Welcome to my new blog. The focus of this blog will be on scale modelling. There'll be photos of my completed models, and articles relating to aviation.

This is a model of a Lockheed Vega. It's an AMT 1/48 scale kit. The markings and paint scheme are fictional, although the registration code, N105, was from a real aircraft. It was piloted by Wiley Post in many aviation firsts. Among other things, Wiley Post discovered the jet stream, and set speed records for round-the-world flights.

The Vega was a plywood aircraft made by the Lockheed company beginning in 1927, the year of Charles Lindberg's translantic flight in a specially built Ryan aircraft, the NYP, and called the Spirit of St. Louis. Whereas Lindberg's NYP was a conventional metal frame and fabric construction, the Vega had a plywood monocoque fuselage and wing. The aircraft had a very smooth surface which helped to reduce friction. A metal engine cowl and wheel spats were later added to further reduce friction.