Category: Hobby Shops
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Highly Desirable
And highly detailed. And highly priced. And highly unavailable. Hi-lee-hi-low. Hi-lup-a-pup. And that’s another magazine down the drain. I used to buy modelling magazines when I was a kid. For cars to begin with and later for scale models or military models. Model boats kept me going for years. I would read the how-to-do it…
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I Choose My Paints From The WTF Numbering System
It is the favoured organisational system of the major model paint makers. They each invent a complete system for their paints that has no relation to that of other factory. This means they can all stay in their corner of the playground at recess. And when I want to paint a modern jet that has…
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Nieuport 17C – Part Three – The Stick
I used to look upon the humble cocktail stick with disdain. No more. I am an eco-friendly convert. I believe the sticks – also known as satay sticks – are made of bamboo. This is an eminently sustainable crop and can be used with no eco-guilt at all. And they are cheap – I do…
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” I Want To Return This Kit “
And I want a full refund for it. a. It is the wrong kit. I wanted the right kit. Okay, I brought it from the shelf to the till myself and paid for it, but it was the wrong kit when I got it home and the wife found out how much it cost. b.…
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Are We Having Fun Yet?
When that question comes up, the answer is never ” Yes “. Yet it could be… I do things that are pointless and expensive and embarrassing. And fun. I’m not going to tell you what, but you can let your imaginations run wild. As this is a scale model column, wild is likely to involve…
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Swiss F-5E – Part One – Another Odd Buy
I make snap decisions when I am in the aisle of a hobby shop. These involve kit choice, paint colours, and must-have tools. They are nearly all bad. Later, when the fever passes, I look at the purchases and wonder where I’m ever going to use them. Some sit dormant for years, and then become…
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Modellers Need A Holiday
Or a festival. Not sure which would be better, but it needs to be a day that can have good things to eat and drink. I’m talking a regular, yearly holiday that can be gazetted in the Western Australian calendar the same as ANZAC Day or Easter. A day that you get off work, if…
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Why No 1:64 Planes, Then?
If you were a kid in North America in the 50’s you basically had a choice of three scales for electric trains: 1:48 Lionel, 1:64 American Flyer, and 1:87 HO made by Varney, Athearn, and lots of smaller firms. The 1:87 HO has stayed with us – just as 1:76 has stayed with the British…
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There Is No Time Like The Present
And there never was. That is the nature of time…it moves forward. Pity some of the plastic model moulding firms are so stuck in the past. This is particularly ironic when you consider that these firms want to make a profit in the future by moulding models of things that vanished a century ago…and they…
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Convair F-106 – A NORAD Quickie
I have taken to an amusing game when I photograph dancers at their concerts or for portraits – when they ask me the cost of the finished files or videos I tell them about my model airplane hobby. I ask them to pay their bill by purchasing a 1:72 scale model airplane kit that I…
The Little World 