Category: Modelling Supplies
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If Someone Gives You A Free Lemon

Squeezing it is optional. The free scale model kit may be a present or a practical joke. If it is your birthday or Christmas it’s most likely to be the former. If someone hands you a forty-year-old kit box that looks as if it’s been run over in the driveway, the circumstance may be different.…
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Straight Out of The Aftermarket Box

Or not, as the case may be… The decision of whether to use aftermarket parts or just what is in the kit box is often a hard one to make. It’s one of the marvels of the age we live in that we have this choice. At one time there was nothing between the Airfix…
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The 1/285th Scale Model

Don’t let those pedants force you to 1/350 or 1/200 or anything else. If 1/285th was good enough for the 1950’s it is good enough for now. All we need is for the kit manufacturers to cut new moulds to this scale and box them. We desperately need another MISSOURI and BISMARCK…preferably with box art…
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Selective Ordering

A recent Youtube post by a Canadian hobby shop owner pointed out the selective nature of the current tariff brouhaha. He gets supplies in from US distributors and recently had a shipment stopped by Canadian Customs, with a 25% tariff fee slapped on it. When he was notified of this he took his ordering invoices…
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More Fire Tankers Needed

And not just in the summer months. The increasing problem of bushfires worldwide means more tanker aircraft are being used. The variety of planes that have been brought to the service is astounding. I have looked at a number of the bombers and surveillance planes I’ve built in their military configuration and realised that I…
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If A Model Is Priced Out Of Your Range

Quietly ask yourself a few questions: a. Is it beyond saving for? You may have some some change each week that can be put toward the kit, and many sellers will lay something buy on steady payments. b. Is it the only possible model of this prototype? Granted, you’ll not find many kits of Fandiddler…
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Fairchild Argus – Part One – Model 24

The box says Provider and the decals say Czechoslovakia, but I say Argus and RCAF. This AZ model started life on the Hobbytech shelf at $ 44.99 and stayed put. Then it went to WASMex 2024 at $ 20.00 and stayed put. When it came back to Hobbytech it still wore the show price sticker,…
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The Rises And The Falls

Someone mentioned a long-time model making firm was closing. Sad, but then lots of long-time firms have gone ( Aurora, Frog, Pyro, etc. ) and we are still building models every week. For the most part, the models we build are better than before. The closing of one firm means we turn to the opening…
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It Might Do What It Says On The Tin

But what if you can’t read the blasted tin? The hobby item packaged with a language you cannot understand is no better than the kit with no instructions. You may have a faint inkling about the dilution, application, drying time, or characteristics of a paint or varnish, but that might not be enough. The maker…
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Kit-O-Plasm

The spirit of dead models made to rise again. Let’s all sit in the dark, hold hands, and ask the ghosts of 1950’s kits to hover round us. Or we can go on eBay and do some exorcism. Or just go round the hobby shop and see what Revell have re-boxed. I’m waiting for the…
