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When Someone Builds A Better Mouse Trap
The world is supposed to beat a path to their door. Which may not be a good thing…if they have just put in expensive turf and roped it off while the sprinklers are on. Plus the place may be knee-deep in dead mice and stink to high heaven. We had one that died in an…
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S.P. – Part Six – A Dollar
I have never spent my money better. Even if it was only a single coin. The Mirage company may be big or little, but whichever, they make a good product. This unexpected purchase has proved to be successful, and will form the basis of an entire museum. The model is not without flaw. Anyone trying…
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S.P. – Part Five – So Shoot Me
I spend a lot of time puzzling about camouflage paint schemes. Any scale modeller does – they are the basic currency of our paint economy. In the case of this Polish armoured car, the intended theatre of operations was Poland and eastern Germany and the time was the fall of 1939. This may explain the…
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S.P. – Part Four – Precision Is As Precision Does
I had no idea what to expect with the Mirage model of the little armoured car – the firm was a mystery to me. I was pleasantly surprised. Precision in some scale modelling is everything…and in other cases it is nothing. Some makers have magnificent box art disguising parts that frankly do not fit together.…
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S.P. – Part Three – Chassis
I have to keep reminding myself that I am basically playing with a dollar coin here. The kit is progressing well, with a club day spent making wheel and tyre assemblies and getting the running gear on the chassis. The top casing fits down with perfect precision, so it can be finished separately from the…
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S.P. – Part Two – Polish Soft Serve
The plastic with which this Polish kit is moulded is not quite as soft and flaky as that used in the French Mach 2 offerings…but not too much harder. It is softer than new Airfix styrene and it pays not to cut too close to a moulded surface for fear of gouging or tearing. However,…
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Samochód Pancerny – Part One – And Now For Something Entirely Different
One day I met a man at a fair and he was selling magic beans… Okay. I confess. I’m bean stalking you. It wasn’t at the fair, it was at the model club. And he wasn’t selling magic beans – he was selling unwanted kits from Poland. A big cardboard box of what may have…
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How Accurate Were They Back In The Day?
Depends on who they were and when the day was… I well remember seeing an Aurora Famous Fighter kit sold in Canadian hobby shops that purported to be a Soviet plane – variously touted as a Yak 25 or a MiG 19, that was nothing like either aircraft. It may have been drawn up and…
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Are Scale Modellers Just Overgrown Children?
We may be, depending upon who you ask. The secret to happiness is not to ask. Adult scale modellers of any ilk…car people, boat people, plane people, people people…can often find that other adults treat them with a snide disdain. Words and attitudes are discovered that suggest childishness in the modeller, and reduce them socially…
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Dewoitine D.510 – Part Four – Spanish Star
I am delighted to say that the Dewoitine D.510 has made it to the photographic flying field and it is a sunny day. The silvery colour is French silver-grey – a custom mix that has just received a boost from the dregs of a Mr Color bottle. It has changed yet again, which is the…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
