Category: Hobby Shops
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Pigs To The Wrong Market

Will never make bacon. My tour down the airplane aisle of my local hobby shop showed very little new but I noticed that they have ordered and arranged the kits according to manufacturer again. And yet again the section of eastern European ex-soviet unaccountables is fully stocked. I do not think they’ve had a fresh…
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Out Of Stock

So why in website? To make us think you are a bigger retailer than you really are? To get us revved up? To taunt us? Or is your website the equivalent of a dusty cupboard? Unable to keep it clean, do you exhibit the whole as an artefact? So why do you not list all…
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You Can Be Damned

So can I, and all we need to do is pick up the wrong pot of paint. The colour question has divided people for centuries… and no more so than in the hobby shop. The number of paints available to camouflage toy airplanes is exceeded only by the number of people who claim to know…
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Too Many Decal Systems

Too many to make your hobby shop choice an easy matter. And that’s the way it is with scale model chemicals – whether that is paint, cement, or polish – in the 21st century. We might have passed cheerful childhoods with tube cement, tinned paint, and a bottle of turpentine, but we ain’t going to…
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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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Handley Page Heracles – Part One – A Present From The Past

I recently asked my daughter to pick me up a fresh model kit when she passed through Melbourne. There are several good shops there and she might encounter something new. Well, she was taken by something old – an Airfix vintage Classic re-issue of a 1965 kit – the Handley Page HP.42 ” Heracles ”…
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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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Risk Management In Scale Modelling

The Amalgamated Fireproof Insurance Company Pty Ltd asked me to write this to help prevent modelling disasters that they might have to pay for. The risks they don’t cover – well, knock yourself out. a. Don’t model drunk. Little knives and spray guns become a lot more fun when you’re schickered, but you’ll regret it…
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Full Moon Is the Worst Time

That’s when the special modellers shop. The hobby shop staff know what’s coming; they brace themselves. The cowards call in sick, but the old hands just stand to the till and face the storm. ” Do you have this in 1/296th? Why not? “. ” I want the best kit. I’ve got $ 12. Hit…
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Bristol Type 130 Bombay – Part Four – Hot Little Feet

I really should hie myself back to the hobby shop that supplied this Valom model and see if they have any more inter-war British aircraft. This one has proved delightful. SOOTB, and grateful for the opportunity to do it. The moulding was fine and the decals superb. I did not even object to the W/T…
