follasha

I thought about that…but didn’t want to over do it…in the early days Safe seemed to polish/clean their aircraft 🤣 The transparencies are all from the kit, I used the masks provided with the kit and treated them afterwards with a bit of the old ‘future’ 😉

It’s fairly easy build, you need a razor saw to cut out all the resin bits, you also need to sand or fettle away at the cabin windows or the openings in the fuselage a little as the fit isn’t perfect. It’ll need some filler on some of the joints, particularly the fuselage otherwise it’s a good, fairly simple model. I added rotating props 😉

I've built the Fly 1/72 Bristol Freighter in Civvies...Its ZK-BEO, Straits Air Freight Express (SAFE Air) 2nd Bristol Freighter which was purchased from the RNZAF. The livery is the earlier Safe Air paint job from the early 1960s. The final pic you can almost hear (or is it physically feel 😄!) Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

I've tried to recreate the sense of a working Cessna 180, flying with New Zealand's Southern Scenic Airways during the 1960s. SSA operated out of Queenstown and serviced the lower South Island including Southern Lakes and Fjordland. I've completed my (Khee Kha) Cessna 180 as ZK-BUQ with packets of timber attached to the under-wing hard-points (stolen from an Airfix Bird Dog) as if she was flying these in to provide building materials back-country huts or maybe repair damage to walking tracks . Incidentally SSA later became merged with Mount Cook Airlines Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

Twins Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

I finally completed this model, it took a while to organise the white decaling Here is my Execuform Lockheed Electra built as ZK-BUT "Spirit of Tasman Bay" belonging to Trans-Island Airways (New Zealand) in the late 1950s. The build thread is here: 1I7A0511 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A0509 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A0543 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A0544 by Harry Follas, on Flickr

a few more inter-war types that served the RNZAF (makes an interesting size/shape comparison ) Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

This is the Kora kit in 1/72. Not too bad a build for a limited production Eastern European kit, not many hassles..JUST LOTS OF RIGGING...SIGH!!! Quite good detail though with resin and photoetch components. It makes up as a great inter-war RNZAF aircraft, I've built it as a very well used 2nd-hand (ex-RAF) pilot trainer used in NZ. Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

just be a little careful when trimming out the vacform bits, the plastic may have become slightly brittle 😉

It’s the 1/72 Special Hobby kit

They’re not too bad…the gear on the Lockheeds are spindly anyway…but hard to say whether they were moulded in the loaded or unloaded position 😉. Photos online show similar ‘ride heights’

I've been thinking of doing this one for some time...shame the kit has yellowed vac-form cockpit transparencies, otherwise it came out quite well This is a well known paint scheme for some...NC14999 has been seen in USA, NZ, UK and Europe Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

1944-45, South Pacific…4 of them were pressed into service flying supplies and personnel from NZ to pacific islands and the backline in the Solomons (hence no armament). Postwar the operation and aircraft were passed onto the new NZNAC (National Airways Corporation) and kept flying until early 1950s. here is a bit of the back story https://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/17382/wartime-rnzaf-sunderlands

I built this up and modified this build from the 1/72 Italeri Sunderland III kit. The aircraft has fared front and rear turrets and extra pax windows added. I've had quite a bit of fun with it, quite a bit of scratch-building including a generic front cabin with folding canvas seating. My subject aircraft is a well worn NZ4102 "Tokomaru" from the "Flying Boat Transport Flight" that has just commenced having its vertical tail stripped of camouflage (lots of photos show it flying around with bare tail feathers). 1I7A9705 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9739 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9737 by Harry Follas, on Flickr

I most recently flew in the right cockpit seat in a Goose in Alaska during 2018...yep, noisy but wonderful ! lovely sound of 2 roaring R-985s in full stereo! I'd have to say that a DHC Beaver would possibly rival it for noise and on tha similar topic the PBY Catalina is definitely louder and more damaging to the ears in the cabin due to the prop-zone (and super-sonic prop tips) occurring just behind the cockpit

Here's a converted 72nd Pavla Widgeon kit with scratch-built cowls for Continental IO-470s based on line drawings made from the full-sized aircraft. This one is in the 1970s paint scheme of Mount Cook Airlines who operated 5 of the type and a Grumman Goose based out of Auckland, New Zealand to the Hauraki Gulf islands and The Bay of Islands further to the north. Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

This model has had a long 'gestation'. The fuselage and tail feathers are based on a friend's 72nd vacform mold he created back in 1984. Combining injection molded kit parts from the related Embraer 121 Xingu (Amodel), here are the surprising results. I've finished the first 'prototype' build as ZK-ERU as flown by Eagle Air in NZ during the 1980s. thumbnail_1I7A9592 by Harry Follas, on Flickr thumbnail_1I7A9581 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9584 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9580 by Harry Follas, on Flickr the model build is here if anybody is interested...

some more progress, the livery is looking fairly good... Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

Thats the original Eagle Air Livery Steve, and thats what I'm thinking of doing...probably ZK-ERU

I've been inspired to create a model of the EMB-110 'Bandit'. Its surprising that no main-stream kit manufacturer has yet come up with an injection molded kit of this aircraft (although there is the shorter fuselage EMB-111 supposedly waiting in the wings with Sova/Amodel). Anyway, back to my build...This 1/72 model has its origins way back in 1984! A good friend of mine decided to build a vac-form model of the Bandeirante during the '80s and as there was no such offering commercially, decided to produce the molds for an EMB-110 himself. The original timber molds, being made in the days before computers, were based on 3-view drawings and up to 400x enlargement using photocopiers!! We recently came across his molds again and I felt inspired to have a go at creating myself an Embraer 110 'Bandit'. Through research, I was aware that the later EMB 121 Xingu was actually closely related to the 'Bandit', in fact it shares engines, wings ( slightly shortened) and landing gear. I was also aware that Amodel had produced an injection molded kit of the aircraft. With this in mind I set out to use the '121 kit as a significant donor of parts to my build, which now only required a new fuselage and tail plane. We ran these components of my friend's vacform molds and incorporated them into the 'Bandit'. 1I7A9499 by Harry Follas, on Flickr The wings needed extending and the ride height of the '121 nose gear needed changing, as did the change from a dual nose wheel to a single wheel (from my parts bin). The cockpit interior for my 'Bandit' are all '121 components, including instrument decals (everything fit the 'Bandit' fuselage well). Scratch-built cabin floors and bulkheads were incorporated into my new fuselage, however I haven't put any cabin interior in this build, the interior is painted black. Cabin windows consist of plastic strip glued to the inside of the fuselage walls. Cockpit glazing is provided care of recycled clear 'superglue' vacform packaging, taking advantage of curved sections of the packaging to take up the curved nose section contours. Here is the progress on my build thus far, it looks pretty good for a prototype , however I thing the side windows in the cockpit could be better shaped. Any changes to these windows will have to be in a subsequent build I think Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9437 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9493 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9494 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9490 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9500 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9492 by Harry Follas, on Flickr

Thanks for all the positive praise Yes, I didn't but should've widened the fuselage as well like you suggested, that's one of my post-build regrets about building this model...maybe I'll do it next time, or perhaps somebody will come along with an updated more realistic Friendship offering 😆

Thanks, The F.27 is actually a very modified Italeri model. I dropped the rear fuselage 6mm to improve the overall shape, deepened the fuselage by adding 0.8mm strip along the bottom and incorporated the chine line thats at floor level but not actually molded by either Esci/Italeri or Airfix. I also re-shaped the engine nacelles to better reflect the actual aircraft. f27 mod by Harry Follas, on Flickr IMG_7755 by Harry Follas, on Flickr I've since built a modified airfix F.27 as an original non-radar nose aircraft delivered to NAC, it makes an interesting shape comparison IMG_7754 by Harry Follas, on Flickr Untitled by Harry Follas, on Flickr

...gradual improvements to the livery...still needs some white printing for the rego on the tail and some smaller scripts thumbnail_1I7A9873 by Harry Follas, on Flickr thumbnail_1I7A9856 by Harry Follas, on Flickr

some progress on the paint job...lots of research, lots of masking...not your typical polished metal L-10!! 1I7A9677 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9671 by Harry Follas, on Flickr 1I7A9681 by Harry Follas, on Flickr

I had sufficient resources to start this one so I decided to be brave and 'cut plastic'! The model has progressed well with lots of bits from the parts bin being contributed. I've done an interior based on William Brothers Boeing 247 pax seats and pilot seats from the scrap bin, the instrument panel is mostly scratchbuilt with wire control wheels. Landing gear is mainly scratchbuilt off drawings and engines are resin aftermarket components. I have just installed the propellers which I think may be spares from a PM Beech C-45. Here are a few progress shots along the way... sides by Harry Follas, on Flickr interior by Harry Follas, on Flickr cockpit by Harry Follas, on Flickr assembled by Harry Follas, on Flickr wheels by Harry Follas, on Flickr thumbnail_1I7A9459 by Harry Follas, on Flickr thumbnail_1I7A9464 by Harry Follas, on Flickr thumbnail_1I7A9462 by Harry Follas, on Flickr