Category: Workshop
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Beaufighter TFX – Part Two – The 50’s Revisited
The quality of the Airfix Beaufighter is actually quite good when you get to the cut and glue stage. You must imagine the insides, but then you do that when you study anatomy as well and at least the kit doesn’t smell of formalin. All seams fit well, though I suspect the silver plastic used…
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When The Wheels Fall Off
My task a while ago was repairing models that had come into my hobby club’s possession from a deceased member. I wasn’t sure how long the task would be going for, but I did enjoy myself tackling the small jobs. The breakages were the result of the estate move – not because the models were…
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PAINT!
Never mind eating or washing or sleeping. The temperature has become cooler, there is no wind , and the humidity is low. Get out there in the shed and spray for your life. Being a scale model builder in Western Australia is a peculiar life. We are marginally more dependent upon the weather than a…
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How Cheap Can This Little Bastard Be?
Gosh, I remember my mother saying that when I was a kid. Takes ya back, eh… The tool wall you see in the heading image was the result of going to Bunnings and looking at the prices they wanted for Tactix tool boxes and storage containers. These are not the most expensive items, but like…
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When I Am In Trouble
When I am in trouble I hesitate to ask for help. Not that I fear it would be denied – quite the opposite; more advice would be tendered me than could be acted upon. It would come from all sides and in many cases would be diametrically opposed to itself. I should be hard-pressed to…
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Jet Jig Jive
I’ve just used the second of my new Slovakian assembly jigs for a jet. It is the Tornado GR.1 from Italeri – a perfect testing piece for the tool. There are square fuselage panels to rest upon. The geometry is markedly different from the WW2 small jig – though the construction materials are just the…
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Glossing Over it All
I tend to gloss over many things; my qualifications, my time spent in the chorus line of Le Crazy Horse*, the mysterious mounds in the back yard… And I now religiously gloss over my models in preparation for decaling. I have been caught by silvering too many times to take it lightly. The problem of…
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Mind The Gap
I started my search for the perfect gap filler to make my plastic models seemingly seamless a long time ago. Well six years or so, anyway. When there was still Stanbridges – Elvis and dinosaurs having passed away. The first tube I bought was from Tamiya, and unlike most of their products, was far from…
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One Tool To Rule Them All
And that is all I intend to borrow from Tolkien. I saw the movies years ago and that was all I needed. But the real topic here is that one tool. You know the one. The one that is there in your tool kit. It’s the one you had when you started model building. The…
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Are You Organised?
Are you organised enough? Or too much? Are people diving down side streets to avoid you when you ask them about organisation? Is it time for an intervention? I ask this in the wake of a day spent organising my modelling boxes. Note the plural there – it indicates that we are, as Kinky Friedman…
The Little World 