Category: Collecting
-
The Box Diorama

I’m a sucker for boxed displays – I spend more time over them at a museum than the open equipment. Call this a peculiarity of the scale modelling mind, if you will, but I think it is because the box-builder has more control of the subject. Lighting is the key for a lot of things;…
-
Hawker Hunter FGA 9 – Part Five – Singapore 1962

A squadron brought into Singapore for ground support in what was to become a confrontation of the Cold War. This one was with Indonesia – at that time backed by the USSR and Communist China. The Hunters worked with spotter aircraft to deliver effective air support for Commonwealth and Malaysian troops on the ground. The…
-
If A Model Is Priced Out Of Your Range

Quietly ask yourself a few questions: a. Is it beyond saving for? You may have some some change each week that can be put toward the kit, and many sellers will lay something buy on steady payments. b. Is it the only possible model of this prototype? Granted, you’ll not find many kits of Fandiddler…
-
Kit-O-Plasm

The spirit of dead models made to rise again. Let’s all sit in the dark, hold hands, and ask the ghosts of 1950’s kits to hover round us. Or we can go on eBay and do some exorcism. Or just go round the hobby shop and see what Revell have re-boxed. I’m waiting for the…
-
The Kit You Aways Wanted

To throw out the window. You saved for it, lusted for it, and finally got it. Now you are going to suffer for it. No pain, no gain, so look forward to the next three weeks as a period of unrelieved progress… First thing- are all the sprue trees there? If not, you can take…
-
The Remnants

Of you. Or me. Not the body. That is something that the system takes care of one way or other. Certificate, funeral director, eulogy, coffee and biscuits. Horribly expensive, but unless you jump off a ferry out at sea and disappear into a shark, someone will have to pay up somewhere. No, what I mean…
-
Pick On Someone Your Own Size!

And your own scale! Do you have models in your collection that are all different sizes? I do. Are they all different scales? Generally, no. This may not be a problem for you if you are a widespread modeller. But if you want a consistent collection that can tie together, you need to discipline yourself.…
-
How Many Long Distance Runners Appreciate What They Are Doing?

And how many scale modellers do, either. The person who sits, day after day, completing tank tracks, or gluing branches on tiny pine trees, or copper plating the bottom of a wooden vessel will probably not say that they are having a whale of a time…unless the model ship is the PEAQUOD, and in that…
-
What Story Does Your Model Collection Tell?

If it is only one model, it says that you are just getting started – and that it is lonely for companionship. Time to go out and buy another kit. This is when you start to have a voice in the narrative. If you buy another model kit in the same scale, but of a…
-
Buying Your Own Birthday Gifts

And being reimbursed the cost – then presented with the ” surprise ” boxes on the day – is one of the most satisfying forms of gift giving/getting there is. It doesn’t do to be petty about it, or get bashful. Ask directly how much the giver wishes to spend and then go spend it.…
