Category: Collecting
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The Plastic Torch?
Is what we do a bit historical – or hysterical? I once bought an armload of 1:72 kits from a very nice chap who visited our modelling club. They were a number of items from his late fathers collection – the man unfortunately passed away far too early to build them. This is sad –…
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The Specialty Wagon
Someone, somewhere, built special cars to transport any unlikely thing you can imagine. The LNER had fish vans, the NP had silk trains, and presumably the EFOM had tonky little coffee vans. You can buy potash cars that say ” Saskatchewan ” and presumably surprise your friends. I get my surprise looking a the odd…
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” Adopt And Honour “
A phrase spoken by our club President – Rob – when giving me the Grumman F9F Panther model you see in the heading. It is a product of the late John Evans – a prolific and skilled member of SMCWA for many years. He built any number of USN aircraft, as well as RAAF, RAF,…
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Airco DH2 – Part Two – The Little Revelation
Stand back, folks. I am about to admit I’ve been wrong. Wow, eh? Didn’t see that coming, did’ja? Neither did I, and it only hit me when I got to the end of this build. I have had a epiphany, or a revelation, or a slight brain fart. I have missed out on a lot…
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Boeing 314 Clipper – Part One – It’s Not Old Gold
It’s new – in the shops and on my workbench. If you have never built a certain model made by a certain manufacturer of a certain aircraft, it is, by definition, a new model. It might be reissued, it might be remaindered, it might be stash-sold…no matter. You and that model are meeting for the…
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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 New Kit Box
You do not have to be an 18th century rake… To recognise the experience of being captured by the appearance of a smartly-dressed courtesan with a painted face and patches on her cheeks. The ample bosom and the curled hair may be missing, but the end result – bitter horror at the raddled creation encased…
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CAC Wirraway – Part One – The Challenge
Apparently that is what the word translates to from one of the aboriginal languages. In modern day terms it was one of the licence-built derivatives from a North American design – the root of which gave us the Yale, Harvard, Texan, and NA 16. And probably a Soviet copy somewhere, if they ran true to…
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Lifespan
Is there a natural lifespan for scale models? I have seen a magnificent dolls house in London that apparently belonged to one of the British Royals when she was a girl. I suspect it was in the 20’s…but it is preserved in a museum for all to see. It may well go for another century…
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RCAF Hudson – Part One – At Long Last
I have skirted around the Lockheed Hudson for decades. My collection includes a Lodestar, a Ventura, and a Harpoon – all fun to build and successful finishes. Yet the basic Hudson has eluded me – until Airfix decided to revive a Vintage Classic. I’ve been haunting the red-box shelves in two shops for months –…
The Little World 