Category: Collecting
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The Shelf Of Ponder – Part One – Quo?

Other people have stashes – I have a shelf of ponder. Every model kit that sits there has some thought attached to it. In some cases the thought is ” what in the hell do I do with this? “. These are the model kits that someone has donated to me. I am delighted to…
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The Broken Model

Few accidents distressed me so much when I was a child as breaking a scale model. It happened occasionally when building, and then on during the display life of the item…we moved house frequently and you can imagine the toll this took on any collection I tried to build up. I came to appreciate Dinky…
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When The Wing Falls Off…

Or the tailplane, or the engine nacelle… The aging of a model – or of a collection – can be graceful and unremarkable, or not. You will not notice the first circumstance but the second one will call itself to your eye every now and then. Something will break off. When you stop and think…
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Theme Modelling

Conscious or unconscious – our minds tell us what to do. In my case it tells me what to scale model to build. It does for you, as well. Where are you in the list? a. The scale builder. Anything in 1:72, 1:48, 1:35, etc. You stick to scale and end up with a coherent…
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They Do Better Than I Do Now…

And I do better than I did then. And that keeps me from being anxious about other modeller’s efforts. The fact that I am improving – slowly – in my own skills means that I can take pride in my latest efforts. It doesn’t mean that I need to be ashamed of my previous ones.…
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Make At Least One Little World

No matter what the size. The Little World is a fun column to write. I draw on the individual scale models I build and sometimes get to expand to several at once. Then I get to arrange them in dioramas and eventually into layouts. I’ve been fortunate to have enough space to do this, though…
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The Peculiar Model

The oddity. The kit that everyone else avoids. The scratch-built model that no-one has ever heard of. In other words – just down your alley. I have been the recipient of numerous models that fit into this category – and I’ve gone out and spent actual money on others. Not a lot of it, mind,…
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Stand In Line

Standing in line is Europe’s national sport. Whether it is waiting for pancreas sausage in Poland or boiled tripe in England, you have only to get two people to line up and they will be joined by twenty more. In Perth we line up for cheap plastic. The ( so far ) annual big scale…
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Have You Found Your Oeuvre?

Or your œuf? Is your modelling pressing you toward one coherent thing, or are you flailing in all directions? Perhaps flailing is your destiny, and you are fulfilling it. Do not despair. Leonardo Da Vinci was nearly fifty years old before he built his first model of the MISSOURI. And look how he flourished in…

