Category: Collecting
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The Seven Circles Of Modeller’s Inferno

Dante was not the only person who made a journey to the lowest depths of Hell and wrote about it. I’ve been to the hobby shows myself. Apart from a little more sulphurous smell and uglier demons, they are remarkably like the underworld. And just as Dante found, there are distinct levels of the place,…
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” Paging Mr. Styne. Paging Mr. Styne “

I won two trophies today for a very minor achievement – a model diorama at a toy collector’s fair – but it will involve me in a major change to my life. I am going to have to become an entirely new man. My past life must be discarded. I started life as Richard William…
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The Big Layout Vs The Small Layout – Part Two – On Scale Planning

We’ve discussed scale before and the way that different hobbies and different manufacturers fiddle and footle when it comes to deciding measurements for model building. Everyone goes their own way and demands that you follow. Well, the thing you’re going to have to do when contemplating your Little World is to decide which scale you…
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The Kids In The Candy Store

For a number of years I avoided going into hobby shops. Whether I thought they were passé or whether I thought I was more sophisticated…I don’t know. The result of this was I missed out on some of the really great hobby experiences – things that came and went while I was somewhere else. Now…
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When Someone Says…

When someone looks at your Little World, or your Little Workshop, or your Little Sewing Room and says: a. ” What’s the point? ” Show them the point . Excel and Swann Morton make an excellent range of points and a fresh one always penetrates their consciousness far better than one that has been used…
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Your Little World Need Not Exist In Space or Time

Ooooh, getting all spooky now! The next few paragraphs are going to be voiced by Morgan Freeman. Or Rod Serling. Or Spongebob Squarepants… If your Little World cannot possibly exist, you are very fortunate – you’re freed from the necessity to obey the laws of physics. Time, space, and frugal responsibility can be discarded. You…
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The Kiddy Model And the Adult Modeller

Sometimes it’s hard to resist being a kid – particularly when you are in a hobby shop that also sells toys. You know you’re in there for a serious adult purpose ( like buying toy airplane kits ) but part of you is still a child and wants to buy toy airplanes… I mean it…
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When You See A Dead End Street…

There are lots of different sorts of streets and roads out in the Big World – so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that there can also be a variety in the Little World. And amongst that variety is the dead-end street – the no through road or cul de sac of modelling.…
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Modelling To A Theme – Building For A Purpose

I have a confession to make. I have a mental condition that permeates my life. It has affected me ever since childhood and makes itself felt in everything I do. It is sometimes a good thing and sometimes bad…but I have come to realise what it is and to accept it. It is the need…
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Four Legs Good – Two Legs Bad

Forgive me the George Orwellianism – I have been wrestling with the devil and it has affected my mind. I’ll be right after cocktail hour. The task for last night – while the glue for the canopies of the Hampden was setting – was the reconditioning of a Nakajima Hayate. You can play with the…
