Category: Modelling materials
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Lockdown Modelling

Put aside your politics, folks. I’m concerned with the practicalities of scale modelling when they call a lockdown in your area. If you’re at home to stay for a period of time, your best friends are not the TV or the cocktail cabinet. They are your library and your modelling stash. And possibly your computer,…
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Canadian Car And Foundry Harvard II – Part Three – Precision in Plastic

We are accustomed to read about how precise Tamiya model kits are. This is no exaggeration – they fit pretty well perfectly as soon as you clean the sprue feed points. We are also used to reading the groans of people who have tried to work with Mach 2, Amodel, or PM kits. They also…
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You Know Where You Can Stick It, Buddy

And wash your hands afterwards… I use all sorts of perfectly good adhesives for my modelling – cements, glues, resins, etc. And while they all have different formulae and different actions on the plastic models, they have one thing in common; I can make them go where they are not wanted. I have smeared every…
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Sopwith Triplane – Part Two – The New Techniques

I have decided to risk navigating this PaulPlane in only two uncharted waters: the use of the new decal technique and a new finishing varnish. The third experiment – the plastic rigging – will be postponed until a slightly larger model offers. It’s nice stuff, but a little thick for this job. The decaling system…
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All Your Problems Will Be A Thing Of The Past

Leaving time and energy for your new problems. Whenever you meet with an obstacle in your road to scale modelling you must stop and try to figure out what went wrong. Go to reference works – whether they be on-line or in magazines – and then talk to other modellers who have had the same…
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From Expensive To Valueless In One Simple Movement

Want to know how to convert $300.00 to nothing in a couple of weeks? Easy. Go put and buy a $ 300.00 kit and build it. It was worth the 300 on the shelf in the shop, dropped to 150 in your stash, and as soon as it was complete it became unsaleable. Not quite…
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The Scrap Bin Serenade

The next time you are tempted to spend $ 300 on a model kit, reflect on how many bottles of rum and how many popsies you could buy for that same price. At the same time, cast your eyes around your building space – whether it is a complete workshop or just a tea tray…
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Hawker Demon – Part Two – That Sinking Feeling

Bovril would have prevented this… Actually the problem is ejector post marks in the wings of the Demon. They are as marked as any I’ve ever seen, but fortunately Airfix configured the mould to place them on the underside of the wings and tailplane. Equally fortunatly I have an unused tube of Mr. Hobby white…
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The Difference Between Blazing and Blasé…

…Is generally time and experience. The more of these two you rack up the less you writhe on the rack. This applies to marriage and model building. I’ll leave you to deal with the first set of memories, but consider your experiences with your first plastic model kits. You were keen, you were fussy, you…

