Tag Archives: RAF
Swift maybe, but still not all there!
When the engineers at Supermarine (producer of the legendary Spiftire) tried to rescue their oh-so portly and pedestrian Attacker from utter mediocrity, they did so by adapting what was all the aeronautical rage at the time; swept wings and tricycle landing gear. While this may not sound like much of a stretch, it was, and […]
Two’s a Crowd
Unlike swimming, where it’s always good to go with a buddy, dogfighting is often better left to a single pilot in an appropriatley-sized aircraft. That was certainly proven to be the case by the Boulton Paul Defiant, one of two “turret fighters” put into service by the British in WWII. While it might seem cool […]
Vicker’s “Herculean” Tester
Testbed aircraft are always interesting thanks to their sometimes bizarre modifications. One example of a little-known testbed aircraft was the Vickers Type 289, which was a Wellesley bomber (itself not that well known today) adapted to test the Hercules two-row radial engine. In order to make sure that this important aircraft is not forgotten, I […]
Big Wing, Small Box!
To paraphrase the great Winston Churchill: “Never in the field of plastic modelling has so much wing been crammed into so small a box by so many different companies”. Both Matchbox, and later Revell, were able to take a plane with a wingspan TWICE that of a Spitfire and fit it into a box smaller […]
One or Two – It’s Up to You!
I have a thing for two-seat aircraft, especially conversions from one-seaters. Thankfully, while many companies ignore the trainer variants of so many planes, Matchbox did not! A perfect example of that is the 2-in-1 1/72 kit of the Hawker Hunter T.7/FGA.9. While it may be old and simple, it’s also somewhat rare, and it can […]
New Dog, Same old Tricks
The resurrection of Airfix held great promise, and many, including hardcore Airfix haters like myself, were intrigued with their newest releases. One such release was the bubbletopped Spitfire F.22, one of the last Spits. Unfortunately, while it looks nice, this is a new dog that has learned all the bad old tricks from Airfix’s very […]
Don’t Knock It Until You’ve Tri-ed It!
After that, you’re free to knock it around as much as you want! Check out the ancient (and best left forgotten) 1/72 Airfix Ford 5-AT Trimotor, painted up as the one impressed by the RAF in 1940!
The Sprue Lagoon 