Category: Self Reliance
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Équipe Super Mystère – Part One – L’idée Dormante
For years these Heller kits have lain on the shelves. Ignored, discarded, unconsidered. Rather the story of many lives, eh? Well the reforming zeal of the SMCWA committee swept them from the storeroom and into my stash cabinet. Whence they have flown to the workbench and photo table. They are 1:100 scale – not a…
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Your Stash Is Not You
You are not your stash – any more than you are your collection of CDs or your underwear and socks. You may indeed possess many kits, and CDs, and socks and jocks, but they do not represent your skills, thoughts, or achievements. At best they are potential things. And just as you cannot wear all…
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Should You Slow Down?
I mean at the modelling bench – not on the roads. Out there you can go as fast as the car will do and no-one really cares. Swerve from lane to lane, as well… No, at the modelling bench you need to pace yourself. If you do not have an unlimited stash to dip into…
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You Look At It
It looks at you. The scale model stand-off; you have bought a kit well beyond your comfort zone. It has 1468 parts plus a booklet and a decal sheet with 47 different options. Every track link has 18 parts and you need to make up 256 of them. This might be fine, except it is…
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If You Cannot Raise the Standard Of Your Skills
At least lower the level of your expectations. The hobby, after all, is meant to give you pleasure. If all you do is whinge about the efforts of others and wince at the sight of yours…well, is it time to seek your joy elsewhere? I have gone up and down in my own estimation a…
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When You Have Done All You Can
Stop doing. The number of times a good model has been converted to a flawed embarrassment by that ” one more little touch “…The extra coat of varnish. The touch up paint. The superglued aftermarket part. You know you flubbed it instantly – yet the moment before you could not see to quit. Self-realisation at…
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And Yet…Here We Are…
As a kid and teenager I took a serious interest in scale models – and was increasingly scorned for it as years went by. The climate of the country changed – people expected more serious behaviour – there was nothing cool about pursuing something that a child could do. I was expected to grow up,…
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RAAF Spitfire Mk Vc – Part Three – Peg ‘0 My Heart
I love you… Okay, there is an earworm for you. If you are too young to know the tune put your cap on backwards, go away, and stare at your mobile phone. I am the strange old guy in the supermarket that looks at clothes pegs. Or the weirdo in Bunnings that tests out every…
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Don’t, Don’t You Believe It, Girlie…
Whenever someone tells you a kit is unbuildable, doubt them. Ditto when they tell you it is the best thing since sliced styrene. People’s opinions quickly convert to folklore and just as rapidly to gospel truth. There are scale model flat earths all about us. A case in point was given to me by a…
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FW 190 – Part Two – Bigger Is Better?
A question for those starting in 1/48 from a lifetime of 1/72. And does that mean better detail, better shape, or better fit? Are the clear parts going to be better? How about the decals? Is it fair to judge the scale on an old retro kit? Well, I build old retro kits in 1/72…
The Little World 