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The Plastic Himalayas
Or how to get over the hobby humps. Modellers are camels – we all have humps. whether we are making plastic kits, model railway layouts or doll houses, we come to a point when it all seems too much. Our kit build is stretching out week after week as we fight the photo-etched brass –…
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Use It Or Hoard It?
What do you do with the valuable old kit? If you have been stashing or buying for some time, you will eventually stumble across an unbuilt kit that is actually valuable in some respect: a. It has climbed in resale value as it has aged and other similar kits fallen by the wayside. If you…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Four _ THM
It may seem foolish to bypass much of the effort that Airfix went to when they designed this model. But that is what I did when I started researching the Canadian connection for this aircraft. It would appear that there were a number of them in RCAF and RCN service during and after WW2. And…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Three – Wings Over The Workbench
I walk in awe of the people who build scale model biplanes and then rig them. They have condemned themselves to the sort of stage act that used to involve Chinese jugglers, bamboo poles, and spinning bowls…and then added the sort of things that would make a spider burst into tears. I don’t know what…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Two – If We Are To Believe…
I am often asked to believe – but I pause before I do. It is not that I think people duplicitous – it is just that I know there are only limited methods of actual proof – sight, touch, smell, etc. Thus I regard the colouring instructions in model kits with care. Do the writers…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk1 – Part One – Wheels At Last
And not before time. I made a model of the Fairey Swordfish from the new Airfix mould some time ago and promised myself to do another on wheels – this time with torpedo armament. The previous one was on floats and in pre-war colours. This was so pleasing that I have decided the new model…
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The Glaring Omissions
In hobby shops full of Messerspitstang kits and the space ships of the latest franchise movie, it is actually painful to stride the aisles looking for the missing links. I concentrate most effort on 1:72 scale aircraft and have long built the standards. I’ve built the semi-standards, and a fair few of the obscurities as…
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The Danger Of The Custom Colour
A custom colour is defined as any admixture of standard paint that reproduces perfectly some particular hue or shade. It may be produced by any modeller who has a spare bottle and a mixing spoon. In keeping with colour and art theory, it is best mixed from a light colour with careful application of dark.…
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Get Right Back On The Horse
The iron rule of horse riding is that, after a fall that has not killed you, you get right back on the horse. This has the effect of showing your moxie to the other riders, quelling your fears, and giving you a chance to show the horse that you mean to be the master or…
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Mig 23 Flogger – Part Two – Homeland Defender
I have gotten jaded in my old age – the effect of having internet images to turn to. I no longer follow the maker’s colour call out slavishly if there is another scheme that attracts the eye. The fact that the decals may not be exactly right is of little consequence. Don’t judge me. Thus…
The Little World
Close focus on the world of scale models
The Little World 