Model aircraft builder and designer Warren Russell, of Bluff, holds a 1/6th scale Cessna aircraft from his collection.
Each model aircraft Warren Russell makes has the head and shoulders of a tiny pilot sitting at the helm.
“You can’t fly a plane without a pilot,” the Bluff man muses.
The little pilot has sunglasses, a helmet, and a focused expression on his face. He is, without a doubt, one of the most important details of a model aircraft.
Model aircraft builder Les Greer of Invercargill with his Messerschmitt 109, a 1/6th scale model powered by a 10cc engine capable of 120kmh.
Overlooking the waters of Foveaux Strait, Russell’s workshop looks more like a model store.
Small bags filled with parts, screws and nails sit neatly on a revolving display. There is a group of colourful plane wings stacked against a wall. A plan is tacked to one of the walls. And on a bench a pilot waits patiently in a partially built plane waiting for it to take flight.
Russell has always had a love of planes, ever since he was a little boy growing up next to the aerodrome in Masterton.
Model aircraft builder Les Greer of Invercargill with his Messerschmitt 109, a 1/6th scale model powered by a 10cc engine capable of 120kmh.
He would watch in admiration as planes flew over his house.
He began building scale-model aircraft about 1948. Things have changed somewhat since then.
Each part is readily available at a moment’s notice and some models take as little as five hours to complete.
Model aircraft
Article source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/76320673/model-aircraft-building-takes-flight-in-southland
