Category: Modelling Supplies
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Is There A Mathematical Formula For Fun?

Or is it all just numbers? When you see scale model kits offered for sale at different prices, is there a correlation in those figures with the size of the scale and the degree of happiness that will be generated? Can we do the maths? a. If you never build the model, there is no…
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The Future Of The Box Scale

I am starting to wonder about the future of the dear old box scale for model kits. I would have judged that the day is dead for this form of moulding. The division of the plastic kit industry into recognisable scales for particular purposes is so far advanced that there would seem to be little…
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When A Whim Pays Off

And I don’t mean just chasing ladies down the street… I had a whim, based upon a Christmas present. I’d received two lithium-ion batteries for the Ryobi 18+ system from the wife. They were intended to help me mow the studio lawns with an electric mower. All clear so far. Being Temu products, we decided…
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MiG 3 – Post Script

Looks like I was barking up the wrong tree – or at least one containing different squirrels. The MiG 3 kit I reported on – with the home-made canopy – came with an Italeri instruction sheet. I assumed they were the authors of the mould, and was a little nonplussed at some of the quality…
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MiG 3 – Part One – The Bag Of Almost

Another dusty diamond from the bowels of the storeroom. This is No. 180 model in the Italeri catalog – it could have been from any time between 1978 and 2018 but I’m betting on the earlier dates. I’ve no way of confirming this as it’s been supplied in a battered plastic bag full of almost.…
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You Can Only Build What You Can Get

And if you can’t get something, you have to build it… The principle of the scratch-builder. Also of the realistic builder – a person who may not know their own limitations but can list those of the local hobby shops in detail. This is not just snarkiness – the realistic builder knows that not every…
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How Many?

And how would one ever find out? I have been amazed at the number of firms that make plastic scale model kits. I knew of perhaps eight when I was a kid – and some of them have long disappeared – but they have been replaced in the shops with what may be hundreds more.…
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Équipe Super Mystère – Part One – L’idée Dormante

For years these Heller kits have lain on the shelves. Ignored, discarded, unconsidered. Rather the story of many lives, eh? Well the reforming zeal of the SMCWA committee swept them from the storeroom and into my stash cabinet. Whence they have flown to the workbench and photo table. They are 1:100 scale – not a…
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CAC Winjeel – Part Four – FTS 1

Point Cook, Victoria. SOOTB rendition of this Winjeel and I don’t think I could be happier with the result. It will form the starting point of a number of RAAF training types – with the occasional side-excursion to an aerobatics team aircraft or the FAC service livery as used on ADF exercises. You have to…
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If You Cannot Raise the Standard Of Your Skills

At least lower the level of your expectations. The hobby, after all, is meant to give you pleasure. If all you do is whinge about the efforts of others and wince at the sight of yours…well, is it time to seek your joy elsewhere? I have gone up and down in my own estimation a…
