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The Best Kits Are The Surprise Ones
Either the ones that are given to you on birthdays and holidays or the acquisitions from abandoned stashes. The fact that they are an uncontrolled occurrence doesn’t lessen their value; it actually enhances it. There is a sense of surprise that you don’t get wandering the shelves of your usual hobby shop. Come to that,…
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The Search For New Plastic
Are you at an impasse? Have you built yourself out of a hobby? Are you standing in the hobby shop but not feeling the buzz? Relax – it happens to all of us one time or another. The people who have a lot of spare hobby money to burn have it happen a lot more…
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The Dwindling Stash
I am astonished to be writing this – my stash of 1:72 scale model kits is practically gone. I’m down to three and one gets done in a fortnight. Unless the wholesalers deliver some of the 2026 releases I will be forced to turn my attentions to another genre. Fortunately I have good projects in…
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You Can Save Yourself Into The Bin
Or the poorhouse. The first comes about when you decide to buy raw materials to bypass the commercial products. If you have been used to using a rattle can for spraying undercoat or varnish, you can replace this consistent and successful method with a single-action airbrush, little pots of clear lacquer, and a great deal…
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Tupolev Tu-2 – Part Four – A Straight Bat
And a fair wicket. This Tupolev Tu-2 WWII bomber eventually got a NATO designation: ” Bat “. It seems to have been exported all over the place after it was second-line for the VVS. The Communist Chinese got some and there are preserved copies in their air museum – presumably Hobby Boss were able to…
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Tupolev Tu-2 – Part Three – No Fill Nowhere
Watching a friend struggle with a small-run Czech model of a P-38 Lightning has been a sobering experience. Every corner of the model as it has been constructed from tiny sub-assemblies has been filled with white plastic putty. I don’t know which one he is using, but I hope it is economical. The mutterings have…
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Tupolev Tu-2 -Part Two – The Modern Mould
Whoever makes the plans, designs, and moulds for Hobby Boss is brilliant. The kits they have put on the shelf can be simple or complex, but even in the case of the less expensive ones there is a sense of purpose and level of finish that many other makers could well copy. The fact that…
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Tupolev Tu-2 – Part One – Long On The Shelves
This model of the Tupolev TU-2 light bomber by Hobby Boss Has been seen on Perth shelves for a long time. Whether it was ignored because it was seen as too simple – a snap-kit – or too obscure remains to be seen. It is actually a technological gem The kit design breaks the fuselage…
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Promoting A Hobby Shop
I visit two hobby shops regularly – another two every six months – and a couple more not at all. The chosen ones are close at hand when I am at home or coming from my weekly club meeting. The occasional ones are out of the way but rewarding for small items. The rejects are…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 