Category: Miniature Philosophy
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No Kittens Were Harmed In The Making Of This Kit

But it was not for want of trying. Pets and scale model kits would be a combination made in Heaven, if Heaven involved a great deal of inconvenience and anger. Anyone who has seen a long-haired cat walk over a half-rigged biplane will know exactly what I mean. If you factor in the static electricity,…
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Sit Up

Beg. Roll over. Die for the Queen. Good modeller; here’s your trophy. Now go lie on your mat and chew it. Perhaps it’s not really like that. Maybe the scale modelling contest is an instrument of culture and craftsmanship that rewards excellence and encourages the development of skills and good moral tone. Perhaps the committee…
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Open Form Modelling

You might think that individuality and enterprise would be rewarded enough in scale modelling when we choose one of the options on the kit instructions. Or when we go the whole hog and get a packet of aftermarket resin or brass. Past that, there are the heady heights of what-iffery and enthusiast sci-fi to absorb…
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The Best Kits Are The Surprise Ones

Either the ones that are given to you on birthdays and holidays or the acquisitions from abandoned stashes. The fact that they are an uncontrolled occurrence doesn’t lessen their value; it actually enhances it. There is a sense of surprise that you don’t get wandering the shelves of your usual hobby shop. Come to that,…
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The Search For New Plastic

Are you at an impasse? Have you built yourself out of a hobby? Are you standing in the hobby shop but not feeling the buzz? Relax – it happens to all of us one time or another. The people who have a lot of spare hobby money to burn have it happen a lot more…
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Tupolev Tu-2 -Part Two – The Modern Mould

Whoever makes the plans, designs, and moulds for Hobby Boss is brilliant. The kits they have put on the shelf can be simple or complex, but even in the case of the less expensive ones there is a sense of purpose and level of finish that many other makers could well copy. The fact that…
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Promoting A Hobby Shop

I visit two hobby shops regularly – another two every six months – and a couple more not at all. The chosen ones are close at hand when I am at home or coming from my weekly club meeting. The occasional ones are out of the way but rewarding for small items. The rejects are…
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The Monument To Discouragement

Sits sad and alone in the public park. No-one visits it…willingly. Sometimes you arrive at a point in the building of a model kit when it makes you sad. It might be the bad fit, the broken parts, or just the lacklustre nature of the prototype. It might be the advent of a much better…
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If You Went To The Theatre As A Drama Critic

What would you do if the show was good? Bet you would be torn by the temptation to slam it anyway. After all, that is what you are paid for and you have a reputation to uphold. The fact that you might do so by blackening that of others is beside the point…and Pierrepoint the…
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The Box Office, The Cast, And The Audience

Which is the most important part of the theatre? If you know, tell me. I am trying to decide the same thing about the modelling exhibitions that are held annually in Perth. Whether they are of cars, boats, trains, planes or houses, they all have essentially three components; those who show, those who they show…
