Category: Collecting
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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If You Must Trash Your Models

Sadly, scale models do not often last…they may be gone when their builder goes. Few people appreciate the hobby enough to keep all of a collection. Of course this doesn’t include historic models such as those found in Greenwich Maritime Museum or other institutions. But plastic models in a lounge room? Little chance. Before this…
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Never Throw Nuthin’ Away

You might very well love it some day. The formation flying team you see started life as four out-of-scale plastic toy fighters that were packaged with Plasticville airport buildings. Made in the mid-1950’s these structures populated thousands of O-guage and S-guage toy train layouts in North America. The lettering and insignia on the planesare in…
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Shelving Your Worries

Or worrying your shelves. Some people are like that… I am currently shelving, boxing, and arranging my scale model collection and discovering why museum staff have a certain look on their faces: that of murderous Tetris players. Every museum worth it’s salt – and that includes private collections – has simultaneously more than it should…

