Category: Modelling Supplies
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I Was Saving That For A Rainy Day…

When we set out stockpile materials, kits, plans, money, and tools with a hazy vision of one day making the grande supremo opus de-luxe model…we condemn ourselves to a lifetime of anxiety. For how will we know when that ultimate opportunity arrives? When can we open the secret vault door and bring out the ”…
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When All Else Fails, Cheap Out.

We all cruise the aisle of the hobby shop, hardware store, craft shop, or toy store looking for the Great Bargain. The Score. The Once-In-A-Lifetime chance to buy a $5000 model for 50¢. It never eventuates, of course, and we can become bitter and twisted. The thing we all need to do is realise that…
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” Modeller In Aisle Number Four. Call Security “

As scale modellers we are especial creatures – half way between stuffed Winnie The Pooh figures and blood-crazed werewolves. The staff in many stores recognise this and probably have contingent plans ready in case the moon is full. I know I have found myself staring lustfully at items in shops that would seem to have…
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The Little Workshop – When A Hunch Pays Off

I rarely go downtown these days unless it is to haunt the bookstore or check up on the branch of the camera shop I used to work for. The rest of the shops are filled with wonderful things that I don’t want and the streets are filled with people I wish to avoid. But there…
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When Is Old Junk…Old Junk?

And when is it Invaluable Historic Resource? This thought was forced upon me as I sifted through the secondhand dealer’s goods at the Model Railway Exhibition this year. There were at least three dealers specifically dedicated to secondhand – perhaps there were more that I did not see. Their stock ranged from quite professional goods…
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Whenever You Make A Model of Something…

Make a model of something. That is not just my entry into the fatuous statement of the year contest – it is the realisation that there are a lot of things that people do as modellers that are not helping themselves. Let me explain… a. If you essay to be a railway modeller, you need…
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The Seven Circles Of Modeller’s Inferno

Dante was not the only person who made a journey to the lowest depths of Hell and wrote about it. I’ve been to the hobby shows myself. Apart from a little more sulphurous smell and uglier demons, they are remarkably like the underworld. And just as Dante found, there are distinct levels of the place,…
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The Witchcraft That Is Airbrushing

I am new to airbrushing but not that new. A couple of tentative years under my belt. I’ve gone from stark terror to grudging acceptance. Reminds you of married life, doesn’t it? The first airbrush was a cheapie from Metro Hobbies, but complete enough to have three separate needle/nozzle/housing options included. They are stated as…
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When Your Time Has Come…

I was thinking of this question while visiting the local hobby shop – Hobbytech. A Sunday afternoon and just the time one runs out of khaki-coloured paint. No good sitting there and wishing that it would appear in the paint rack – you just have to go out and get it. The hobby shop was…
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The Integrated Multi-Level Spatial Constructional Workflow Paradigm

Oops, sorry. I had the Dilbert switch turned on there when I typed that. Lemme turn it off. Here we go again. ” When To Glue Things On. ” That’s better. As a topic it may seem a lot more complex than it really is…because the whole thing basically is not to stick something on…
