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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part Two – The Peek Into The Box
I must confess to a slightly pusillanimous nature when it comes to buying model airplane kits sight-unseen. I was bit by a Revell Tradewind kit as a child and the scar still throbs in wet weather. I prefer to look carefully at what I’ve got before I spend my money. Nevertheless I do read reviews…
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De Havilland Mosquito Mk II – Part One – 12:35 In The Morning
6 July, 1944. Western France – near the Pas de Calais. One of HM aircraft on a Serrate mission was lost. It crashed with my wife’s uncle in it. His navigator was killed, he evaded capture, and was eventually delivered back to England by the French Resistance. He wasn’t allowed to fly over enemy territory…
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Serious Money For Lighthearted Spenders
When you enter a hobby shop, do you do it with a happy heart? Do you skip in with a Tra La and a happy whistle? Do you greet the proprietor as an old friend? Or do you slink in round the corner of the door and growl at the staff behind the till? Do…
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The Mensa Shed
The term ” Men’s Shed ” is current in Australia – used to describe a social club centred around men doing workshop or other hobby activities. I have heard it treated with disdain – and wish to correct that attitude. It is a brilliant concept. I participated in one recently – devoted to scale model…
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I’m More Eco-Virtuous Than You Are
So there too, hah! Actually all us model builders have an opportunity to stick it to the Facebook/Shopping Centre/News bite saints who scold us daily about everything we think or do – particularly the ones who would deny us everything from plastic straws to bear traps. We are ahead of their game: a. Plastic straws.…
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Messerschmitt 109 – Part Four – The Production Line
I cannot think of a worse way to approach the business of being a scale modeller than that of a production line worker with a contract to produce a product in a set time. This also applies to the full-size workers who made the full-size airplanes – Some were employed and some were drafted and…
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Messerschmitt 109 – Part Five – The Captive Bird
A surprising number of airplanes have been captured in war and returned to flying on behalf of their enemies. Some as service machines, some as decoys, and some as test beds. This might seem to be a bonus for the people who capture the enemy’s warplanes, but remember that they also need to capture the…
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Messerschmitt 109 – Part Three – Suspicions…
I am not a naturally suspicious man, as anyone who has seen me in the police lineups will attest. I am ready to take anyone at face value…as long as I can pronounce them guilty. This benign attitude even extends to looking at pictures of fighter planes and trying to figure out their colour schemes.…
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Messerschmitt 109 – Part Two – Modelers Sushi
If that seems like a funny way to think of a kit, consider that the Hobby Boss products are sometimes served on plastic trays within the external box – rather like the tasty Japanese food that we get from shopping centres. The kit is just as well presented – all that is missing is the…
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Messerschmitt 109 – Part One – Never Let A Chance Go By…
I am indebted to a friend, Paul, for that bit of philosophy. He’s another modeller/collector/builder type and makes regular visits to hobby shops and toy stores wherever he goes. And he has the modeller’s eye that sees viable scale building materials in completely unlikely products. In my case it was a visit to a store…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 