Category: Collecting
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Do You Deserve Your Fate?
And if you don’t, but get it anyway, who is responsible? Every scale model kit that ever went into a box or bag was put there by people who hoped for something. They aspired to money, admiration, respect, or grudging acceptance. Like a marriage, really, but with sprue trees. Few of us got a decal…
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Do Not Marry A Hobbyist
Advice for everyone – not restricted to age or gender. If you are about to marry a hobbyist, pause and look around – around their house or room or desk. Is there open space or is every surface covered by ” something in progress:? Be aware that if this is the case, nothing may be…
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If You Are Not The Target Buyer
Should you still build the kit? Look at the hobby shop shelves and identify the little-kid model. Now search for the advanced-rich-expert one. Note that they are both about the same price…Ha Ha Ha… Apart from the economics, however, there is a differential in targeting. The little 1:72 or 1:144 kit is often intended for…
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The Constant Search For The Ultimate Kit
Also known as the Styrene Itch. As soon as you get your first Airfix Starter Kit you are assailed by two desires: that of building it and buying another. Both of these are legitimate and in time you can succeed. However, as you do the urges mount, the pressure increases, and the pace quickens. Soon…
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The Compulsory Stash
Being tied to a plastic sprue tree… We sometimes encounter stashes that have gone from small to sensible to moderate to toxic. There is no actual number, but when the available storage space is exceeded and the floor starts being crowded out, you know that something is amiss. This is also the case for commercial…
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RAF Puma – Part One – Vintage Helo
Another Airfix Vintage Classic on the shelf – don’t mind if I do… Yikes – Scalemates says this kit was first released in 1973 and has been steadily re-released with different artwork ever since. It is like a bus on a roundabout – just wait to get aboard until it next circles past… I am…
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Scale Model Envy
Sin in miniature. I rarely give way to envy at the scale model exhibition – even in the competition hall when most of the entries are far better than I could do. But I did come over all goosey when I saw this model of a Cletrac airfield tractor. It appears to be in 1:48…
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One From My Childhood
Few people these days ride Stegosauruses. When I was young I frequently got to slide down the back of the Stegosaurus in Calgary zoo – an area of Western Canada famed for prehistoric wildlife. I never had the nerve to try to climb the Brontosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus Rex was kept behind a fence. However,…
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Join The Club
And be ready for the fun/pain/disappointment of your life… The heading image is a leaflet that appeared in an old Airfix kit from last century that was given to me. I shall build the kit but hesitate joining the club. The Airfix Club may still exist, and I, for one, hope it does. I would…
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Down At the Docks
A lesson in maintenance. I look at the top of my model of the Spitfire – the one I made last year. See how it has become slightly duller? Is that progressive camouflage? No, it is dust, cat hair, lint, ashes, and fingerprints. And that in one year… The paper model of the German harbour…
