The Curator’s Choice 040 – The final generation piston airliners

The final generation piston airliners Boeing 377 Stratocruiser – Lockheed L1049G Super Constellation – SNCASE Armagnac I think there’s something sad about the final generation of piston engined airliers. For the most part they were the culmination of several decades spent working our what was the best way to design and build a large commercial…

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Vought XF5U in 1/72 by Hasegawa

(Please tell me I’m getting better at this.) The year 1995 seems like several centuries ago and it is, in one way. That year I finally managed to get my hands of the Hasegawa 1/72 kit of the Vought XF5U-1, probably lurking at the back of one of those old fashioned model shops that you…

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Grumman F8F-2 in 1/72 by Monogram

In years long past I built the Monogram 1/72 Grumman F7F and F8F kits and loved them. They are not complex kits but they go together very neatly and look the part. The Monogram F8F kit was first released in 1970 and has since been re-released by Hasegawa and Revell. Since then Frog, Sword and…

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Gloster Javelin FAW.9 in 1/72 by Frog

We’re all allowed to have our biases and to be truthful about it: I never liked the look of the Gloster Javelin very much. It was a big fat aeroplane with big fat wings that looked about as capable of doing anything useful in a military sense as a loaf of bread. I was wrong,…

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Additions to the Museum’s Collection – 040, 27 November 2022

Additions to the Public Galleries Bernard 74 in 1/72 by Adrien Roy Douglas A2D-1 in 1/72 by Mach 2 Gloster Javelin FAW9 in 1/72 by Frog McDonnell F-4B Phantom II in 1/72 by Fujimi McDonnell Douglas RF-4C in 1/72 by Italeri Additions to the Airbus.A320 Special Display Airbus A.320 (Strategic Airlines) in 1/144 by Revell…

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The Curator’s Choice 039 – French Fighters 1935-1945

French Fighters 1935-1945 Caudron 714 – Dewoitine 520 – Morane Saulnier 406 This week’s The Curator’s Choice is going to be shorter than usual because it covers aircraft that we looked at only a couple weeks ago. They were French Fighters from the period around the Battle of France that had served with foreign air…

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Confessions of an AMS survivor

There is life after superdetailing and weathering (December 2020) It’s like this, I keep having these urges. It’s as if some strange alien entity has got into the back of my mind and keeps pushing and pushing, wanting me to do things that I don’t want to do. Dirty, crazy, unimaginable things. I think it…

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MiG-19S (Farmer-C) in 1/72 by Kovozavody Prosteov

The MiG-19 (with the NATO reporting name ‘Farmer’) was the first Soviet designed and built supersonic fighter and the world’s first mass produced supersonic fighter. It was a development of the earlier MiG-17 powered by two jet engines and more streamlined to make use of the additional power. The prototype first flew in May 1952…

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The Curator’s Choice 038 – Bizjets

Bizjets Piaggio PD.808 – Aero Jet Comander – Hawker Siddeley HS125-1B These little jets go by a few different names; business jets, corporate jets, executive jets and more. Their main role is to carry a handful of passengers at the same speed and similar distances, and probably greater comfort, than standard jet airliners. They have…

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Additions to the Museum’s Collection – 038, 13 November 2022

Additions to the Public Galleries Airbus A.330-300 (Qantas) in 1/1444 by Revell Bell UH-1H in 1/72 by Italeri Dewoitine D.376 in 1/72 by Azur Handley Page Victor B.2 in 1/72 by Matchbox Kawanishi N1K1 (Rex) in 1/48 by Tamiya Kawanishi N1K1-J (George) in 1/48 by Tamiya Nakajima Ki-44 (Tojo) (Prototype) in 1/32 by Hasegawa Nakajima…

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North American L-17A Navion in 1/72 by Valom

The experts are not quite sure why North American designed and built the Navion. Some think it may have been as a way of keeping together the team that had designed the Mustang by giving it something to do before designing North American’s new jet fighters. Others think that it might have been North American’s…

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