Ford T fueling truck, Classic Plane Diorama Resin 1/72nd

Yet another field vehicle to pose with 1/72 models, this time a fuel truck.

This resin kit by Classic Plane Diorama Resin comes with the parts bagged in three compartments. The cast is smart and refined, and removal of the parts from their pouring blocks easy. The detail is very good and goes to depict for example the bolts on the wheel hub, the undercarriage, the exhaust and many other minute things. The break-down is sensible and assembly proceeds without major hitches. My only two nitpickings:

a) As it invariably happens with extremely delicate resin parts, a few came already bent and/or broken in the bags. The curse of delicate resin.

b) The instructions are poorly printed, there is no parts map, exploded view or assembly guide. The photos are of bad quality, grainy, and barely serve as a guide. You may struggle to realize what goes where.

Other than that, this kit can be built into an interesting and detail-filled model, useful as a complement for "ambience" airplane model photography.

I could find no other photo of this specific vehicle on a long search through the Net.

The manufacturer states that it can be safely assumed that the vehicle was used on airfields (as well as its other common fueling uses) from 1916, through the 20's and even 30's. I do not find any reason to disagree, having spent hours looking at airfield vehicles and seen all sorts of different arrangements, brands, and adaptations.

It took me a couple hours to separate and clean the parts, an hour to assemble the main components, l/2 hour to paint and another 1/2 hour for final assembly. Decals were added in about 20 minutes.

Any modeler with some reasonable experience can add this little darling to his or her airfield in a weekend provided some skill and dedication (and no house chores!).
Decals by Arctic Decals, and thanks to my dear friend for the gift of the kit! It will be put to good photographic use.

In this image I already assembled the main components

 Adding a couple things that broke in transit:

 Painting of the components:

 Addition of MV lenses to the front lights:

 And ready to pose with contemporary builds:

Short S.1 Cockle, Avis 1/72

Well, another wonderful little kit by Avis of an appealing subject rendered in great detail, with sound engineering and molding, which makes for a pleasurable build in all departments. 

The step-by-step build is here:

 https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2019/08/short-s1-cockle-civil-seaplane-avis.html

Even as a short-run kit, these last civil releases by Avis have raised that bar in that category high up.  As you can see, I built three of their recent kits in a row, something I seldom do, but I was enchanted by the subjects and the quality-price ratio. The care on the details, the good instructions, clear and at a readable size, the good decal sheet, the printed clear parts, the accessories included, what a delight!

As I said elsewhere: It warms the cockles of my heart!

Bristol Type 72 Racer, modified Avis 1/72nd. injected kit

Another civil jewel from Avis. Good detail, very smart engineering, care taken on achieving small and less intrusive sprue gates -unlike some short-run kits that have thick gates-, thought put into the breakdown to avoid sinkholes, nice interior detail, attractive an unusual type, reasonably priced, surely a superb subject choice.

These last releases by Avis are indeed remarkable upgrades on the short-run theme, and if it's true that there are not snap-together, the level of detail and care in the engineering and molding makes them the best so far I have build in that category, needless to say the subjects are wonderful which for me makes for a complete modeling happiness package.

The step-by-step build is here:

 https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2019/08/bristol-type-72-racer-avis-172nd.html

And so here it is, a racing oddity that promised much but did live up to the expectations. Enclosed engine, retractable landing gear, monoplane, monocoque fuselage, all very advanced choices for 1922 no doubt, that unfortunately due to other problems was not to be the winner the designers and builders thought would be.

In any case, who can resist the plumped charm of this eccentric aviation one-off?

The kit needs some touches here and there, but it is a noble kit, and I had fun building it, not to mention looking at it!

Well done Avis, for more!

I would say take it a bit further and give us a piggy-like Vickers Vulcan, or a De Havilland DH18 or 34, or a Westland Limousine. But if you want to stay in line with the current trend, I would take a Helmy Aerogypt any day!