Category: Collecting
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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…
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Who In Their Right Mind
Would line up to buy old model kits? I don’t know. Because just after I shot this panorama ( not a complete one, mind…) I joined the end of the queue. It was like the Oklahoma Land Rush, but in styrene. Some stash sales are sedate affairs. Discretely attended by studious enthusiasts who quietly murmur…
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Why’d You Build A Model Of THAT?
There are many paths, Grasshopper… a. It was the plane my father flew in the Battle of Britain. He was on the Finnish side. They shot at EVERYBODY. Little Helsinki on the Avon was a hotbed of aerial warfare. b. I had the money and the shop owner seduced me…by putting the kit on the…
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The Richest Kid On The Block!
Possibly in the whole town! I’ve got 27 model kits ready to build. They came from friends, family and pocket money. I’ve got enough cement for all of them, and enough paint. School is out, and has been since 1972. Employment is done, and has been since 2016. I do not have any homework due.…
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Do Other Hobbies Suffer From Being At The End Of The World?
Or is it just scale kit building? We all go regularly to the hobby shops or websites looking for novelties. We regularly come back disappointed. Meanwhile the net and the magazines show a wonderful variety of goods available to people in Europe, Asia, and North America. We are left outside on the footpath with our…
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A Kit Too Far
If you are observant at stash sales you can tell which models will be coming onto the table at a good price. Not initially, perhaps – we have all seen the ambitious price tag on a scale box. Sometimes it is high enough to over-run new kits currently available in the shops. This can be…
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Pilatus PC-21 – Part Five – RAAF Roulette
The Pilatus PC-21 were ready to fly – the next batch of pilot trainees due to make their solos. One of them was the son of my niece. I have a short reel of him flying that first solo taken by a squadron mate. It is detailed enough to make out the number of the…
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Making A Public Exhibition Of Yourself
This is not as dire as it sounds. Of course the upright, uptight, upper class Victorian would never do it…but then they never did. They reserved their showing off for a funeral cortege and a statue in the local gardens. I plan on two show-off shows this year; one at the annual scale model festival…
The Little World 