Category: frugality
-
Fairey Firefly MkV – Part One – Double Sealed
When I bought this Airfix kit at the swap meet it was tightly sealed in a factory plastic wrap. Once inside I found it was sealed again with side-stickers. No-one who had not purchased this plane was going to get in there! The plastic bag that held the parts was open, but nothing escaped. The…
-
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…
-
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…
-
RAAF Spitfire Mk Vc – Part Five – Dawn
Australian historians of the RAAF, of WW2, of the Spitfire, and of No. 79 Sqn should have a field day with this Italeri model. They can spend hours finding faults in it and listing them, from the failure to have the exact wing to the lack of seatbelts to the inclusion of the Maytag washing…
-
RAAF Spitfire Mk Vc – Part One – A Plane Chasing A Decal
The impetus for this Spitfire build came from a recently-completed model of a High Planes Wirraway. It went so well and the Czech DK Decals sheet for it was so easy to use that I glanced down to discover there was a full Spit layout on the sheet as well. A White-tail too, which I…
-
Don’t, Don’t You Believe It, Girlie…
Whenever someone tells you a kit is unbuildable, doubt them. Ditto when they tell you it is the best thing since sliced styrene. People’s opinions quickly convert to folklore and just as rapidly to gospel truth. There are scale model flat earths all about us. A case in point was given to me by a…
-
FW 190 – Part One – A Classic Gift
I well remember the 1/4″ scale kits moulded by Monogram in the 1960’s/ They were a must-buy when you encountered them in the hobby shops in Alberta but you needed more money to do so than with Revell or Aurora products. They were either in shorter supply or regarded as better items. They also sometimes…
-
Bristol Mk32 Superfreighter – Part One – The Prize Of the Weekend
Remember the Newcastle song; never let a chance go by. This was my big chance at the model stash sale. I knew the box instantly in the stack, and the price was very low. I’d the money out before anyone else had the chance to think, and I’m always wise about stash sales – I…
-
Hurricane Night Fighter – Part One – The Leftover Matchbox
Orphaned on the club’s Shelf Of Neglect. Donated to yours truly, and eagerly seized upon. The kit was minus a canopy, but I have an extensive spares box. So this Hawker came to life. The Matchbox kits are sometimes criticised for having pronounced panel lines. As this was to be a semi-matt coal black finish…
-
VVS Tupolev SB2 – Part One – The Soviet Volunteer
May not be worth ten pressed men, but I am not fussy… This Novo model of a Tupolev SB-2 is the second one I’ve essayed to build – the first was a gift from my daughter – found at Leonardo’s secondhand model shop in Tokyo just before Covid hit. I built it as a Spanish…
The Little World 