Category: Modelling Supplies
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Who Decides And How Do They Do It?

I walk the kit aisle in the local hobby shop and wonder about the choices that have been made – and I’m not sure about all three tiers of retail trade; manufacture,selling, and buying. The maker of the plastic model kit needs to make a fair few of them with a profit upon each sale…
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Faith and Begorrah…

” Tis a green jig. It must be Irish. ” Well, ’tis green now but it’s about to become feldgrau and then olive drab, and then azure blue in patches. And then you can assign whatever nationality you want to it. It’s Mk III painting jig – the foamboard structure upon which I hang the…
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Hobby Money – Part Six – Setting Up.

You’ve seen my figures before on setting up for re-enactment or radio-controlled aircraft or amateur photography but I’ll give them a brief reprise: a. Reenactment – $ 200 to stand around home as a medieval, $500 more if you wish to slay dragons. Add $ 1000 if you wish to camp out and another $…
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Grumman Duck – Part One – The Civil Mould

I have a suspicion that the Airfix Grumman Duck in 1:72 scale is an older mould – the raised rivet lines. Perhaps a Matchbox kit re-issued. I also find that as I am an older modeller – it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. That is the fine legacy of being able to build the…
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The Brush With Debt

I went to the opium den today to buy some brushes. Not a real opium den, you understand – that would be far less dangerous and addictive. I went to the hobby shop. The crafty villain…I mean the nice lady behind the counter…was cheerful as always and waved me on to my destruction in a…
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When You See Behind The Scenes…

A casual question in the local hobby shop sent my heart to my boots. The brand of paint to which I had pinned my hopes – the brand that I had determined to change to – the best material with which I have yet worked – had lost their Australian distributor. What I saw on…
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Hobby Money – Part Two – When They See You Coming…

I understand certain things about economics. Such as, everything costs something; time, money, trouble, blood, ec. In the case of items sold by shops the situation of the shop can noticeably influence the prices charged. Knowing this all along doesn’t mean that seeing it in operation is rendered any less distressing when your pocket is…
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Hobby Money – Part One – The Price Of The Hobby Versus…

Versus the value of the hobby – an eternal debate in many fields. Whenever we engage in an activity that does not immediately yield food, shelter, or sex, there has to be some calculation as to the worth of the time and money spent. In most cases the good stuff takes a considerable amount of…
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The Junkman Cometh

And is damned proud of it, at his age. Now back to the Little Workshop. All junk is not junk. Some junk is junque – witness the sort of things that twee secondhand shops import from Pakistan and sell as genuine. Junque indeed. Some junk is material that is just resting between engagements. The box…
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Boeing Vertol CH 147 Chinook – Part Four – The Blue Mask Of Courage

No, you haven’t wandered into a Marvel comic – the blue mask of courage does not fight crime. It covers things up…rather like a bottled version of a parliamentary enquiry. Except it smells better. Youve read here of my efforts to mask clear canopies on 1:72 scale aircraft by various means; tape squares, Humbrol rubber…
