Category: Collecting
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Good Morning, Walter – Part 14 – None Of These Toys Work…
Walter, here’s a selection of pictures from a recent Toy and Doll Collector’s fair here in Perth. I went to my regular exhibition hall on the day to see if there were going to be any scale model airplane kits that I wanted to buy. Short answer – no. That’s not the sort of thing…
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OO, O, and N
You’ve often read me squawking about the disparity in scales that the makers of hobby items have foisted upon us over the years. There is no one universal scale or size for the little worlds we build. Some plastic modellers do not find this a hazard at all – all they look for is a…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Six – Garbage Night In Canada
The pictures you see today, Walter, are of a Dinky Toy Bedford dust cart…the British word for garbage truck. The model is one I picked up in England on a holiday in 1995. I’m the sort of person who shops on my holidays and not for tourist souvenirs, either. No postcards or tea towels for…
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The Courage Of The 1:64th Customiser
The great days of the hot rod and custom car were…ummm…well, actually they were yesterdayand went all the way back to the 1940’s. They’ve been held over for the present and will be still continuing for the future. No-one manages to tell the customisers that they can’t do anything so they just go ahead and…
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Good Morning, Walter – Part Four – Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Whitemetal us…or Zamac us. But no lead. You are lucky these days, Walter. Many of the hazards of the olden times are gone. No more Hitler, no more smallpox, and no more lead soldiers. I was never in any real danger from the first two but I was exposed to the last ones. And I…
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The Return Of The Chinese Junk
When I was a kid in the 50’s there were dime stores that sold goods cheaply. In some cases they were cheap goods – particularly if they were plastic toys from Hong Kong. There was a particularly brittle form of plastic that was used in toy factories that was moulded into all sorts of workable…
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Fulfil Its Destiny – Build That Kit
On a recent trip to the eastern states I went charged with the task of finding a 1:48 scale model of a Macchi jet trainer for my friend Warren. He had worked on them in the Air Force and a few years ago Italeri had kitted one up with RAAF markings. Indeed, they had also…
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Ongoing Maintenance
I did not realise that there would be a schedule of maintenance on a plastic model – I thought once it was done, that was it. Silly me. There is maintenance on anything that you need to continue working – car, marriage, camera, etc. The models are no different. a. There will be cleaning issues.…
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The Independent Mind
I spoke to a person who reads this column regularly. It was in his modelling room and he was in the midst of his favourite activity; making models for wargaming. In this he has a mind of his own and is not afraid to use it. He also uses everything else that can possibly come…
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Hobby Money – Part One – The Price Of The Hobby Versus…
Versus the value of the hobby – an eternal debate in many fields. Whenever we engage in an activity that does not immediately yield food, shelter, or sex, there has to be some calculation as to the worth of the time and money spent. In most cases the good stuff takes a considerable amount of…
The Little World 