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Perth’s Plastic Pedestrians
The big local model exhibitions of every sort happen within different halls – but they have one thing in common: They are the Aisles of the Blessed. All who wander are not lost, but smart money says most are… The visitors – and exhibitors – at model exhibitions do not dress especially well. They have…
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See Sub?
A model submarine in operation is like a smiling Methodist. You suspect they exist because someone told you so, but you never actually see one for yourself. Once it submerges the only evidence most people see is the wake of a periscope or a Harpoon missile broaching the water and streaking off to blow up…
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I Asked About The Difference…
Between fantasy and science fiction, and the chap with the space helmet, ray gun, and rocket back pack just shook his head. So did his four-headed dragon, and that was a messy business. Took us half an hour to put out spot fires. In the future, I shall just observe the future from a distance.…
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4-D Printing
The new art of 3-D printing is flooding into the scale modelling world like a bottle of cement tipped over onto the cutting mat. If you move fast, you can rescue your kit from it…any delay will see you stuck to the workbench. Well, not that exactly…but you cannot ignore the new technology now that…
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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…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 