Category: Utility Models
-
The Unaccounted

Every so often I see things in the hobby shops for which I can find no explanation. These can be on alien shelves – the gundam and anime models – the motion picture and comic book models. I see things that bear no relation to my life whatsoever. They may be good kits, and they…
-
The Drive-By Scale Dumping

Someone, somewhere, is dumping 1:12 scale old mattresses on the verge outside dollhouse maker’s workshops. And someone is dumping their old scale models at our clubrooms. We are slowly pulling them out of our display cabinets and subjecting them to scale scrutiny. It’s not the quality of the building that is suspect – it ‘s…
-
Looking For A Good Time, Big Boy?

I’ve seen these advertisements in the back of the newspaper. But they are rarely from hobby shops… I don’t think we need to make our hobby – scale model building – sleazy and profitable to attract the masses. I am not sure how you’d add porn appeal to an M4 Sherman tank in 1:35 scale,…
-
I Asked About The Difference…

Between fantasy and science fiction, and the chap with the space helmet, ray gun, and rocket back pack just shook his head. So did his four-headed dragon, and that was a messy business. Took us half an hour to put out spot fires. In the future, I shall just observe the future from a distance.…
-
When Is Shoddy Workmanship Justified?

Never? Always? Something in between? Let us explore… The classic maxims about workmanship emphasize how you must always strive. ” Any job worth doing is worth doing well “.” A poor workman blames his tools “. ” Go west, young man “…and so forth. Stirring stuff. Makes you long for a moral Mixmaster. It has…
-
FROG Stash Avenger – Part Two – A Fine Frog

The reputation of older kits is low, but I think this can be undeserved judgement. This FROG moulding is all that one could decently want for the original cost and hits well above its weight at the stash price. The seams have met my expectations – and more importantly, the other parts they were designed…
-
Prior Exposure

If it all happened before, you can be sure that it will all happen again. Somewhere there is an iceberg looking for an ocean liner. And the next time you book a zeppelin… It is the same with scale modelling – you can bet on death, taxes, and Spitfire kits. If it caught a penny…
-
The Orphaned Kit

Shed a tear for the poor bedraggled box-scale kit that sits abandoned on the hobby shop shelf. It may have been there for months or years – left all alone in the world when its maker passed into the great bankruptcy in the sky. It is getting dented and dusty…shabbier with each passing day. And…
-
The Kit That Makes You Say Hmmm

We have all had one…and those of us with bad luck have had several kits that make us doubt whether we should have even started them. Sometimes it has been commenced in a hurry with blithe disregard to warnings from the internet. Sometimes we have been seduced by box art. Plastic porn, if you will.…

