Category: Tools
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The Painting Stand
We need a new accessory for scale model building…as if we do not have enough already… We need a cheap, sturdy, steady, adjustable stand to hold a model while it is being spray painted. It must be capable of holding the model firmly and in balance, and the spray must be able to reach all…
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Tool Time – Part Five – We’re There
Here’s what the Ustar people packed into their mini modeller’s tool kit – the kit I bought for the pair of plastic nippers inside. I’ll show you why today was a good day. The heading image was inside the cardboard case. That’s a 100mm x 200mm cutting board and sealed plastic box. Let’s tally up…
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Tool Time – Part Four – What Happened Next
Never glance. Glancing is dangerous. Either look deliberately or put your head down inside your shirt collar and see nothing. I know this because I glanced… To my left, as it happened, as I went to the till at Hobbytech to purchase the set of Ustar plastic nippers. I went past the rack that has…
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Tool Time – Part Three – The Choices On The Racks
I’ll confess it – I’m at a loss when I go to many retail outlets and look at the variety of goods on offer. I might go there with some problem in mind, but I fall apart when I see that the shop has half-a-dozen different solutions to it and a further half-dozen brands of…
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Tool Time – Part Two – The Positive Break
I thought it felt a bit odd. The nippers I keep in my travelling kit to separate plastic parts from sprue trees felt strange while biting into a kit. No-wonder – the coiled spring wire that separates the blades had fractured. Pretty good for a tool that was less than a year old, eh? It’s…
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Tool Time – Part One – Not All Tools Are Equal…
We all use tools, and if we are in the dating market occasionally they use us. Some tools are good – some bad. Some are expensive, and some cheap. If you go into the wrong bar you will get the latter types exclusively. Sometimes you’ll be in the same dilemma at your hobby shop or…
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The Two Fingered Salute…
Actually, that should be two-pronged, but I wanted to grasp your attention quickly with a slightly risqué title. I was going to add something about Mae West or Sabrina but the younger readers wouldn’t have any reference points… The business of painting bombers and transports is a little tougher than fighters. To start with, they…
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The Blood Sacrifice
The medieval costume club I once belonged to held regular workshop days in which they made swords, armour, and all the various accessories of historical life. They were brilliant blacksmiths, metalworkers, tailors, potters, etc. and they all suffered for it. There was a phrase that was used to describe the phenomenon – ” The Blood…
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Blackburn Buccaneer – Part Four – Sleeker and Sleeker
The last posting about the Bucc was a little discouraging – you saw the massive seams and holes in the thing for what they were. Like seeing an old actress without her makeup on. Well this time you get the effect of art and science. The holes have been filled and the layers of lacquer…
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Yeah, It Exists…
My piece on paint dilution and the accurate way to measure it was answered by a click on Google. You can, indeed, get a flow dilution meter for paints that electronically measures them. it costs $ 665 AUD and you can order it on-line. Go-on…fill yer boots. Or not, if you consider that $ 665…
The Little World 