Category: damage control
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Design Folly

Whenever I complain about the folly of others I am compelled to regard my own. Fortunately I am hypocrite enough not to dwell on it too long… Some days see a club mate building a model tank and looking in horror at the task of the tracks and wheels. I’ve heard groans before from the…
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Do What You Can

With what you have – where you are. This may have been Teddy Roosevelt’s line or it might have been from an earlier writer. Since I just typed it, it’s mine now. You are free to use it as you will. You have a kit in front of you – for which you may have…
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The Clean-Up

New year seemed to demand new experiences. Also new work. So I rather hurried to complete a model before midnight. It was not hard…just a small one. That meant that January could start afresh at the club with a new kit. The stash owner always has the problem of which to select. In my case…
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Disloyalty Is Not Allowed

Modellers are required to decide which nation in the Little World they will belong to and will not be allowed to emigrate to another. If you build plastic aircraft you will not be allowed to make wooden ships or doll houses. If you run trains you are not allowed to look up in the sky.…
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All My Best Models Cost Under $ 10

Because they are the poor, sad runts of the hobby shop litter – or the nearly-dead ones that just pass from stash to stash without ever getting built. I give them hope and dignity. I clip their parts off the distorted sprue trees without making noises of obvious disgust. I sand off flash and rivets.…
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Should You Be Able To Write Critiques Of Other People’s Models?

I mean it happens all the time in the theatre and art galleries. Books are published and the critics review them in the newspaper. The Sunday Morning Umpires are always replaying someone else’s game… And we all read forums and groups and posts on social media that degenerate into flame wars. Why not the scale…
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YF23 – Part One – Y-Leftovers

The Box of Possibilities. This box contained two aircraft – I suspect it is the residue of a failed project from someone unknown. Abandoned in the club storeroom, it fell to me after a grand clean-out. This is no new sensation – it often happens here at home when the wife or daughter decide to…
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Can You Give Useful Advice On A Scale Model Topic…

If you have no idea what you are talking about? Oddly enough…yes. I have watched a number of YouTube videos made by people with no experience, expertise, or ability to communicate, and gained valuable insights. It is not for everyone to be a Solon or an Arnold. Most of us are not teachers – and…
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Moral Modelling

If you would raise your scale model building to a higher plane, there are things you can do on a practical basis. a. Moderate your language while building. Resin cockpits, photo-etch brass, and plastic tank tracks are no excuse for unmannerly conduct. If the plastic is starting to melt and the box catches fire, you…
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The Expensive Shop

We all know a hobby shop that is expensive to go to – because we spent more than we should have last time we visited. But was it really that bad? Or were we the authors of our own discomfort? Did we go in for a new bottle of black paint and come out with…
