Back at Gaydon motor museum again for the second time this year, but not for cars or trains. No, this time it's great big model aircraft. It was, as expected, amazing. Most amazement stemmed from the 1/4 scale A-10 "Warthog" kit.
Laser cut in liteply, the model was displayed slotted together without any glue. It might not have flown like that but it sure looked impressive with a 14 foot wingspan.
This is a KIT. You could go and buy it. Not from a shop obviously, but from a specialist supplier. If jets don't spin your rotors, then another company offered several "birds" including a Spitfire in several variants.
To fit the model out, you'd need one of the many traders supplying radio bits and engines. Scale pilots looked fun too - a couple of companies make really details replicas. I was fascinated by Real Model Pilots 3D printed figures which are bigger than Action Men but weight hardly anything. They aren't cheap but as the printing can take almost a day, I suppose the machine is tied up for a long period. They will even design a miniature you to fly your plane.
Being large models, most are very highly detailed. Despite this, they all fly so any work has to take into account weight and strength. You can't lob in lumps of whitemetal here.
Pictures speak louder than words here. Even if you don't like aeroplanes, I took some shots of rally cars too. So there is something for everyone over at my Flickr collection.
In some of your close-up pictures, it's hard to appreciate the scale. Is there something like a beer bottle or a slice of British Standard Chocolate Cake you could include in each shot as a clue?
ReplyDeleteThis article ran in my daily paper a few weeks ago and boggled me with the idea of hiring firemen more or less off the street corner. See http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/business/a-boy-who-played-with-trains.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0. Could the same thing have happened in the UK?
Good point. It can be a bit like being in a land of the giants so the scale isn't obvious. The Warthot was around 14 foot wingspan. The Red Arrow is a 1/4 scale so around 12 foot span. ]
ReplyDeleteFantastic article - I'll link to it from MREmag on Wednesday.Thanks.