First is the Minicraft 1/144 Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina painted up in the scheme of one of the five flying boats that Qantas Empire Airways used to fly the ‘Double Sunrise’ service from Perth in Western Australia to Sri Lanka during World War II. The kit itself is not a difficulty apart from filling in the holes in the fuselage where the undercarriage goes, the challenge is in finding the camouflage and markings for the Qantas Catalinas. The DK Decals set for the 1/48 scale Catalina is a good place to start.
I don’t know where I got this 1/144 kit of the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 from but I thought it would be a simple and quick build. Oh no, you wouldn’t believe how much trouble this little bag of resin was. It seems to have been a limited run kit from Matuo Kasuten but the resin is not easy to work with and the undercarriage is particularly fragile. I also wonder how accurate this kit is because details about the real thing are still obscure, but it looks the part from the pictures that are available.
From the Time Vault
This 1/72 Matchbox kit of the Focke Wulf Fw190A-4 was among the earliest of the Matchbox kits and released in 1972. Since then there have been many more kits of the Fw190 published, most of them more accurate and detailed. But that’s the passage of time for you.
The German company Huma made precise kits of quite a few obscure German aeroplanes in its time and this is one, the Henschel Hs132. Back when I made this none of the modern detailing and weathering techniques has been invented so it is a little primitive. I see that RS Models now have a Hs132 among their offerings, which might be an interesting acquisition.
The Airfix 1/72 Roland C.II dates from the 1960s and is still the only option available if you want to make this model. Fortunately the kit does not show its age as much as most other kits made in that ancient era do.
This Airfix 1/72 SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1 is also an ancient kit, dating from the early 1980s. It’s not a bad kit but there are other and probably better kits available these days, but the wrap around grey and green scheme is always going to be a classic.
