Category: Hobby Shops
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A Kit Too Far

If you are observant at stash sales you can tell which models will be coming onto the table at a good price. Not initially, perhaps – we have all seen the ambitious price tag on a scale box. Sometimes it is high enough to over-run new kits currently available in the shops. This can be…
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Seeing The Remnants All In One Place

Is good for the mind and bad for the soul. Or the other way round… The big boxes full of little boxes – in their turn full of unbuilt plastic kits saved from the wreck of a Perth hobby shop – that greeted me at my hobby club were an amazing sight. Part of the…
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Scratch-building Pack

We often encounter notes on short-run kit instructions that tell us to scratch-build some part. It may be a strut or part of an interior. Perhaps a flap or plate or even part of the undercarriage. Indeed there can be kits where the parts are provided but are of such poor quality that you are…
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Are Your Models Getting Enough Exposure?

I don’t mean in the sunshine – most plastic kits do badly when the temperature rises. I mean in your home, workplace, club, or other places. Are you hiding your light under a bushel? Do you need to show off a little? Once a year you can display in the WASMex show. Your audience will…
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Well Sir, I See’d It

It were right there – right in front of everbody. Ya couldn’t hardly miss it. Little ol’ box – ’bout the size of a 1/72 Mustspitschmitt. Sez it is an 1/72 RAAF trainer with decals. Sorta thing an Australian model plane person might like to build. Might like to build if they have a spare…
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You Really Do Need Two Pairs Of Cutters.

I should have laughed at myself for writing that header a few years ago. I had just re-started in scale kit building and had purchased a Ustar tool kit with knife, cutter, sandpaper blocks, etc. I still have most of it and most of it still works. What more could you want? Well, you could…
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Is Your Scale Being Scaled Back?

Is it getting tougher to find a new kit in your preferred scale on the hobby shop shelves? Here are some reasons why: a. The various wars around the world are interfering with trade enough to keep the plastic warships and planes away from us. b. The hobby shops are running lean in their buying.…
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The Clean-Up

New year seemed to demand new experiences. Also new work. So I rather hurried to complete a model before midnight. It was not hard…just a small one. That meant that January could start afresh at the club with a new kit. The stash owner always has the problem of which to select. In my case…
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Do Or Die-orama?

Is your little world being made around your ideas, or are your ideas being made around those of the retail trade? For some modellers – the model engineers in particular and to some extent the R/C model boaters – they are in control of their desires. Both groups make what they like…and spend a very…
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Do You Trust Your Dealer?

No, I’m not referring to the one with the ziplock bags of powder… I mean the one with the cardboard boxes of styrene kits. You should get some help… Your hobby dealer is your friend, if you will be his. You both have a vested interest in seeing the other happy and successful. All it…
