Category: Scale Models
-
The Orphaned Kit
Shed a tear for the poor bedraggled box-scale kit that sits abandoned on the hobby shop shelf. It may have been there for months or years – left all alone in the world when its maker passed into the great bankruptcy in the sky. It is getting dented and dusty…shabbier with each passing day. And…
-
The Rules Of Engagement
I was a a meeting recently that set out the rules for an upcoming scale model exhibition. The briefing was from one of the chief organisers and was very well done. He was in a position to make the set-up and operation perfectly clear, as I suspect that he was able to control his committee…
-
Canadian Valentine Tank – Part Three – World of Wheels
I get on quite well with wheels in my model aircraft building – because I normally only have to paint three of them for each plane. Open a tank kit and start counting the round objects. No matter who made it – Germans, Russians, or British, they all decided that more wheels were better and…
-
Canadian Valentine Tank – Part One – Well You Had Me At…
At Canadian, actually. Anything with a maple syrup glaze. This was not a model I saw in a local shop – it was ordered from the eastern states after a dangerous internet browsing session. It came with another Canadian armoured vehicle, but unfortunately I had not looked closely at the web page – that one…
-
Handley Page Heracles – Part One – A Present From The Past
I recently asked my daughter to pick me up a fresh model kit when she passed through Melbourne. There are several good shops there and she might encounter something new. Well, she was taken by something old – an Airfix vintage Classic re-issue of a 1965 kit – the Handley Page HP.42 ” Heracles ”…
-
Canadian Valentine Tank – Part Two – Semi-Detailed
I am alternately delighted and dismayed when I see the interior of a model kit. It may be anything from fully-detailed to absolutely bare, and even the walls of the cockpit or interior of the tank or car may be problematical. There are moulds that concentrate their ijector pin towers right where you are looking.…
-
Risk Management In Scale Modelling
The Amalgamated Fireproof Insurance Company Pty Ltd asked me to write this to help prevent modelling disasters that they might have to pay for. The risks they don’t cover – well, knock yourself out. a. Don’t model drunk. Little knives and spray guns become a lot more fun when you’re schickered, but you’ll regret it…
-
General Dynamics F111 – Part Three – The Masked Bandit
Every model you build teaches you something – this little one showed me how to conquer the tri-tone scheme. Normally I hate ’em – the Armée de l’Air or USG or Italian three-colour camouflage that looks so cool and takes so much masking and spraying time. I have been known to chicken out more times…
-
General Dynamics F111 – Part Two – Library Day
Every fortnight I repair to the Cambridge Library in Floreat for an afternoon of modelling, coffee, and chocolate biscuits. As it is a public place there is no booze allowed, and I drive home clear-headed. Except if there has been a lot of cementing and painting. Fortunately 1/144 involves very little of either and the…
-
General Dynamics F111 – Part One – A New Maker
I am never happier than when building a kit from a maker that I have not encountered before. It is a new land to explore. This Arii kit from Japan came with very rudimentary instructions - really nothing to help with decal placement or colouring save the box art. Yet the individual components and the decals…
The Little World 