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Perth’s Plastic People

Sunday morning at the big local scale model exhibition was a festival of wanderers – some with purpose and some with purses. I know…I was one of them. We do not dress well – in some cases because of poverty of purse…in others an equal lack of taste. No matter, we have paid to get…
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When Is An Apple Not An Apple?

When it is drawn as a diagram on the instruction sheet of a scale model piece of fruit. Then – particularly if the kit is from Prague – the part that looks like a Granny Smith, Mackintosh, or Cox’s Pippin could well be an aileron or de-icing strip. There will be few written notes to…
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Human Nature Is Optional

At a scale model competition there are certain conventions and rules: a. Models must be actually there. No good going around telling people how good you are. They are better at assessing you than you are. b. You enter your model in a specific division. There are 35,000 of these so it pays to be…
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” How Can You Waste Your Time On That Kit? “

This one? This kit? This vintage classic old Airfix retro sagger of a kit? How can I waste my time on it? You misjudge. You mistake the meaning of the word ” waste “. You imagine that anything not conforming to the current latest magazine or YouTube trend is a waste. Oh, My Dear… This…
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MiG-29 Fulcrum – Part Three – Smaller Scale

A smaller scale than I generally work with, but capable of real revelations. The Mig -29 appears in a lot of photos and artwork – and on videos of air shows and various combats. It always looks impressive – and massive. But building this model after completing the Sukhoi Su-22 has shown me how small…
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MiG-29 Fulcrum – Part Two – Thinking Behind

Thinking behind is opposite from thinking ahead and has different rules. a. You are not meant to feel good. b. You are not going to do a good job. c. The language is different. Shorter and sharper… My second lesson in second thinking came when I had closed up the fuselage of he MiG-29. It…
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MiG-29 Fulcrum – Part One – Not 1959

I can’t understand why Airfix did not make a 50¢ model of a MiG-29 in 1959 when I was a kid. But, better late than never. The second kit in the Fifty Cent Fighter series is as neatly moulded as the Su-22 – and contains just as many traps for the unwary. I am delighted…
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If It Is Not The Best Model That You Have Ever Made…

Is it the worst? Let’s face it – we do have failures from time to time. Things start out fine and end up slightly horrid. We may have done what we always do, expecting a win…and ended up with a loss. The finish was off, the shape was off, the build was off. We were…
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The Sound Of A Human Voice

Will draw money from the tightest purse. I wanted to buy some hobby items. My local enquiries proved fruitless – the range of goods had once been carried by local shops but they’d gone on to better paying stock…or failed to sell the previous items. In any case, I was not robbing local tables of…

