Category: Miniature Philosophy
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Snowball Effect

When I started writing weblog columns for the camera shop where I worked, I had no idea that it was going to be more than a flash in the pan – a management whim that would come and go as fast as a wink. Other ideas had done just that. But in the end I…
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US Army Ambulance – Part Two – The Bug Bear

Everyone has a sort of a bugbear in their modelling. One person will have no luck with paints. Another will continually mess up clear parts. In my case it is vehicles – I never complete one without some basic flaw. In many cases it is the basic structure that foxes me. 1:72 and 1:76 vehicle…
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Why Did You Want To Build That One?

If someone looks at your newly-completed scale model and asks you that question, you can give a good, cogent answer. If you ask the question of yourself, you are in trouble. If you cannot come up with an answer…you’re sunk. Or are you? There are some things that you cannot see clearly – some things…
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The Sanest Inmate In The Asylum

Whenever I look at what I am doing and wonder whether I have slipped the surly bonds of sanity, I compare myself to others in the same position. At the plastic model club Christmas BBQ I fell into conversation with a man who… Has 38 plastic model kits of 1:72 Feisler Storch aircraft. Because he…
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Douglas B-18 Bolo – Part Three – The Museum Ship

Is there any reason the US Army referred to their aircraft as ” ships “? I wondered at that – the US Navy referred to them as aircraft, and that’s not surprising as they would also have had to use the word ” ship ” in other ways…dealing with sea-going vessels. Why did they both…
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Why Is I Here?

” So tell me, Boss, why is I here? In the stash. In my little bag with my decal sheet and dodgy instructions. Why am I not back in the hobby shop with all the other kits? Why did I get chosen? ” a. You were the only kit of the essential model I need…
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Douglas Digby Mk I – Part Three – The Name…

I am puzzled. The name doesn’t seem to fit. When US airplanes got a name – as opposed to a model number – they generally got one that tied in with an established pattern – as a for instance, take the Boeing series of bombers – from B 17 to B-52 in four steps –…
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If All Your Pigs Are Dark Green…

Suppose you are a person who makes scale models of pigs…in the internationally standard scale of 1:26.8. And suppose you are a stickler for accuracy; you subscribe to International Pig Modeller Monthly, you regularly submit your models for scrutiny on the Masochistic Modellers Forum, and you have won Pig Modeller Of The Year at the…
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Hawker Sea Fury – Part Four – Perfect Paki

The PM model of the Hawker Sea Fury is just done and onto the photo table. It has been a symphony of pleasant surprises right from the start. And it’s a good lesson for the modern modeller – particularly the person who hangs on every internet report and thinks that there are experts who know…
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I Now Know…

I now know my least favourite scale modelling task: making up propellers from separate blades and hubs. I have just completed the gluing on two propellers for the Lockheed Electra Junior and am waiting for them to set. The maker decided to do the hubs in resin and the blades in styrene – so I…
