Recent content by stona

Be careful not to confuse the 3./JG 21 and later 9./JG 54 devil's head with the very similar emblem of 2./JG 26 (before the colour was changed). People who should know better have done so :)

Here's something unusual for me, it's Russian, even if it's really American. It's a P-39 Q-30 Airacobra of 213 GIAP of the 22 GIAD (Guard Air Fighter Division) of the VVS in early 1945, when the white diagonal recognition marking (and white nose) were introduced. I don't know much about the VVS...

I took my car for a service today, knowing I had a slow puncture, and Audi tried to charge me £167.16 for this. I got it fixed at a local tyre place (shout out to Plume Tyres) for the princely sum of £23.50. I'm obviously not annoyed at a saving of £143.66, but at Audi. A lot of people would...

This story annoyed me today. "The remains of a Second World War pilot missing since he embarked from north Africa on a mission in a bomber jet on July 1943 have been discovered in a painstaking forensic investigation eight decades later. The B-25 Mitchell bomber departed Tunisia to attack the...

And surely the Germans had the fuels, they just couldn't build the engines to make the most of them. The reason they were running de-rated engines was not because of the fuels.

What if Galland came down in an English field in late August 1940? He had about twenty victories which can't be taken away but the rest of his illustrious career? His ruthless self promotion after the war? Etc., etc. None of that would have been possible while he kicked his heels for four and a...

Bruce Guthro of Scottish band Runrig has died at just 62 years-old. Bruce himself was a Canadian from Nova Scotia, so it seems quite appropriate that he enjoyed a career with a Scottish band. I did one tour with Runrig many years ago, somewhere around 2000. They enjoyed success in the UK and...

I took a swing at something outside my comfort zone, something Japanese. It's the A5M 'Claude' from the 1/32 and not exactly brilliant Special Hobby kit. I tried to get the yellowed aluminium dope finish for which these Japanese aircraft were known, but without overdoing it. This was as...

There has been much hullabaloo about the new(ish) Kotare 1/32 scale Spitfires, so I thought I'd build one. It's a very nice kit, well engineered and with a superb fit. It also comes with a very complete and well researched instruction booklet. For my money it's better than the Tamiya uber-kits...

Here's a completed 1/24 Spitfire. It's the new(ish) kit from Airfix which is very nice indeed, far better than the other offerings in this scale.

Well enough known for those of a certain age in the UK. I'd say both the Guess Who (pre-Robbie) and BTO are fixtures in the classic rock canon and on stations like Planet Rock. Another sad loss. I guess for people like me the musicians that I grew up listening to, and who are really not that...

It's terribly sad. I was trying to explain Beck's unique qualities to someone quite recently. In the end I just summed it up as nobody sounds like Beck, in fact nobody even tries to sound like Beck, whereas there are thousands who try to sound like all the other guitar greats (you can make your...

The patches were not applied for the pilot to see. They were applied for the ground crews to see. You would not have to climb onto a Spitfire wing to see the patch, unless you were severely vertically challenged. Aircraft were not likely to be contaminated whilst flying, they would be...

'Drummie Zeb', Angus Gaye, drummer and singer of English reggae band Aswad is dead. I knew Aswad back in the day, and worked with Brinsley's brother quite a bit in the 90s. Aswad's turn to lightweight 'Lovers Rock' was not to my taste, but was a good commercial decision...

My God, that is ugly.