Category: Uncategorized
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Nieuport-Delage 622 – Part One – The Unknown Fighter
Until I saw this Heller kit at a stash sale I did not know it existed, or that I desperately needed it. The interwar period is starting to become a hot topic with me – fuelled by some old Airfix and Matchbox kits with the occasional dash of Czech special-run. Now I have another Heller…
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AI And The Contest Judge – Part Four – You Lose Points
The scale modeller who seeks love by looking in the wrong places – ie a scale model contest – will be particularly ill-served by AI. The ordinary run of contest modelling is hard enough: A. The business of conceiving a new model based upon the bias of the judges – analysing what they rewarded in…
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AI And The Scale Modeller – Part Three – The Supervisor
If AI can think for itself, can it think for you? If you are unaccustomed to the task, there may be an opening… You generally decide to buy a kit by walking down the aisle of Hobbyhell and letting your imagination loose. As there are other enthusiasts in there with you it starts to take…
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AI And The Scale Modeller – Part Two – The Electro-Boss
Let us imagine for a moment that the model making firm of Plasti-Prag decides to download a computer program for AI to help out the staff. In it goes to the works Mac or PC, settling in amongst the porn and unpaid invoices, and the design section tries to use it to draw up box…
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AI And The Scale Modeller – Part One – Write It Down
The brouhaha about AI seems to be heating up, which is fine if you are in Australia in the middle of winter. Frankly, any warmth is welcome. For scale modellers it will make no less of a difference than it will for photographers, gossip column writers, or people who clean drains. We will explore the…
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Will Ruritania Join NATO?
This is a question that has been exercising the minds of diplomats all over Europe this past year. With events to the east of the kingdom there is a growing nervousness about military preparation. The Royal Ruritanian Army and their air arm, the RRAAF, have petitioned for additional armaments and fortresses. The previous air force…
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I’m Not Fussy
Really I’m not. You would be convinced of this if you saw some of the clothes I wear and some of the people I pal around with. There is a lot of slack there, and most of it is me. And I am getting a lot looser with what I build as a scale modeller.…
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Sherman Tank – Part One – The Shermanski
It felt distinctly odd to order this tank kit from BNA…considering that it is an American tank made by a Russian company depicting an item used by the Red Army. It was all lend-lease back then, and apparently the 2000-or so Shermans that were shipped to the USSR were liked by their crews, but the…
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It’s All About The Show
At the show, that is. This fatuous philosophy may make my model displays better in the future. I’ve just seen a wake-up that tells me the viewers need more than what many modellers give them. My library dioramas – 300mm x 820 mm – are kept to that size by the display cabinet that protects…
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Damn The French
Not for their food, or wines, or railway trains – which are excellent. Not for their beautiful women or their wise philosophers. Damn them for their aero camouflage schemes. Particularly the three-colour ones used in the 1930’s and 1940’s. They are hell to paint. The colours are fine – I like grey undersides. British Sky…
The Little World 