Category: workflow
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Long Days Down T’ Bench

Or modelling until you can’t model any more. There are two types of long hobby days: a. The day that you just get to keep doing the thing you love, one bit after another. You finish one stage of the kit and are ready for the next one. Nothing breaks, nothing rolls off the bench,…
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And a Good Day To You…

Good days and bad days. Scale modelling has them both. How do you increase the number of the former while avoiding the latter? By exercising patience and good sense. Or by winning the Lotto and going stark mad. I cannot advise you which alternative to take, but if you choose the first, consider: A good…
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Patience? Patience? I’ve Had It Up To HERE With Patience!!!

You want me to wait until the cement dries? You want me to avoid touching the varnish? What kind of people ARE you? I sit, typing, when I could be busy spoiling a paint job or ruining a model by handling it too soon. The stress is killing me. I need to do something foolish…
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Farman NC 223.3 – Part Seven – L’Éminence Grise

By the time a large scale model gets to the Mr Surfacer 1000 stage I no longer have any authority over it – the command structure is reversed. In a way, it is comforting to surrender the initiative in this way. Oh, there will be patching and sanding and other attendances but the die has…
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Do Not Build

A useful list of things not to do in the scale model hobby… a. Do not build tired. Too late at night spoils paint jobs. b. Do not build drunk. One more little one can’t hurt you, but five more can. Hobby knives can cut flesh as easily as styrene. c. Do not build angry.…
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” You Could Do A Mediocre Job…”

So could you, mate. Which one of us would be raising our standards and which one would be lowering them? Self-criticism is often the tool of the tyrant – they get you to do it under threat because they don’t have the time to continually nag you themselves. Sort of a case of putting your…
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Nieuport 17C – Part Three – The Stick

I used to look upon the humble cocktail stick with disdain. No more. I am an eco-friendly convert. I believe the sticks – also known as satay sticks – are made of bamboo. This is an eminently sustainable crop and can be used with no eco-guilt at all. And they are cheap – I do…
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The Art Of The Signal Failure

I used to think that a signal failure was the dismal collapse of the world. I now view it as a necessary component in the chain of good communication…and not one to be ignored. I have done badly with my scale modelling at times…mostly through impatience and lack of understanding of the materials with which…
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Short Sunderland – Part Four – More Masks Than The Italian Banditti

I am not a mask person. They make me nervous – whether they are the Venetian Carnival sort or the plain ones worn by train robbers. I spent 30 years wearing them in surgery and I was generally up to no good there either… So when I need to mask for spray painting, you can…

