There are only a handful of reasons why you would even think about making a model from this High Planes kit. You are dead keen to make all the aircraft flown by the RAAF and this is one that saw a lot of service as a trainer, and then in other roles, so you can’t…

I like the kits that Welsh Models are making these days. They are relatively simple but accurate and honest resin kits of 1/144 aircraft that you won’t find in the catalogues of other kit makers. They are not cheap but they fill niches that nobody else is filling. And for good reason too, they are…

To tell the story of this tank, I really need to digress and tell a couple of other tales first. During the September 1945 Berlin Victory Parade, the Soviets presented their latest toy, The JS-3. This was the latest in the line of Stalin heavy tanks featuring a 122mm gun. Conventional history would tell us…

For the whole of the 1920s Australia’s front line fighters were a handful of Sopwith Pups and SE5As that were given to it in 1919 by the British government. In 1929 the Australian government decided to upgrade the RAAF’s fighter force and ordered eight Bristol Bulldog fighters that arrived in 1930 and became the nation’s…

Long time readers may remember my Yakerschmitt, a totally fictional Me109 with an underslung turbojet, built for the sole purpose of confusing Luft46 fans. The trouble with creating fictional aircraft is that if you don’t do your research, you’re likely to recreate something that actually existed. These examples turned up as usual, after the project…

Eine Kleine Krautprojekt Celebrating a day off in the big smoke I wandered into Showcase Models to see what John had on the shelves. I came upon the AZ 1/72 Bucker 131 with conversion parts for the ‘Panzerbucker’. These consisted of four wing-mounted ‘Panzerfaust’ RPGs fired by a cable from the cockpit. About 150 such…

Krautprojekt 1/12 In response to the editor’s plea for copy the following will describe a model of one of the most extraordinary aircraft ever flown and an episode of suicidal courage on the part of its first and only pilot. In the autumn of 1944 things were looking bad for the Third Reich. Earlier that…

(Krautprojekt 2/11) History After a discussion with your editor we each decided to model ugly aircraft. He has a lot of silly French ones. The Ha 139 project arose because we each had a kit of the same aircraft at two different stages of its life – initially beautiful, then horribly defaced. Beginning in 1936…

Lifting the lid on a High Planes kit does not fill one with joy at this expression of the kit maker’s art, rather it creates a feeling of dread at having to make something coherent from the roughly hewn parts found in the box. The first impulse is to put the lid back on the…