Category: frugality
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If You Must Trash Your Models
Sadly, scale models do not often last…they may be gone when their builder goes. Few people appreciate the hobby enough to keep all of a collection. Of course this doesn’t include historic models such as those found in Greenwich Maritime Museum or other institutions. But plastic models in a lounge room? Little chance. Before this…
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Angels
The second squadron of Plasticville fighters. My purchase of three Plasticville airport hangars some years ago added more aircraft to the pile. For a while I thought of them as US naval jets, but a Plasticville on-line forum identifies them as Douglas X-2 Skyrockets. I think this is right, but it didn’t stop me from…
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Do We Have A Trade War With Japan, China, Or The Czech Republic?
No? Goodoh. That means we really should be able to order kits and supplies from these countries free of any interference from the Petulant of the United States, Ronald Grump. I have been looking at the kits I build and the goods I want and am a little saddened to see that some of the…
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Lockheed S-3A Viking – Part One – Price?
So Why So Cheap? How come a perfectly good Hasegawa jet is about half the price you’d expect to pay? Perhaps I am looking a gift horse in the molars, but I do puzzle at some of the pricing in some of the shops. The Hasegawa S3A Lockheed Viking was under $40 in a rack…
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Never Throw Nuthin’ Away
You might very well love it some day. The formation flying team you see started life as four out-of-scale plastic toy fighters that were packaged with Plasticville airport buildings. Made in the mid-1950’s these structures populated thousands of O-guage and S-guage toy train layouts in North America. The lettering and insignia on the planesare in…
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A Model Philosopher’s Stone
Alchemy in scale. The old concept of the Philosopher’s Stone that would transmute lead into gold never quite got off the ground – both substances defying the power of 18th century aero engines to achieve lift. Even when modern jets and rockets were strapped to freight cars full of lead and the vehicles sent down…
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Grumman Hawkeye – Part Three – Daya
192 Squadron IDF. This is the newest exhibit at the Schmattarim Air Force Base museum. It has been scrubbed clean of identifying marks like number and squadron insignia for security purposes, retaining only the insignia. The whole project took essentially a week and a half and has been one of the most rewarding in recent…
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Grumman Hawkeye – Part One – Never Before Considered
Some model kits can be like that – you go along in your regular rut and never even give them a thought. Then a stash sale or clean-out of the back store-room of a hobby shop brings something to light. And you wonder why you had never wanted one. However, you want one NOW! This…
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Martin Canberra – Part One – Old Italeri
I am always on the alert for Italeri kits – I find them an ideal blend of simplicity and precise moulding. This Italeri No 144 box was no exception – it was half-way down a pile of unwanted kits at a recent stash sale for the very reasonable price of $ 20. I balanced my…
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Could You Deliberately Retro-Build?
I’ve been looking at a website that refers to itself as Dem Brudders; it deals with reproduction and re-issued kits. A number of small makers have ended up with moulds from major American firms; Revell, AMT, Aurora, Monogram, etc. The smaller speciality moulders have re-issued some of the classics that were favourites during the 50’s…
The Little World 