Category: Miniature Philosophy
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Well, I’ll Be Darned, Eh…?
I’m so pleased that the photographs I took in my studio of Bill Duncanson’s Bentley motor car model have made it to the cover of the premier Australian modelling magazine; Modelart Australia, Issue 110. I feel it to be a real, if unacknowledged, achievement for my studio. Of course the graphic artist on the magazine’s…
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The Courage To Bin The Trash
If you are an inveterate collector and hoarder like me, throwing materials away is a difficult task. Every cut scrap of something looks as if it will be useful for some project and you save it in the appropriate storage tub. Plastic, wood, metal, cardboard, etc. Eventually you fill up the tubs and find yourself…
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Vought Corsair F4U-1 – Part Four – Delivery In A Plain Envelope
Students of military aviation are very quickly attuned to the finer points of insignia, markings, and unit numbers. You have only to go to some of the more intense internet modelling forums to read people engaging in passive/aggressive arguments about the exact position of the ” No Step ” stencils on the Hurricane Mk XXXIV…
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Vought CorsairF4U-1 – Part Three – Thanks, Doc…
Thank you, Dr. Tamiya. I needed that. That slap in the face with a model kit: That fits together without sanding or filing. With an entire cockpit in 1:72 as a matter of course. With wing seams that need no putty. With the engine where all cylinders are part of the injection moulding and no…
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Vought Corsair F4U-1 – Part Two – Which Came First?
Well, which came first; the chikin or the tamago? Did Tamiya get a good reputation by building precise model kits or did they build precise model kits because they had a good reputation? At what point did they say to themselves ” We must make excellent products above all…”. Did they have a modelling adolescence in which…
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If You Build A Barber Shop, They Will Comb…
If you wish to give yourself a treat – for about $ 40 a throw – go down to the hobby shop and look at the OO/HO building kits. You’ll find them for British, North American, and European buildings, and there is hardly anything that you can imagine that cannot be bought. If you stray…
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Grumman Widgeon – Part One – The Small Goose
The Sherriff’s Mini Cars shelves had some of the best and oddest kit shopping I have been able to do for some time. Stashes had disgorged treasures and/or trash and they were sensibly priced for all that. I have no idea how new the Widgeon is, not how long it may have mouldered on the…
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Why The Devil Am I Writing This All Up?
You may find yourself asking this question when you read this column – or any of the other fine bits of sticky literature* I write. The humour column, the camera column, or the commercial photo column. The last named is, of course, written for money…I’m not ashamed to get paid for typing. But what of…
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Boxing Day Is Only Good If You Need Boxes
And I do. In my cases I need boxes with plastic model airplane kits in them. This year I opted for the do-it-yourself-later option. I asked for gift vouchers for the local hobby shop. The good family delivered as requested and I am now cashed up for the next few months – whenever I need…
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Tool Time – Part Three – The Choices On The Racks
I’ll confess it – I’m at a loss when I go to many retail outlets and look at the variety of goods on offer. I might go there with some problem in mind, but I fall apart when I see that the shop has half-a-dozen different solutions to it and a further half-dozen brands of…
The Little World 