Category: Hobby Shops
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Is There A Mathematical Formula For Fun?
Or is it all just numbers? When you see scale model kits offered for sale at different prices, is there a correlation in those figures with the size of the scale and the degree of happiness that will be generated? Can we do the maths? a. If you never build the model, there is no…
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It Is Hard To Sell A Poisoned Chalice
Especially if you have been killing off people’s enthusiasm with it for years. This sentiment applies to a lot of things; hobby publications, exhibition organisation, and box-scale kits come to mind. The magazines we loved to buy are slowly giving way to YouTube presentations that take up hours of our time for minutes of information.…
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This Is Serious.
And important. Seriously important and importantly serious. It concerns plastic model kits. Never mind the state of the state. Never mind the environment, government, or after-dinner ment. Plastic kits are the topic and the rest of creation can go hang. If you find yourself nodding sagely at this and agreeing whole-heartedly, you might start practising…
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The Future Of The Box Scale
I am starting to wonder about the future of the dear old box scale for model kits. I would have judged that the day is dead for this form of moulding. The division of the plastic kit industry into recognisable scales for particular purposes is so far advanced that there would seem to be little…
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You Can Only Build What You Can Get
And if you can’t get something, you have to build it… The principle of the scratch-builder. Also of the realistic builder – a person who may not know their own limitations but can list those of the local hobby shops in detail. This is not just snarkiness – the realistic builder knows that not every…
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How Many?
And how would one ever find out? I have been amazed at the number of firms that make plastic scale model kits. I knew of perhaps eight when I was a kid – and some of them have long disappeared – but they have been replaced in the shops with what may be hundreds more.…
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The Most Important Part Of The Build
Is not during or after – it is before… You fancy doing a bit of modelling – you get up, wash, dress, and proceed to the hobby shop. This may be a building or a website, but you go there – it doesn’t come to you. If you walk in there with nothing in your…
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You Look At It
It looks at you. The scale model stand-off; you have bought a kit well beyond your comfort zone. It has 1468 parts plus a booklet and a decal sheet with 47 different options. Every track link has 18 parts and you need to make up 256 of them. This might be fine, except it is…
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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…
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Bristol F.2B – Part One – The Dogfight Half
Bitterly disappointed as I was upon opening the Airfix box, I decided to soldier on. I had been expecting a Fokker triplane as well as a Bristol F.2b that were shown on the box top. Inside the box were decals for both planes, instructions and call-out for both, but no Fokker. Instead I got a…
The Little World 