Category: Miniature Philosophy
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Sandown Park 2019 – Part Three – Why Are We Here?
I don’t mean to get all angst-y and existential on you, but I did find the thought expressed in our heading crossing my mind at the recent model exposition. I was prompted to it by three sights: a. The line of patient modellers coming into the hallway with their creations. This was well and…
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So Why Does One Model Tank?
And another become a classic? I’m not talking about 1/35 scale armour here. I mean why is one model kit a success and just keeps on selling, and another ends up in the auction house for unsold kits within the first six months? a. Is it a bad model? Badly conceived, badly moulded, poorly packaged.…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Six – The Strelsau Line
Air defence in the 1930’s was a complex thing – most nations had various plans in hand for offensive strategic war against their most likely enemies – and in some cases against their most likely allies. In some case the former was the least likely… There were also equivalent plans for air defence, though it…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Five – Strategic Supply
Every airforce needs certain givens; air space, landing fields, aircraft, fuel and armament, and personnel. An enemy to fight is also useful for purposes of publicity. The RRAAF was no exception to this. They had potential enemies enough, airspace limited only by mountains and fogbanks, and enough flat ground near to the town to allow…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Three – Build Up To Obscurity
As the war clouds darkened over Europe in the 1930’s, the government of Ruritania realised that the defence of the realm would require additional spending – both for ground and air forces. Fortunately the kingdom is entirely land-locked and has no need for a navy aside from Customs and Excise boats on the lakes to…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part Two – Dual In The Skies
Students of middle European history cannot be unaware that Ruritania is surrounded by Germanic and Slavic nations. While they have neever been quite completely occupied by invaders, they have never been completely free of them, either. This may seem to sit oddly with the decidedly British title of Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force. This is…
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The Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force – Part One – Hope For The Future
The construction of a Little World can be a casual thing – a few paper dolls and a cereal box becomes an entire population in a city. Or endless years of painstaking research and modelling yields a vast empire. There can be accuracy and fantasy in anything…but for those of us who were raised on…
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The Logistical Nightmares
I have to take my hat off to several sets of modellers seen at the recent plastic model show – and none of them are plastic modellers. a. the 1:72 ship society. Radio controlled ships these, and the discipline of the club is such that they are all kept to common scale and a pretty…
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North American AT6 – Part Two – Building The Factory Build
I am aware that Hobby Boss airplane kits are viewed as little-kid stuff by many modellers. Easy assembly, few extra parts, defined edges to some mouldings. The up-and-down assembly of a fuselage and wing unit – sometimes with horizontal stabilizer attached – suggests an activity for the ungifted. Perhaps it is so, but you need…
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Who’s A Dealer and Who’s a Wheeler Dealer…
And how can you tell the difference between them? Perhaps we should mention a third category first – the retail dealer. a. The Retail Dealer has a shop – sometimes an on-line one, sometimes a physical store. Sometimes a combination of the two, if there are enough staff with enough expertise to run it all.…
The Little World 