Category: damage control
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Your Environment Is Waiting To Mug You
As scale modellers we tend to forget a lot. We forget to save money in the hobby shop and we forget to put nose weights into our aircraft. We forget to to sign the club attendance book and to wash our hands in the loo. Most times we get away with it. However, the universe…
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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Five – An Ephemeral Chinese Bomber
Ephemeral? Well look at the guns, antennae and landing gear of this Soviet design. This model will be lucky to make it to my display shelf without these breaking off. The pictures you see in this post may be the last complete images of this ICM product ever shown. I am not unhappy with the…
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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Four – The Inevitables
” The Inevitables ” is a cartoon band of super-heroes that you eventually watch, even if you don’t want to… The inevitables in a complex kit from Eastern Europe are the things that don’t fit and the things that are too complex. The first was illustrated when I found gaps in the structure – yawning…
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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Two – More Pegs Than A Dublin Phone Book
And every one of them working… The next time you hear someone blithely tell you that they ” winged it “…and make out that it was all so easy…refer them to me. I have winged the Tupolev TB-3 and I know what the abyss looks like. The basic bracing inside was actually very precise –…
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No Security Is No Security
Put another way: do not display anything to the public you cannot afford to have broken or stolen. Also do not expect care and worship of your art, craft, object, or performance. You may hope for it but don’t hype yourself up to demand it. You have very little legal redress for criminal damage and…
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If You Cannot Raise the Standard Of Your Skills
At least lower the level of your expectations. The hobby, after all, is meant to give you pleasure. If all you do is whinge about the efforts of others and wince at the sight of yours…well, is it time to seek your joy elsewhere? I have gone up and down in my own estimation a…
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When You Have Done All You Can
Stop doing. The number of times a good model has been converted to a flawed embarrassment by that ” one more little touch “…The extra coat of varnish. The touch up paint. The superglued aftermarket part. You know you flubbed it instantly – yet the moment before you could not see to quit. Self-realisation at…
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The Half-Built Bargain
However you acquire a half-built – stash sale, donation, or legacy – you buy more than a box. You buy a dilemma. A fresh kit, with a sealed box or bagged sprue trees, is a clean field to play on. It may be old, with tatty decals and useless instructions, but at least when you…
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Selling The Unsaleable
The heart of a hobby shop owner must be made of leather and whipcord. Or marzipan. Either way, it needs to be tough and resilient. The ultimate test of this comes at the end of the day when the last customer leaves and the till is totalled up. If the last customer is the only…
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Buy All The Superglue
And discover whether it really is super or not… I have looked with nuclear puzzlement at the cyanoacrylate cement racks in the hobby shop…as well as at the DIY shop. Frequently no idea at all forms in my mind, and I buy whatever is cheapest. The super-thin sort goes everywhere and into my fingers. The…
The Little World 