Category: finances
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When To Call It A Day

And when to call it a week…that point at which you decide to either finish the model or cut your throat. This is not as foolish a thought as first may seem. There will be more accessories and additions to the kit that you bought than you’ll have on hand. Scalemates shows 4 different mask…
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Dornier Do-17Z – Part One – The Pencil Again

I seem fated to build Dornier Do-17 bombers. I have already completed one for the Ruritanians, and one for the Swiss. Now a third kit has turned up and is slated to be sent to the Finns. The kit is a multiple re-boxing – mine popped out in 2011 but the original mould started in…
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” Recapture Your Childhood “

Said an advertisement for a reissue of an old kit. I opened the box and looked in… My childhood was moulded better than that – and it was made in the same mould. I might have aged a lot and some of my edges have become worn, but I have avoided sinkholes in every corner…
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Do Not Build

A useful list of things not to do in the scale model hobby… a. Do not build tired. Too late at night spoils paint jobs. b. Do not build drunk. One more little one can’t hurt you, but five more can. Hobby knives can cut flesh as easily as styrene. c. Do not build angry.…
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The Barnacle

AKA the shelf queen. The styrene albatross. The kit that has sat on the hobby shop shelf ever since the place opened. The Unsold Undead… It may be worse than this. There are items in stock in many retailers that have been delivered from other shops that have previously failed; I saw it several times…
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Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 Pipistrello – Part One – The RRAAF’s New Poster Plane

Readers of this column who follow the history of the Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force will be long familiar with the history of the service. The training facilities in Alberta, the variegated equipment roster, the bad decisions and worse outcomes…all have been documented. But here is a new chapter of the saga – brought to…
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” I Want To Return This Kit “

And I want a full refund for it. a. It is the wrong kit. I wanted the right kit. Okay, I brought it from the shelf to the till myself and paid for it, but it was the wrong kit when I got it home and the wife found out how much it cost. b.…
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General Dynamics F-16 – Part One – The John Plane

Making friends with other model builders is a good idea – they sometimes have large stashes of kits that they bought a long time ago…but have forgotten. They may have changed scales in the meantime. Then they remember you and the scale you build. And make you a wonderful present of an unbuilt kit or…
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The Box-Scale Kit

We’ve all seen them and we’ve all built them. And at one stage of the game they were the norm. The box-scale kit that was accurately drawn from official government plans and moulded in 1/60 or 1/94 or 1/287… We were captivated by the box art…or the fact that it cost $1.49 and we had…

