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Remember: It’s Only A Hobby

If you’re smart. If you make it your job you have no hobby. Then you have to take up digging ditches to let off steam after building scale models all day… And so it goes. There are people who love their work and bosses who love that dedication…because they can make more money out of…
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Heinkel He 177 – Part Four – Courtesy Of The Resistance

A captured Heinkel 177 ready to be flown to the RAF for analysis and test flying. The paint shop has been busy making sure the thing is both presentable and safe to cross the Channel. The French roundels and tail flash were easy to do as one always seems to have spares of this sort…
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Heinkel He 177 – Part Three – Having A Fit

Pink or otherwise – sometimes you get things that you just wouldn’t do. I’ve yet to find my limits but to be honest I’ve stopped looking… The dry-fit stage of the Heinkel promised to be a time of tears and gnashing of teeth. I’d seen what old Airfix moulds could do when stored in hobby…
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Heinkel He 177 – Part Two – Riveting Detail

There are those in the world who would have me sand down the rivet detail of the 1967 Airfix Heinkel Greif, scribe lines between the panels, and re-mark sunken rivets. There are also people who would have me eat rutabagas and ground cockroaches…and I am here to tell you that I am as likely to…
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Heinkel He 177 – Part One – The Griffon Again

This model is a gift from my friend Paul, but it is not the first time I’ve built one. I purchased the same model from a small hobby shop located underneath Trinity Arcade in Perth in the 1960’s – a last gasp of plastic modelling before academic pressures took all my spare time away. I…
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The Scrap Bin Serenade

The next time you are tempted to spend $ 300 on a model kit, reflect on how many bottles of rum and how many popsies you could buy for that same price. At the same time, cast your eyes around your building space – whether it is a complete workshop or just a tea tray…
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The Big Local Model Show And The Big Local Model Shows

Actually there are about four Big Local Model Shows during a year…some of them at the same venue as next year’s April/May affair for scale models. The business might be a bit confusing if it were not for the fact that Perth enthusiasts of the various hobbies generally have the things sorted in their minds.…
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Gloss, Semi-Gloss, Semi-Satin, Satin, Semi-Matt, Matt, Flat

And all on the same model. Aren’t we a special modeller, then, eh? And these can all be produced by one spray-gun or brush. The most exciting times are when you try for one and get another. This is the point where your education comes in…because that is what has given you your vocabulary. If…
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Hawker Demon – Part Three – I Was Right

Well, it had to happen some time, eh? The Airfix Vintage Classic Hawker Demon is a colourful gem. The decision to pair it with the Bristol Bulldog was brilliant; it is every bit as good. The building fit was straightforward – once the sinks and posts had been dealt with. Very little filling needed on…
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Hawker Demon – Part Two – That Sinking Feeling

Bovril would have prevented this… Actually the problem is ejector post marks in the wings of the Demon. They are as marked as any I’ve ever seen, but fortunately Airfix configured the mould to place them on the underside of the wings and tailplane. Equally fortunatly I have an unused tube of Mr. Hobby white…
