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Big People Look For Little People

And so do little people. Every scale model, whether alone or as part of a diorama, needs some sort commonality with the viewer. This can be finer points in the case of something seen by an expert, but the rest of us need a different post to hitch our horse to. Most often it is…
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The Toy Train People Have An Advantage

Model railway builders who exhibit their layouts have a pretty big task to do – they have some major haulage and construction to do to set up a display. Once done, however, they have a distinct advantage over the model builders who make plastic kits; the toy trains move. The model railway maker might be…
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Historical Friends

I hope that’s right – I tried ” Hysterical Friends ” and the auto-correct passed that as well… One of the groups I belong to is called ” Historical Modelling Friends “. We meet either at the Cambridge Public Library in Floreat or at my studio in Willetton. The sessions are always modelling afternoons –…
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The Visiting Club

Scale modellers who make plastic kits know that when an exhibition is coming up they need to steel their nerves to the sticking point for two things; the journey there and the journey home. Because the model that you spent three months carefully cementing together has a dozen points of protrusion – plastic guns, pitot…
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Schmattarim

Stop groaning. It’s my model airport and I get to make the jokes. Actually, it’s a museum layout – a very useful way to display a variety of aircraft. In this case they are Israeli, and the idea is patterned on the real IAF museum at Hatzerim. I’ve built enough models to mount two separate…
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Grown People

What on earth would induce grown people to spend an entire weekend standing around a hall at the dog race track looking at plastic models? Are they mad? Hopefully, yes. This thought is held sacred by a number of hobby retailers who also stand round…round the back of the tills. The more madness and money…
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Hall Of The Model Kings

And queens. This is an even-handed hobby. The annual scale model exhibition always includes a competition for builders, and it is large enough to require a separate hall. They set out tables and cover them so that the visual presentation is neutral – the lighting is that of the hall, but more on that… There…
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Razzle Dazzle ‘Em

And you don’t even need to use bright colours. This year’s scale model exhibition opened itself to new groups – and in the case of the first stand in the hall it was a wargaming outfit that built a magnificent set depicting something of the Battle of Berlin 1945. The set components were a mixture…
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New Show

Old theatre. The Western Australian scale model exhibition took place this last weekend and a lot of people held their breaths. The long-serving committee that had presented it for many years past ( decades, perhaps… ) had decided to retire and there was some concern that the exhibition would cease. A new committee was formed…

