Category: Workshop
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The Five Dollar Model

Earlier in this column’s history I introduced the Glorious $ 5 Plan – the construction of an ICM Polikarpov Chaika in 1:72 scale that only cost me $ 5 to do. It was a one-off opportunity provided by a discard box sale at the annual WASMEX show…and you can be certain that I’m going to hover…
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The Benefit Of Hindsight

We are often told of the benefits of hindsight. I wonder – no-one I know has a picture of their backside on their wall. Mostly it is faces and family groups. In fact, I don’t think I can remember seeing a family group from the rear. So I suspect the old saying is bunk. There is,…
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The Eternal Question…

To spray or brush. Whether ’tis nobler to dilute the paint and shoot it onto the tiny row of parts in a minute and then spend 5 minutes and 10ml of cleaner getting the airbrush clean again, or spend ten minutes brush painting the little suckers…and the next week trying to ignore the brush marks.…
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” The Hot Wash Up “

An expression taken from the military – it is the quick analysis of some exercise or battle that has just taken place. It’s related to the cold wash-up, which is a more detailed discussion of the event undertaken later when more information is to hand…and blame can be laid more accurately. In the Little World…
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Workmates

I seem to have a number of workmates in the Little Workshop. I daresay they have taken shelter there in the winter and become accustomed to the place. How they cope with the soaring temperatures in the summer is another question, but there are cool places in the garden that they could migrate to. None…
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Tea Tray Mk II

Readers of this column may remember – or can search back – to read about Tea Tray Mk I. It was the adaptation of a cardboard box lid left over from an IKEA purchase that allowed me to bring my plastic modelling indoors when temperatures soared in the Little Workshop. The Little Office has an…
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Mr. Hallelujah

My interest in, and respect for, the products of the Creos GSI corporation is steadily growing. Their ” Mr. ” line of paints, thinners, surfacers, tools, and accessories is extensive and is available in may hobby shops here in Perth – including my favourite: Hobbytech. Of course they are not alone in the paint aisle…
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Ungluing The Kit

Or ” Are You Stuck With it? “. A recent question on Phil Flory’s YouTube channel about dissolving old glue on a model kit – really old 1950’s Testor cement – was ably handled by the team of English modellers when they advised the questioner to put it away for another 50 years and wait…
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Peas And Carrots – Part Two – The Colour Coats

Why peas and carrots? Because they are vegetables that always look better in the images on the cans than they do on your plate – and they are always greener or more orange in someone else’s dinner. My experiments are designed to improve their colour and flavour on mine. The colour paint coats that went…
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Peas And Carrots – Part One – Haunting the Shops

And paint mules. A fine dinner combination, but you have to be trained up to the taste. Today has been another day spent in the Lawrence Liverwurst labs, experimenting with finishing materials. I have seen intriguing advertisements for different clear coats and decided to see if they were indeed the El Dorado of painting. I…
