Category: Dioramas
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Soviet ZIS-5 Part Six – Igor’s Flying Inn

This truck and the accompanying accessories are to be known as Igor’s Flying Inn – named after GK Chesterton’s novel and my friend in Ukraine. It was not hard to find 12 crates of vodka to load onto the truck. Or the table and chairs. Or the wooden box full of cheese and sausages. The…
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The Scale Sketch

Versus the final model painting. Which is better? Which is more authentic? Which is likely to get you a medallion on a ribbon at the Big Local Scale Model Exhibition? I think we all know the answer to that one… But not every model is destined to be under the eye of the Judgemental Committee.…
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Buildings

Particularly if they are made by obscure companies. I needed a building for a desert museum layout. I have many small structures but they all look vaguely North American or British. It was with dubious enthusiasm I rolled into my local hobby shop. As I suspected – the Superquick and Meltcalf offerings were mostly railway…
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The Year-Round Scale Model Show – Part Two

So the annual weekend in the hall is to be kaput. Now we think up the new show. You’re soaking in it; the internet. The always-there screen that steals your images and time. The ever-present menace to your credit card. But this time it will be fun. If there is a reasonable pot of money…and…
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It’s All About The Show

At the show, that is. This fatuous philosophy may make my model displays better in the future. I’ve just seen a wake-up that tells me the viewers need more than what many modellers give them. My library dioramas – 300mm x 820 mm – are kept to that size by the display cabinet that protects…
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Imagination Vs Reality

How much of either powers your scale modelling? In my own case, less of the former in individual models but a great deal of it in major dioramas. I invent air forces and their air fields as settings for soi disant accurate models. Self deception at its finest. What of the model car makers? I…
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The Race Track

These days it’s the only sort of race that’s safe to write about… The recent model car spectacular had a number of race tracks in operation – though the ones I photographed were static. Still, if one wants action, there are slot car tracks still in operation, as well as R/C racing venues. I was…
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Triumph Herald – Part Two – Sending You To Coventry

In this case after the Luftwaffe have long gone. The Triumph Herald is coming along smartly, courtesy of a Covid isolation period. I am in no fear – this is what stashes are for, and like many wise modellers I keep a material and paint stash as well. The weather is cold but as far…
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Are You Proud Of Your Work?

That sounds like one of those passive/aggressive questions that bullies invent to make people feel bad. But bear with me – it is legitimate. Are you proud of the models you make? I am, and I display them at my studio in IKEA cabinets. I take pictures of them and post them on the internet.…

