Category: scratch-building
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Bless You, Mr. B.
Other people might pass you by, but I appreciate your work. Burfitt Tools are at many of the Little World events I attend; WASMex, the miniatures show, the model railway exhibition. I imagine that Mr. B. goes to other affairs – perhaps woodworking shows or R/C events. I cannot afford all the tools he displays…
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Serious Modelling
It is only serious modelling when the build blows up in your face or sends you to Royal Perth Casualty. That is why I have respect for this entry in the recent WASMex competition. It seems to be the result of welding and metal fabrication and is one of the few scale models I have…
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All Kit Builders Should Build Something From Scratch
All scratch-builders should build a model from a kit. It is no good looking at someone else’s take on the scale model hobby and pooh poohing it. Or wondering whether they have it better than you. Or wondering whether you could ever do it… Wise experimenters do it simple at first. The long-time kit builder…
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Scratch-building Pack
We often encounter notes on short-run kit instructions that tell us to scratch-build some part. It may be a strut or part of an interior. Perhaps a flap or plate or even part of the undercarriage. Indeed there can be kits where the parts are provided but are of such poor quality that you are…
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Hawker Typhoon 1B – Part Two – Scratch
Even if you don’t itch. It’ll be good for you. The bare tunnel between the open radiator grill and the open cockpit on this model are extreme – even for the early days of moulding. Airfix and Matchbox at least gave you a pilot, even if he was attached to the fuselage side with plastic…
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It Must Have A Little Challenge
It cannot be entirely Shake ‘n Bake. Easy-build kits are a blessing. I welcome the opportunity to whack together a classic air-frame in a day. It gives me a chance at the airbrush and decal printer next morning ( I love the smell of lacquer thinner in the morning. It smells like victory….). I can…
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Is Your Scale Being Scaled Back?
Is it getting tougher to find a new kit in your preferred scale on the hobby shop shelves? Here are some reasons why: a. The various wars around the world are interfering with trade enough to keep the plastic warships and planes away from us. b. The hobby shops are running lean in their buying.…
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The Specialty Wagon
Someone, somewhere, built special cars to transport any unlikely thing you can imagine. The LNER had fish vans, the NP had silk trains, and presumably the EFOM had tonky little coffee vans. You can buy potash cars that say ” Saskatchewan ” and presumably surprise your friends. I get my surprise looking a the odd…
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CAC Wirraway – Part Three – An Evergreen Cockpit
When the world gives you bare cockpits you just go out and build your own. The High planes Wirraway is a kit on a budget and there doesn’t seem to be enough in the kitty for much interior. I count a cockpit floor, two seats, two control sticks, and a couple of instrument panels. As…
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Was It Edison?
Who said he had discovered 10,000 ways that you could not do something before he made a successful electric lightbulb? I feel like that sometimes dealing with the scale modelling world. Whether it is painting or moulding, soldering or carving, there seems to be a long and winding road always ahead of me. A case…
The Little World 