Category: Uncategorized
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Fairey Firefly MkV – Part One – Double Sealed
When I bought this Airfix kit at the swap meet it was tightly sealed in a factory plastic wrap. Once inside I found it was sealed again with side-stickers. No-one who had not purchased this plane was going to get in there! The plastic bag that held the parts was open, but nothing escaped. The…
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Play Nice
Which is not the sort of thing you hear at many modelling contests. Wherever there is a judge, there will be a judgement. I suspect that in some cases the modeller is also treated like a suspect, and eventually there will be a sentencing. Watch me in the future and see if they make me…
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The Half-Built Bargain
However you acquire a half-built – stash sale, donation, or legacy – you buy more than a box. You buy a dilemma. A fresh kit, with a sealed box or bagged sprue trees, is a clean field to play on. It may be old, with tatty decals and useless instructions, but at least when you…
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The Courage To Play
Do you remember playing? If you can recall your childhood and still picture the games and toys that amused you…you are a very lucky person. Even if they were modest things, they helped you to understand the world and prepare to be an active part of it. You grew older – hopefully wiser. You l…
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Selling The Unsaleable
The heart of a hobby shop owner must be made of leather and whipcord. Or marzipan. Either way, it needs to be tough and resilient. The ultimate test of this comes at the end of the day when the last customer leaves and the till is totalled up. If the last customer is the only…
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PZL – The Karas Yet Again
You might have to avoid me on the street – I seem to have become slightly fixated with this old Heller kit. I may start babbling… At least I am logical maniac. I do not subscribe to conspiracy theories – I recognise the randomly idiotic nature of the world and do not attribute any of…
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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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Radio Controlled Daily Driver?
Are all R/C cars racers? Or 4WD buggies? Has no-one got the ambition to drive a scale model Toyota Camry to a scale model shopping centre and spend a half hour trying to back it into a parking space? I was brought to this when visiting the doctor recently. In the car park was a…
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Buy All The Superglue
And discover whether it really is super or not… I have looked with nuclear puzzlement at the cyanoacrylate cement racks in the hobby shop…as well as at the DIY shop. Frequently no idea at all forms in my mind, and I buy whatever is cheapest. The super-thin sort goes everywhere and into my fingers. The…
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Pursuing The Wild Hare
Fine, if it involves chasing one over a meadow. Not so good if it becomes anatomical. Sometimes people come to you with schemes. The ones that involve remaking the world in a medieval mould can be interesting, but you have to ask who is going to be the lord and who the serf. It makes…
The Little World 