Category: Miniature Philosophy
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F-16A – Part Two – The Staged Build
I am constructing this aircraft model on the Fortnight System. It is opened and worked upon at the Cambridge Public Library during a meeting of the Historic Modelling Friends – a rather informal group of retirees who have been granted permission to use the library’s function room of a Saturday afternoon. As the room contains…
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Ready-Made Mistakes
Or, how to tread the primrose path in spite of the barriers. You cannot blame me, unless I am guilty. And I always am. Guilty of following orders, guilty of believing what other people tell me, guilty of valuing theatre over intellect. Not in real life, I hasten to add. When someone in vague authority…
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JS-2 Tank – Part Two – Can Vermibus
I should have known better – but in my defence I was unsupervised in front of a computer… The Facebook group that deals with 1/35 scale tanks is quite skilled in their model building. Every day there are pictures of builds or completed models that have amazing detail, fine camouflage, and careful weathering. They far…
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And Now The Shipping News
A number of chaps at my Men’s Shed morning are model ship builders – some exclusively and some as a relief from tanks or planes. I used to build boats – R/C ones as a young householder, and in my dim youth plastic ships as well. But so far not in old age. No real…
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Are You Proud Of Your Work?
That sounds like one of those passive/aggressive questions that bullies invent to make people feel bad. But bear with me – it is legitimate. Are you proud of the models you make? I am, and I display them at my studio in IKEA cabinets. I take pictures of them and post them on the internet.…
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The Light Plane Kit Vacuum
And I don’t mean vac-form either. I mean, where are the light plane kits in the scale modelling world? You can buy as much armour as you can carry, and as many fighter planes, bombers, and battleships as you might get through the front door – but if you want to have a shelf full…
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” In Compartment B, We Have…”
Is there a case for compartmentalizing your hobby? How about the rest of your life? We are addicted to following other people’s good ideas, even when they turn bad. Think of the number of articles, sites, and experts who appear on television telling you to declutter your life. And you a scale modeller. You are…
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Polish Tankette – Part Two – Better Than Nostalgia
Remember that great nostalgia we got before the war – it always fried up crispy and you could go from here to Sydney on it for 17 shillings… Well, I never went to Sydney for 17 shillings, but I did go to Don’s Hobby Shop in Calgary on Saturday mornings and spent my pennies on…
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Polish Tankette – Part One – A Gem Off The Shelf
This kit is the second venture I’m making in 1/35 scale – and this is a deliberate choice, rather than a chance purchase. The little Polish armoured car kit that I bought for a dollar proved to be so much fun to build that I determined to add more to the Stein’s Military World museum.…
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Is A Miniature Builder Bound To Drive A Small Car?
Or live in a small house? Or wear tight shoes? Well, no, but there is probably some connection here somewhere, if only we could avoid it. What correlation is there for the model builder with the real size of the world? Now we all know about scales – from universal ones, to maverick ones, to…
