A Decent Lightning, At Last

The BAC Lightning we’ve been waiting for (October 2008) Many years ago, before many fine MoBsters were even born, I got this fixation on the English Electric Lightning. If there was ever an aeroplane that looked like it meant business with a capital B it was the Lightning. Nothing more than a couple of huge,…

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The Mystery that is ADC Grey

With the Matchbox McDonnell F-101, the Hasegawa Convair F-102 and F-106, lots of head scratching and lashings of grey paint (March 2008) Back in the mists of time when Hasegawa first released their Convair F-106 kit I thought it was the most magnificent looking aeroplane ever made. With its delta wing and slick fuselage it…

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North American F-100s in 1/72 by Revell and AMT

Many, many years ago I made the old Hasegawa F-100D that was marketed in the shops I went to as a Frog kit. Even then I was showing my Frankish interests and made it up in the markings of the Armee de l’Air. However, over the decades the kit started to show its age, the…

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Bloch 131 in 1/72 by Mach 2

This aeroplane was one of those that gave thee Armee de l’Air the bad reputation it had at the end of the Battle of France. It had been designed in the early 1930s as a multi-role aeroplane to fill reconnaissance and bombing roles and went on to equip seven reconnaissance groups at the beginning of…

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BAC Lightning F.1 in 1/72 by Trumpeter

I’m amazed to realize that after only a few months I’m almost half way through my project to make 22 Lightning models (although the plan has now puffed out to 23 or perhaps 24). I’m now starting to get the hang of how to overcome or ignore all the little problems with this Trumpeter kit…

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Avro Canada C-102 Jetliner in 1/144 by F-Rsin

The Canadians must have a thing for noses. When you go to the Canadian Aviation Museum just outside Ottawa you will find all kinds of interesting thing including the only surviving parts of two of the country’s most intriguing aeroplanes, a CF-105 nose mounted on a wall and a C-102 nose sitting quietly on the…

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The Curator’s Choice 029 – Italian Aircraft

Italian Aircraft Fiat CR.42 – Regianni Re.2000 – Aermacchi MB-326H Let’s take a wander around the gallery of aircraft of sundry nations. The idea of this gallery is to house the aircraft not made in the big aircraft manufacturing nations and the general rule is that if we get to more than about twenty aircraft…

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North American XB-70 in 1/72 by AMT

The battle between bombers and fighters defending their territory during World War II and in the early days of the Cold War led to rapid technological developments. During the war both sides had learned to their great cost that bombers could not fight off attacking fighters with guns (though they often discouraged attacks being presses…

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Lockheed Martin X-35A

For some reason that evades me and many other people the Australian Government has decided that the RAAF is going to be equipped with the Lockheed Martin F-35 when it finally enters service. If the government were to ask me – which seems unlikely – I’d tell them that the F-35 has been designed by…

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Leclerc in 1/72 by Revell

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 rejected. Then a…

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