Category: frugality
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Nieuport 24Bis – Part One – So What’s With The Bis, Eh?
What was wrong with the plain letter B? Not European enough to be sophisticated? Well, the dictionary defines it as meaning ” again ” so the Bis version is the second one. Like we couldn’t have gotten that from a simple ” B ” ? Son of a Bis… This is another Roden kit, and…
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The Birthday Money
I got my birthday money and went to the hobby shops to spend it. I went to three different ones in my city, and enjoyed myself in each…though not as much as you might expect. It was like being a fussy kid in candy stores that either did not have any fresh lollies…or had priced…
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When The Model Price Is Measured In Hundreds Of Dollars
Something happens to the hobby. It becomes a serious business. Good thing? You might think so if you are a devotee of contest modelling and the pursuit of prizes. Newer and bigger can get you closer to the awards. Complexity figures in this as well – if you can overwhelm a judge with extra after-market…
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Not Every Tool Is A Good Tool
But they won’t tell you that at the hobby shop or on the internet site. We all have more tools than we use…every toolbox I’ve ever seen has at least 10 – 20% excess in it that just gets shifted about when we look for the useful items. Yes, I’m guilty of this too. Every…
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The Empty Paint Bottle
In scale modelling an empty bottle that once held paint can be many things; a halt to the project, a nuisance, an additional expense…or a trophy of great significance. It indicates that you used the contents and were able to get full value. If it was half-full of sludge or dried pigment it would be…
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The Prefab Model
You might justifiably say that all plastic model kits are prefab. If something is moulded and needs no shaping it is the factory modelling – not you. But we all realise that there is a great deal of re-shaping in most kits before any assembly can be contemplated. The sprue tree – that basic component…
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McDonnell Douglas Phantom – Part One – The Iconic Fighter
As a young person I was as susceptible to hype as anyone – including that put out about modern aircraft. The jet fighter that seemed to get most of it was the McDonnell Douglas Phantom. For a while I confused it with the older McDonnell Phantom – a late 1940’s straight-wing jet. But it was…
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Minimalist Modelling
Paint everything white. Corbusier Kits: sheets of foamcore board and you just glue them together in slabs. I have been experimenting with a less complex approach to scale model building these last few months. Not that kit building can ever be truly simple…or for that matter neither can Lego or Meccano work. Doll houses are…
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The Kit That Makes You Say Hmmm
We have all had one…and those of us with bad luck have had several kits that make us doubt whether we should have even started them. Sometimes it has been commenced in a hurry with blithe disregard to warnings from the internet. Sometimes we have been seduced by box art. Plastic porn, if you will.…
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Silberner Blitz
There are some models that you build with polystyrene cement – others with wood glue. And yet others that are joined with anxiety. This is one such model – it was a superb bargain buy at a stash sale morning – and never better timed. I was on the lookout for 1930’s European airliners for…
The Little World 