Category: Modelling materials
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Art For Sale
And it’ll be the kind you understand. There were a number of trade tables at the WA Miniatures Association weekend show. They were selling furniture, clothing, foods, art supplies, and building materials…all in very small sizes. I counted paper craft and modelling, doll clothing, accessories, furniture, food platters, and any number of other temptations. I…
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Backed Away From The Airbrush
And no-one got hurt… My daughter – a net-savvy person – heard me chortling about the idea of using cheap vodka for airbrush working. She did some searching and found an Amazon product that could arrive at the door for 1.3¢ per ml. I had no words. She ordered a bottle, and I prepared the…
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The Commander Of Leftover Air Base
The home of the 103rd Tactical Kit Boxes. Our motto: ” What The Heck Is This? “ It is a heavy responsibility to be the grate at the bottom of the scale modelling drain. To be the hobbyist that follows the parade of kits with a broom and a shovel. To be the person under…
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Grumman Tracker – Part Two – Do You Goo?
Yes, I do – particularly when I am making Idea Model, Minicraft, Mistercraft, or Novo kits. It is a natural reaction to the sight of gaping crevasses. I should be a quivering mess in Antarctica. At my workbench I am just barely controlled. It was not always thus. As a child builder I would have…
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What Do You Do With The Leftovers?
If they are corned beef or meatloaf I embark on a glorious week of sandwiches. If they are scale model kits or model paints there are other procedures. Check me out against your own workshop. a. The parts of a kit that are not used – the extra canopies, wheels, snow skis, or armament –…
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You Can’t Do That
Because, because… a. It isn’t done that way. b. It isn’t done. c. I can’t do it. And there we have it, children. The gatekeeper, scale model authority, icon, legend, club ‘rak who would bar you from carving your own Spitfire from a bar of laundry soap has spoken. You must obey. Or… You salute…
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Sprue Trees – The Movie
May the Swarf be with you… Modellers get a bad rap in movies. We are seen as small-scale weirdos – harmless at best but psychotic at worst. It all started with Marilyn Monroe’s ” Niagara ” of 1953 when the husband of Marilyn is seen as a shell-shocked loser addicted to building plastic car kits.…
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Swedish NA-16 – Part Four – Pinning Your Hopes
When all else fails, reach for the drill… Sorry, old habits die hard. Actually that should be reach for the forceps and slide that bucket over here. Open wide. The butt joint wing or tail surfaces are the easy way out for many short-run kit designers. They imagine you will square up the fitting surfaces…
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Swedish NA-16 – Part Two – The Plastic Mangler
I would have written ” wrangler ” but you wouldn’t believe this kit. The fuselage halves are two different sizes. Not by much, but by enough. I reduced them somewhat upon a sandpaper sheet taped to a flat surface, and then attacked the thicker half with a Dremel tool, The centre seam doesn’t fit, but…
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Swedish NA-16 – Part One – The Beechnut Models Company
You’ll want to remember that name – in case you are ever faced with one of their kits. If so, you have choices: a. Buy it, spend days of your life coping with its awful nature, and eventually turn out a masterpiece. Then die. b. Save time. Fall to the floor grasping your chest. c.…
The Little World 