaches at Gallipoli. Every year since Australians and New Zealanders around the world have gather on 25 … More ANZAC Trainers
Golden Age RacersDeHavilland DH-88 – Howard DGA-6 – Caudron 460 The 1930s was an exciting period in the history of aviation. Technology was forging ahead rapidly with new and intriguing ideas being explored and new aircraft being rolled out of the workshops all the time. At the forefront of these developments were the aircraft designed … More The Curator’s Choice 60
Bombers, 1939Armstrong Whitworth Whitley II – Amiot 143 – Dornier Do17F By the northern summer of 1939 Europe’s great powers had been preparing for war for more than three years. From as early as 1935 the clouds of war had been gathering and governments had been building up their armed forces in expectations of conflict. … More The Curator’s Choice 59
Leigh Edmonds little box of stuff 