I love it when a plane comes together!

[Clinton Huxley]

The legendary TSR-2

“ All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR-2 simply got the first three right. ”
 
— Sir Sydney Camm

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Easy-breezy.

[Thinking Aloud]

...
You mean you're painting the real thing? You'll need a lot of tins for that.

I did graduate from painting model trains to the real thing, so there's a precedent.

... but if you had storage space problems before, try fitting an entire 1:1 scale marshalling yard in the back garden.

I had to outbase.

[klr]

The legendary TSR-2

“ All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR-2 simply got the first three right. ”
 
— Sir Sydney Camm

Insert obligatory rant about Tony Benn, and whoever else was responsible for cancelling it ...

...
You mean you're painting the real thing? You'll need a lot of tins for that.

I did graduate from painting model trains to the real thing, so there's a precedent.

... but if you had storage space problems before, try fitting an entire 1:1 scale marshalling yard in the back garden.

I had to outbase.

I'm just 500 yards from the sea. Maybe I could arrange for a seaplane base to built there ...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm just 500 yards from the sea. Maybe I could arrange for a seaplane base to built there ...

Kaneohe Bay!

[klr]

I'm just 500 yards from the sea. Maybe I could arrange for a seaplane base to built there ...

Kaneohe Bay!

More like Galway Bay ... nothing so exotic.

I guess you would have found a few of these at Kaneohe Bay in WW II, although this is a post-war USAF OA-12 based at Elmendorf, Alaska.

[Ian]

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I guess you would have found a few of these at Kaneohe Bay in WW II, although this is a post-war USAF OA-12 based at Elmendorf, Alaska.

Hmmmm, don't see any.



Actually, they were assigned to ships, so they'd land in West Loch and taxi to the ramp on Ford Island.

[klr]

I can see a couple of Catalinas there ... that reminds me of a kit I have in my stash.

Also, it being the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, there are a number of PH-related new kits and re-releases this year. Looks like I'll finally get my hands on a good and cheap* kit of an early-war Zero.

*Cheap because I'd like at least half a dozen of them ... for the Emperor of course.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I can see a couple of Catalinas there ... that reminds me of a kit I have in my stash.

It was a Catalina base, there are a few other seaplanes there, but PBY was the rule.

Also, it being the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, there are a number of PH-related new kits and re-releases this year. Looks like I'll finally get my hands on a good and cheap* kit of an early-war Zero.

I had heard that mentioned.

*Cheap because I'd like at least half a dozen of them ... for the Emperor of course.

Don't make me move you to Wyoming.

[klr]

I can see a couple of Catalinas there ... that reminds me of a kit I have in my stash.

It was a Catalina base, there are a few other seaplanes there, but PBY was the rule.

Also, it being the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, there are a number of PH-related new kits and re-releases this year. Looks like I'll finally get my hands on a good and cheap* kit of an early-war Zero.

I had heard that mentioned.

There's a new kit of the P-40B as well, which will doubtless feature Welch and/or Taylor.

*Cheap because I'd like at least half a dozen of them ... for the Emperor of course.

Don't make me move you to Wyoming.

But it could be a bad day at Black Rock ...

[klr]

Speaking of flying boats, this was the largest one to see service in WW II:


I have this kit, but I don't think I'll be building it any time soon.

[klr]

Yesterday evening ... a 1974-vintage Matchbox Me 262, bought 20 years ago:





This evening ... one complete kit, ready for painting. Bombs to be added as a last step. Note the upper cannon ports are faired over, as the bomber version did not have these fitted. Not that the instructions would ever tell you such a thing ...



While the kit was OK topside, there was a lot of filler required on the ventral side ... this is where most of the time was spent:



Of course, I already have a state-of-the art Revell kit ready for painting, although this one is a fighter version, with air-to-air rockets fitted:





You'll hardly know the difference when they're both finished ...



Why did I even bother with the Matchbox kit? Because Der Führer demanded some jet bombers.

[Hermit]

I've been gluing 40 or so of these plastic things together. Does that count?

Hell, if you have to build it, it counts.

Cool in that case, behold my 10:1 model of a surfboard. I carved it out of a maple skirting-board offcut about 40 years ago.



When I was even younger, I built a few planes from kits. Among them were a B52, an X-15 rocket-plane and a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. I don't know what became of any of them.

As far as the Starfighter is concerned, the German air force bought something like 200 of them, and they became the butt of this joke:

Q: How do you get a Starfighter?
A: Buy a piece of land and wait.

It was a somewhat cruel joke. The crashes cost the lives of 110 pilots. I don't know if the attrition rate of the Luftwaffe during WWII was that high in percentage terms.

[klr]

...

When I was even younger, I built a few planes from kits. Among them were a B52, an X-15 rocket-plane and a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. I don't know what became of any of them.

After all these years, I still don't have a kit of the B-52, although I do have a kit of the even larger B-36. I have an X-15 kit, still unbuilt after 20 years or so.

As far as the Starfighter is concerned, the German air force bought something like 200 of them, and they became the butt of this joke:

Q: How do you get a Starfighter?
A: Buy a piece of land and wait.

It was a somewhat cruel joke. The crashes cost the lives of 110 pilots. I don't know if the attrition rate of the Luftwaffe during WWII was that high in percentage terms.

By mid-1944, the average (service) life expectancy of a new Luftwaffe fighter pilot was 8-30 days, at least if they were tasked with defending the Reich from Allied bombers.

But yes, the Starfighter was a bad move for Germany. Erich Hartmann (the WW II "Ace of Aces") was forced to resign in 1970 over his opposition to it.