Category: Miniature Philosophy
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Can You Wait Too Long?

I suspect you can… And I am not writing about the 5 hr delay between when your family asks you whether you are ready…you standing at the door jiggling the car keys…and when they actually get in the vehicle. No, I mean between stages of a scale model build. Here are the reasons why I…
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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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You Only Really Aim High Or Low In Scale Modelling

The centre of the target is not interesting – a direct contrast to rifle shooting. When you buy a model, or are fortunate to receive one as a gift, you are either going to chop out a lot of money or very little at all. Oddly, most modellers don’t notice either sum. The large expensive…
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Équipe Super Mystère – Part Two – Fleur de Lis

Well, what else would it be for French aircraft… The concept has become reality. Three Heller kits, a base from Spotlight, and a length of 3mm brass rod. The kits are of a period and at a low price. I am grateful that the ancient Heller decals worked perfectly and that the factory moulded guidelines…
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Your Stash Is Not You

You are not your stash – any more than you are your collection of CDs or your underwear and socks. You may indeed possess many kits, and CDs, and socks and jocks, but they do not represent your skills, thoughts, or achievements. At best they are potential things. And just as you cannot wear all…
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Should You Slow Down?

I mean at the modelling bench – not on the roads. Out there you can go as fast as the car will do and no-one really cares. Swerve from lane to lane, as well… No, at the modelling bench you need to pace yourself. If you do not have an unlimited stash to dip into…
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Scale Modelling Is All About A Sense Of Proportion

Some buy it in kits – the scale is stated on the box, unless it was moulded in the 1950’s… Some scratch-build and measure it out with rulers and calipers. Their computers will lay it out and editing programs let them change it. And they can lose it entirely at a scale model exhibition. If…
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The Display Of Apples At The Fruiterer

Lovely, red, gleaming – piled in geometric order out the front of the fruiterer’s shop. A temptation to buy apples. Or to steal one. How many children and youths have succumbed to the temptation of the display? How many destitute adults…hunger driving them. The fruit seller has legal rights and morality and more fruit than…
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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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Tupolev TB-3 – Part Three – Ministry Of The Interior

I am in several minds about detailing the insides of 1/72 scale aircraft. On one hand it is a pain, but on the other it means an additional glance into the design – even if I am the only person who will ever see it. In the case of this Tupolev bomber, the open cockpit…
