Category: Miniature Philosophy
-
The Noodles You Have In Your Bowl
Are all you need. Have you ever been to a fast food outlet that tried to sell you food by asking whether you wanted to ” up-size ” it? Did you agree or decline, thinking that a standard-size assault on your gall bladder was all you really needed? You felt you had just been hustled.…
-
Buy A Curse
Be careful in your selection – you want something that will disturb and haunt you for a long time to come. The thing to do is go to the hobby shop and search the shelves until you find something that is both impossibly expensive and horribly complex. Preferably with a complicated colour scheme and a…
-
Know When To Fold ‘Em
Kenny Rogers’ good advice to scale model builders. We all know the virtues of perseverance and hard work, having had it drummed into us by parents, schools, and employers. What has been missing is the virtue of quitting while you are ahead. Kenny Rogers’ gambler knew it, and it is time we did too. You…
-
Our Years Of Confinement
We all served a year of confinement in 2020-2021…even if we were guilty of no crime. Disease is an unfair judge. Most of us are as free to travel now as before, if you factor in the extra costs, the current wars and dangers, and the deterioration to our welcome as tourists. Even those of…
-
The Burgeoning
It is like ” The Quickening ” only it takes longer. It also takes more money, time, and space. The Burgeoning is the process by which scale model kits get bigger and more complex. It steers the scale model hobby into new areas of expertise while it clutters up display cabinets worldwide. It’s not hard…
-
The Modellers Declaration Of Rights
A treatise for the times. And good luck to you defending these propositions in the scale modelling world. There are more dictators in the hobby than in all of Africa and South America combined, and they would all rule you if they could. From shape of kits, to equipment, to paint colour, to pattern, decals,…
-
If You Made Models Of Dead Cows
Someone, somewhere, would buy them. A disturbing set of questions would revolve about what scale to make and who to aim it at. I am guessing 1:24 or 1:35 and the car or armour markets respectively. The diorama that would be built using the models would reveal a lot about the modeller. It would not…
-
Hobbyist Approved…
Oh dear God. I have just seen an advertisement for a portable airgun that is ” Hobbyist Approved “. The world is spinning before my eyes. Bells are ringing and strange phantoms drift in an out of my vision. Whether they are approved by hobbyists is unknown. Children, we are scale model hobbyists and we…
-
I Can Quit Any Time I Want
But building model airplanes is a cultural activity. And good for the economy. And, and, and… Don’t go in there; that’s the stash room. If you open the door the sealed atmosphere will be contaminated. Where was I all day? In my workshop or at the club, of course. Clubs, actually. Uh, workshops, as well,…
-
Morning Sickness In The Model Workshop
You’ll know you have it when the smell of fresh thinner makes you ill. It will probably not be pregnancy, particularly if you are a member of the local Men’s Shed. Few of the chaps over 60 in my club fall pregnant in the course of a year. It may be one of a number…
The Little World 