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Swiss F-5E – Part One – Another Odd Buy
I make snap decisions when I am in the aisle of a hobby shop. These involve kit choice, paint colours, and must-have tools. They are nearly all bad. Later, when the fever passes, I look at the purchases and wonder where I’m ever going to use them. Some sit dormant for years, and then become…
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Modellers Need A Holiday
Or a festival. Not sure which would be better, but it needs to be a day that can have good things to eat and drink. I’m talking a regular, yearly holiday that can be gazetted in the Western Australian calendar the same as ANZAC Day or Easter. A day that you get off work, if…
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The Smell Of Victory
You’ll all remember the line from Apocalypse Now about napalm attacks. It harks back to my earliest modelling days when the smell of turpentine filled the house every time I painted. Those were enamel days – Pactra, Testors, and Humbrol. There was a fair range of quasi-lacquers as well from Revell that had a distinctive…
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The Songs Of The Modeller
There should be songs, anthems, or hymns that feature the scale modellers of the world. Something that celebrates life in miniature. They could include the march of the hobby shop, the airbrush sonata, and the after-market aria. The last-named would be saved for the encore and would cost roughly the same price as the rest…
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Tornado GR.1 – Part Four – Ms. Emily
I keep my promises. I said I would name this aircraft after he lady who gave me the kit, and so I have; Ms. Emily. She is a lovely dance entertainer here in Perth. The Desert Storm Pink is not a regular pot colour from Gunze. It’s made up of a tan with some red…
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Tornado GR.1 – Part Three – Jet Jiggery
And the occasional jet pokery, too. In fact poking plays a great part in a lot of my builds – I need to poke myself to get enough enthusiasm to even start. The Vertigo jet jig has the marvellous feature of a two-part clamp on the front to secure the nose of an aircraft from…
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Tornado GR.1 – Part Two – Play Value
I am never one to decry play value. Whether it is a model railway layout or a burlesque dancer, getting pleasure out of fiddling around is what it’s all about. Above all, we want things to move… This was the case with the dear old Monogram airplane kits of my childhood. Things that moved sold…
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Tornado GR.1 – Part One – A Gift From The Goddesses
And you never look a gift Tornado in the mouth. For that matter it’s not wise to peer into goddesses mouths, either… The occasion for this Italeri Tornado was a job of shooting a belly dance show. The entertainment was worth any expense but the addition of a free plastic kit – the choice of…
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Build Simply
Or, in the case of the stash maniacs in the readership – simply build… Today’s posts on my other two weblog columns has centred around simplicity – in living and purchasing. It can also be applied to our hobby of scale modelling. Not every kit or model needs to be super-detailed to be super fun.…
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The Rise Of The Decal
Once upon a 1950’s time, when all good boys deserved models, there were large airplanes with small sheets of decals. Then times changed and the proportions reversed. As a 1:72 builder I am dealing with the small end of the market…small as to individual size but large as an overall genre. It is ideal for…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
