(November 2006) After World War II and into the 1950s the French Army used large numbers of British Daimler Ferret armoured cars in North Africa. It decided to acquire similar vehicles with a wider range of armament and, after testing prototypes, selected the design from Panhard. Production of the Automitrailleuse Légère (AML) commenced in … More Panhard AML-90 in 1/72 by Ace
(November 2020) In November 2020 Qantas celebrates its centenary. As a tiny celebration of this remarkable event here are photos of all the models I’ve made that are associated with Qantas. This includes Qantas Empire Airways, Australia Asia, Australian, QantasLink and JetStar, and the Australian domestic airline Trans Australia Airlines that was later rebranded Australian … More A hundred years of Qantas
Here is the next issue of iOTA, my little fanzine about the project to research and write the history of fandom in Australia up until 1975. In includes a lot of Lee Harding’s early fannish writing and the first chapter in draft to be written for this history which tells the story of Melbourne fandom … More iOTA 18
(January 2007) In 1923 the Communist Party in Italy was declared illegal and the Italian aircraft designer, Roberto Bartini, moved to the Soviet Union. He worked for the aviation detachment of the Red Army for some years but his creative talent saw him in charge of his own design group by 1930. His first … More Yermolayev Yer-2 in 1/72 by Amodel
(May 2006) In the 1950s military planners on both sides of the iron-curtain turned their attention to designing weapons systems capable of intercepting and destroying enemy supersonic bombers armed with nuclear weapons before they could deliver their payloads. One of the systems developed on both sides was an interceptor capable of flying long ranges … More Tupolev Tu-128 (Fiddler-B) in 1/72 by Amodel
(December 2007) The Supermarine Spitfire V was developed to fill the gap in production between the Spitfire Is and IIs that had fought the Battle of Britain and the next generation Spitfire III with a new wing and more powerful Merlin XX engine. Delays in developing the Spitfire III and problems with the Merlin … More Supermarine Spitfire Vb in 1/72 by Airfx
(September 2006) From the mid 1950s the United States and the USSR competed to be the first to put a man into space. The German V-2 had shown that rockets worked and the development of the atomic bomb led to rapid advances in rocket technology. Both the US and USSR took over as much … More Mercury-Redstone in 1/144 by New Ware
(August 2006) In October 1945 the USAAC sought proposals for a new missile system and a contract was issued to Consolidated Vultee (later Convair) to develop a system called MX-774. Three important innovations were a thin skinned rocket in which the pressure of the fuel in the tanks kept it from collapsing, a detatchable … More Mercury-Atlas in 1/144 by New Ware
(February 2007) By the 1970s the French AMX-30 Main Battle Tank was becoming obsolete and in 1977 the French Army drafted requirements for a new Engine Principal de Combat to replace it. New tanks like the M1 Abrams, Leopard 2 and Merkava were studied to see if they could fill the role but were … More Leclerc in 1/72 by Revell
(December 2006) The Titan was the United States’ second generation Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Development began in October 1955 before the first generation Atlas missiles had been test flown. The Titan had two stages and could deliver much heavier payloads of atomic weapons more accurately over greater distances. The first Titan was delivered in June … More Gemini-Titan in 1/144 by Real Space Models
