Category: Model building club
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The Awkward Sound

The awkward sound of scale models breaking is one that you never want to hear, but that you are bound to encounter at sometime in your hobby career. If you are lucky, it will be you breaking your own kit, and no one else involved. Unfortunately there is more than one kind of luck. I…
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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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Grumman Wildcat – Part Two – Four-Part Harmony

In each of the two pictures on this post there are four plastic parts. They’re glued up and setting overnight. The time taken to get to this point, including the washing of the parts, was about one hour. I’ve spent longer in the barbers. This would be a terrible thing for some modellers to contemplate.…
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New Members Wanted

And not because the old ones are wearing out…because new people have new ideas. The scale modelling club I joined a couple of years ago had an annual general meeting and it looks as though there is a need for fresh blood. Not just on the Xacto knives, either. We need more members. I am surprised…
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The Dusty Shelf

Don’t judge us. The image of the top of the cabinet was taken at my scale model club recently – but we have a valid excuse. The clubrooms have no ceiling and there are gaps in the eaves at each side. Dust blows in and settles on the top of things. Thank goodness there is…
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Grim Reality Vs Grim Fantasy

I am often puzzled at the selection of model kits on the shelves of my local hobby dealers. They’re good dealers and I love them dearly – just as I love the dealers in the eastern states when I visit them. Every one is different but they all have a certain feel to them that…
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Play It As It Lays

That is either a very good rule for golf or a really weird idea involving musical chickens. But for our purposes we’ll apply it to scale plastic model building. Many people in my scale modelling club – The Tuesday Soviet – pursue the purchase of kits through the internet. They patronise larger shops in the…
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It Works, Igor! The Creature Lives!

This week’s photo session at the scale model club was the first actual use of the new focus-stacking technique I’ve just learned. It is undoubtedly old hat for many, but I have a new head and it just fits me fine. The technique is based in Photoshop 2019 and required several steps – but as…
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Seriously Old Decals

By a serious old modeller. I seem to be turning into the olde cheape modeller these days…and loving it. The number of older kits that have fallen into my hands lately suggests that I am either dumpster diving for my hobby or other people are not recognising the value of their own possessions before they…
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The Rough Finish

My modelling club has a number of senior members who seem to build model armour as their specialty. I don’t know if they are former members of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps or not, though from conversations a number certainly seem to be ex-servicemen. I am envious of their kits – the modern tanks in…
