(June 2021) The Douglas XA2D looks a lot like the earlier piston engined Douglas AD Skyraider and was supposed to be an attack fighter to fly off the US Navy’s escort carriers. These carriers were too small for the new generation of pure jet aircraft so a turboprop engine was ordered instead. It actually … More Douglas A2D in 1/72 by Mach 2
Here’s another of Zvezda’s 1/144 Airbus A.320s, this time in the special Air New Zealand livery of ‘Airline to Middle Earth’ that ZK-OJA was decorated in the period around 2004. The decals come from PAS who make some very nice decals of all kinds of desirable airliners. I was not planning to make this particular … More Models for June 2021
By way of introduction. The evening activities around here involve some tv watching, mostly streaming from Netflix. I thought I’d make some notes occasionally on some of what we watch so I don’t forget it all completely Blackhat is a movie that appeared on Netflix after having been around for a while. They must … More Netflix Notes
(April 2021, originally in ANZAPA 320) For my sins – and they must have been serious infractions for me to be doing this – I’ve spent the past three or four weeks trawling the newszines that have been scanned and saved on the Fanac.org website. There are an awful lot of them. There … More Trawling old Newszines
(May 2021) Introduction The following was written just before the Covid 19 lock-down arrived in Victoria. Bruce Gillespie published it in an issue of SF Commentary but I have not placed it here yet because Bruce did not use the pictures that I wanted to use, and I wanted to make sure that Stephen was … More Stephen Campbell at the Warrnambool Art Gallery
(May 2021) Another French Beauty On the basis of a couple of rather unfortunate French bombers made during the interwar period all French aeroplanes made during that period have been dubbed ‘ugly’ by the great unwashed. What would then know? Not all French aeroplanes are Amiot 143s, Potez 540s or even Farman 220s. And … More Bernard 74 in 1/72 by Adrien Roy
The Airbus A320 production line continues and here is the latest model, the Zvezda 1/144 A.320 in the livery of Virgin Australia. It is the same airliner as the two A.320s I finished last month, registered VH-VNB and this time flown by Virgin Australia in 2019 after it took over ownership of TigerAir. Like most … More Models for May 2021
While rummaging around in the hidden recesses of my computer I came across this article that I put together in June 2001. It is about how the Australian civil aviation industry came to have what was called the ‘Two Airline Policy’ which controlled the development of Australian air transport for four decades from the beginning … More For Whom the Cash Register Rings – the origins of Australia’s ‘Two Airline Policy’
‘On The Bench’ is the oldest and most enjoyable – for me – scale modelling podcast. I like the chat between other podcasts out there but I identify with the way in which the three Australians banter seems to me to convey the Australian character in a relaxed and friendly way. But that’s not why … More In The Box
When you listen to or watch any of the modelling podcasts or live streams one of the questions that comes up fairly often is about tools. ‘What is your favourite tool’ or ‘what tools do you recommend for a starting modeller’, that sort of thing. I hadn’t really thought about it much. Over … More Top Ten Tools
