Category: damage control
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The Dead Blog

There is nothing sadder than a dead bird – unless it is a dead scale model blog. I have followed several of these, though not expecting their demise. They started well, or were going along great guns when I first encountered them…and then just stopped. I cannot know why. Dread tells me that some of…
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Boeing B17G – Part Two – Doodle Bug

There are very few steps to the average 1/144 kit – and if you walk fast… You get to the end very quickly. This Academy kit was started on Saturday and finished on Wednesday. That was not a deliberate sprint – it just happened to fall together with very little filling or sanding and a…
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What To Do When You Can’t Get It

Relax, lady. This is about scale modelling – not sex. What do we do when the scale model magazine shows a wonderful new range of after-market parts to detail a kit and everyone else in the world can get it except us? Stuck on the edge of the Indian Ocean way out past where the…
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” Do Your Research “

This is a buzz phrase used in arguments these days as people trade things they have seen on the internet. Reels, social media posts, and video channels all tell the viewers what to think – sometimes at the expense of thought. ‘Twas always this, from the time that the first caveman told his mate what…
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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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The Honourable Modeller

vs ” Another Sort “. I assume you all want to be honourable – on the good side of the question – occupying the high moral ground. Pure, simple, clean. People to whom we can all look, and not just up the nose. Styrene Heroes. Well, what do we need to do to be canonised?…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Four – While The Goo Sets…

Busy your hands, to stop your mind from screaming. The engine cowlings on this model have become a standard mark in my workshop. They form the nadir from which anything else is better. I have joined the halves and lit a votive candle. The interior is bare, but surprisingly neat. It is simple, of course,…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Three – Oh, Just Grit Yer Teeth…

Pull up your Big-Girl panties, and get on with it. It’s not going to make itself. The first thing that has to go is the upper turret. Tasman have made a decent job of it, and the whitemetal gun mount will be saved for the future, but the aircraft I’m modelling has no turret. so…
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Tasman Airspeed Oxford Mk I – Part Two – The Apology

At least Tasman Models are scrupulously honest. They recognised the problems of short-run manufacturing and the times when it just doesn’t come out like a Disney movie. The under-wing parts of this model apparently were consistently short-shooting at the wing tip. They realised it , modified the panel on the mould, and added two extra…
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The Disappointment

I read a review once in a modelling magazine that was quite scathing about a brand of short-run kit: Merlin. I don’t pay too much attention to this sort of bagging as I have made quite decent aircraft out of kits that other people would avoid. The garage kit may look bad to start with…
