Category: Miniature Philosophy
-
Not Every Tool Is A Good Tool
But they won’t tell you that at the hobby shop or on the internet site. We all have more tools than we use…every toolbox I’ve ever seen has at least 10 – 20% excess in it that just gets shifted about when we look for the useful items. Yes, I’m guilty of this too. Every…
-
Who Sets The Bar Over Which You Leap?
Who sets you up to fail? Is it the manufacturer who makes a 600-part kit where 50 parts would be adequate? Is it the contest judge with a God-complex who marks you down to boost himself up? Is it you, who live in perfect magazine images and internet sites and never realise that real life…
-
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…
-
Scale Modeller’s Adolescence
If you have not experienced an adolescence of any sort yet, you may wish to loosen your clothing and put down newspapers over the good flooring… Scale modellers pass through adolescence any number of times. There’s the original one that breaks the voice and soils the sheets, and that’s a lot of fun. There’s the…
-
The Empty Paint Bottle
In scale modelling an empty bottle that once held paint can be many things; a halt to the project, a nuisance, an additional expense…or a trophy of great significance. It indicates that you used the contents and were able to get full value. If it was half-full of sludge or dried pigment it would be…
-
Lordy God Almighty
Our hobby is on the side of the angels. And also on the side of science and the law. As scale modellers we have endured the sneers and taunts of people ever since out first kit. Now we have vindication – our interest in scale models is of benefit to mankind. Okay – I hear…
-
The Plastic Himalayas
Or how to get over the hobby humps. Modellers are camels – we all have humps. whether we are making plastic kits, model railway layouts or doll houses, we come to a point when it all seems too much. Our kit build is stretching out week after week as we fight the photo-etched brass –…
-
Use It Or Hoard It?
What do you do with the valuable old kit? If you have been stashing or buying for some time, you will eventually stumble across an unbuilt kit that is actually valuable in some respect: a. It has climbed in resale value as it has aged and other similar kits fallen by the wayside. If you…
-
The Glaring Omissions
In hobby shops full of Messerspitstang kits and the space ships of the latest franchise movie, it is actually painful to stride the aisles looking for the missing links. I concentrate most effort on 1:72 scale aircraft and have long built the standards. I’ve built the semi-standards, and a fair few of the obscurities as…
-
Get Right Back On The Horse
The iron rule of horse riding is that, after a fall that has not killed you, you get right back on the horse. This has the effect of showing your moxie to the other riders, quelling your fears, and giving you a chance to show the horse that you mean to be the master or…
The Little World 