"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh
Monday, May 13, 2019
Yeah, that was definitely intended for me
I've always been aware of the national insignia on military aircraft, but couldn't have told you five minutes ago they're called "roundels". Here's an informative and amusing article on the roundels of the world.
6 comments:
bruce
said...
Getting the roundel transfer properly centred on to the assembled model plane used to be the hardest make or break thing.
Bruce: You've just brought back a piece of my childhood that I had totally forgotten! And you're absolutely right about the challenge of getting those things properly centered.
Yeah, putting on the decals was what I looked forward to the most, even though I screwed up a lot of them before I got the hang of it. The decals were the finishing touch and could make, or break, the whole effort to build a respectable model plane. My favorite was a P-38. I kept that one until I went off to college.
And I used to know they were called roundels, but if you had asked me a few minutes ago what one was, I probably would have struggled with the answer. I blame old age! :)
During my 1953-1960 years in the RAAF we flew with three different roundels 1. The original RAF copy with a red circle 2. Red circle replaced with a red kangaroo standing tall on its haunches like a meerkat having a slow look round 3. The current one with the leaping kangaroo. It was the trend in those days. The RCAF changed to a red maple leaf, the RNZAF to a red kiwi. A lot has changed since those days but Elizabeth II is still the Queen of Australia, Canada and New Zealand hence the R for Royal in our defence forces names.
In high school and a little after, I was a very busy plastic model airplane builder. I even made simple, but detailed dioramas for the models' bases. I got pretty good at getting the decals right, and I spent hours upon hours painting and detailing the models, even scratch-building extra details with left-over parts from other kits (kit-bashing, I think it was called back then). I even had photos of two of mine published in Fine Scale Modeller magazine. When I became too busy trying to make a living for such diversions was about the time etched-brass super-detail kits were becoming available. I still have about a half-dozen (fairly expensive) kits I never had time to start.
I did a P-40 that I was proud of, but I also did a Don Prudhomme funny car that I really screwed up. My first model was a demolition derby car, all beat up. My Dad looked at my purchase and shook his head, no doubt regretting his choice of sons, but he helped me with it.
6 comments:
Getting the roundel transfer properly centred on to the assembled model plane used to be the hardest make or break thing.
Great article.
Bruce: You've just brought back a piece of my childhood that I had totally forgotten! And you're absolutely right about the challenge of getting those things properly centered.
Yeah, putting on the decals was what I looked forward to the most, even though I screwed up a lot of them before I got the hang of it. The decals were the finishing touch and could make, or break, the whole effort to build a respectable model plane. My favorite was a P-38. I kept that one until I went off to college.
And I used to know they were called roundels, but if you had asked me a few minutes ago what one was, I probably would have struggled with the answer. I blame old age! :)
During my 1953-1960 years in the RAAF we flew with three different roundels
1. The original RAF copy with a red circle
2. Red circle replaced with a red kangaroo standing tall on its haunches like a meerkat having a slow look round
3. The current one with the leaping kangaroo.
It was the trend in those days. The RCAF changed to a red maple leaf, the RNZAF to a red kiwi.
A lot has changed since those days but Elizabeth II is still the Queen of Australia,
Canada and New Zealand hence the R for Royal in our defence forces names.
In high school and a little after, I was a very busy plastic model airplane builder. I even made simple, but detailed dioramas for the models' bases. I got pretty good at getting the decals right, and I spent hours upon hours painting and detailing the models, even scratch-building extra details with left-over parts from other kits (kit-bashing, I think it was called back then). I even had photos of two of mine published in Fine Scale Modeller magazine. When I became too busy trying to make a living for such diversions was about the time etched-brass super-detail kits were becoming available. I still have about a half-dozen (fairly expensive) kits I never had time to start.
I did a P-40 that I was proud of, but I also did a Don Prudhomme funny car that I really screwed up. My first model was a demolition derby car, all beat up. My Dad looked at my purchase and shook his head, no doubt regretting his choice of sons, but he helped me with it.
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