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Roland Beamont once described the RAF as The Best Flying Club in the World. I believe he wasn't the first to use the phrase about the interwar air force. I take the liberty to extend it To the FAA too, as well as certain civilian aircraft that take my fancy, as I build up a collection of representative models of those golden years when aviation came of age. All the way from nineteen-hundred-and-sixty-eight (when I was eleven years old) may I present the FROG Blackburn Shark for our pleasure and delight. I don't know exactly when I'll be building it as there are other projects on the playground as I type and the Shark has not actually arrived here yet. But we have plenty of time, don't we? Here's a brief introduction to the type from Wikipedia The Blackburn Shark was a carrier-borne torpedo bomber designed and built by the British aviation manufacturer Blackburn Aircraft. It was originally known as the Blackburn T.S.R., standing for torpedo-spotter-reconnaissance, in reference to its intended roles. The Shark was the last of Blackburn's biplane torpedo bombers.[1] The prototype Shark performed its maiden flight on 24 August 1933, the first production aircraft was introduced to service during the following year. It was operated by the Fleet Air Arm, Royal Canadian Air Force, Portuguese Navy, and the British Air Observers' School. By 1937, the Shark was already approaching obsolescence and replacement by the more capable Fairey Swordfish began during the following year. Despite this, numerous aircraft continued to be operated during the Second World War, largely being confined to secondary roles away from the front lines, such as training and target tug duties. Despite this, Sharks were repeatedly deployed in frontline roles during events such as the Dunkirk Evacuation and the Japanese invasion of British Malaya. During 1945, the final Sharks were withdrawn from service.

I've often wondered what HobbyBoss's easy assembly kits were like and when I conceived an interest in the interwar RAF and bought these ... ...handsome looking decals, the Holly Bogg 'RAF Gladiator' seemed just the kit to hang some pretty colours on. So I bought a couple. That's the wing/lower fuselage dry-fitted to the upper fuselage. Like Ernie Wise's wig, you can't see the join. Oh, there it is! As you see there's about one cm that might need a smear of filler immediately aft of the wing root. Or maybe not, if I'm lucky with the glue. There's an example of the surface detail on this kit made for beginners to throw together. Not at all bad, as far as I'm concerned. OK, the gun is overscale, but that's so that it doesn't break off immediately when the kids (or myself) are playing with it. It's also moulded integrally with the wing so at least it points in the right direction. Here's one of the fuselage guns. That's about the right size I think. I put the hole on but it was too tiny to do a proper drilling out, by me anyway. I did manage to drill the hole in the 40mm cannon under the wings. It was a struggle since it was such a foggy day, but the plastic is beautiful to work with. It cuts easily but is also strong and hard enough to last and to take detail. The plastic is thick too. Horribly so for the rear of an engine cowling. Ew, narsty! But they made this on the cheap for the kids. No expensive slide moulding or difficult to assemble multi part cowling means that the cowl can't decrease in diameter after the mid point like the barrel shaped originals. Honny Bodd pot the extra plastic on the outside so it's an easy job to sand it into shape. After and before shot. It's not perfect because I was in a hurry and didn't want to damage the rocker cover blisters but it's better and it's my own work. There are many Hoppy Boxx Glads but this one is mine... The engines are moulded into the cowling. Oh dear no fins! As if you could see the fins in the shadows from 72 feet away! That's good enough for me and with a bit of careful painting it will be OK. The one on the left has the two cutouts in the rim of the collector ring where the bullets pass through the engine. I added that little detail because it was easy and makes it mine again. That's as far as I've taken the cockpit so far. It's really small and there's a lid to go on of course, so I wont be doing much in there. You can see the insty panel so I'll paint that black. You can see the place where the gun breeches aren't fitted so I'll add some black rectangles. I've thinned the coaming down and rounded off the seat and I'll put some seatbelts in. I wont add a spade grip to the control column - too fiddly in 1/72 for me. And then it was teatime and an hour had been passed rather joyfully. I think these kits are great. Thank you Hippy Bull, thank you.

The Hobby Boss range of easy assembly kits look like toys in the box art but they build up quickly and easily, even these biplanes, and I'm very happy with how a pair of them turned out for me. This is a 3 Squadron aircraft, the second one to be finished. The rigging is fishing line but it's not essential. The kit is strong enough to stay together without wires. It does add a certain something though. The Hobby Boss decals were not used. This set from Kits World was brilliant. Strong enough for multiple adjustments yet laying down almost as good as paint with just a touch of micro set and sol. The blue one is a 72 Squadron kite. That was one of the squadrons on which I served, though we had moved on from Gladiators by my time. 🙂 I'm building a collection of interwar aircraft in 1/72. After decades of larger scale models it's nice to be able to complete a build in a week without stressing out. The build log is HERE Just three silver machines done so far, the one at the back is an Airfix Hawker Demon from 1968 that I built last Christmas in the Blitzenbuild GB. (The Demon's build log is HERE) There will be many more following. Look out for the tabs...

Welcome to the inaugural build of a series of 1/72 aircraft models celebrating 'The Best Flying Club in the World', the Royal Air Force between the wars. The first in the series will be built "on the double laddie!" Why? It's CHRISTMAAAAS everyone and this is the 2023 Blitzbuild.

Hello, I built this in 24 hours over four days in the Xmas Blitzenbuild. I give that as my excuse for all of the defects caused by rushing it so much. 🙂 I did find time to install an interior of sorts, improve the 'canvas effect' and rig the beast (though not fully). It was a fun build which led me to conclude that I'd rather take my own sweet time. 😁 It's actually silver but appears a pale gold due to my warm indoor lighting, sorry. The mould for that Lewis gun was made in 1957 for the Hart kit. It's good enough for me! For a 'How-To' on rigging see lower down the page. Aftermarket decals were needed. This set was printed in 1990 and was less than perfect but at least you cant see the silvering. 😁 The Lewis looks ready for bed. Aliminium doped fabric is Tamiya Flat Aluminium. The shiny front end is Vallejo Modelcolor Chrome which is shinier when not blown up to 5x lifesize so that you can see the grain. Laminated prop is just a painting trick. Many modellers use colours that contrast too much. I took my car exhaust as a colour guide for this one. The spinner, tail and wheels bear the colour red to indicate that this is an 'A' Flight aircraft. Yellow = B and Blue = C The old kit has revived my interest in aircraft modelling after a couple of years off aviation and I've already acquired a mini-stash of other 1/72 kits of RAF/RN interwar aircraft which I hope you will see here in the coming months and years. Edit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's a couple of better photos of the scratchbuilt interior which took 5 precious hours of the allowed 24. 😱