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Safety Instructions

Please read the following safety instructions carefully and keep them for future reference. a. Your kit is made by people who are underpaid. This means they are hungry, tired, and unhappy. Inspect the box carefully to ensure than no-one has sabotaged it with poison needles or razor blades. b. The kit is made of plastic…
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Drivin’ Miss Crazy

If you ever want to practice your anxiety, I can think of no better exercise than driving somewhere with a scale model in the car. Oh, I hasten to add, that’s a completed model…just tooling home from the hobby shop with a kit in a box plus $ 85 dollars of new paint is no…
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Academy SPAD XIII – Part Four – Buongiorno!

Issa nice-a day for-a the flying! And a nice SPAD serving the Italian air force in WW1. I strayed from the box markings deliberately. The Lafayette Escadrille Indian head will have to wait until another time, as will the native American swastika. I did some research for SPADs with that combination and only found one…
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Academy SPAD XIII – Part Three – Not Goin’ Nowhere

And not surprising – it’s 38º C outside and 43º C in my work shed. I shall be lurking near the beer cooler and doing the final assembly and decal work inside. I praise the luxury of the choice. The ticklish job of assembly with a bi- or tri-plane is the stage at which you…
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Academy SPAD XIII – Part Two – Ick…

Perhaps I am getting too fussy – or watching too many YouTube speakers complaining about sink holes and ejector pin marks. I am starting to see them more and more. Of course some kits make them more obvious than others – the Academy SPAD XIII being one of them. Note the pink spots of sprue-goo…
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Academy SPAD XIII – Part One – Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy

However, I am going to do my best to keep the criminal at bay. My Revell SPAD XIII need not distress itself – this Academy model will look quite different. The model kit itself was a kind gift from a friend and has not been long in the stash before being called forth. I am…
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Don’t Do Anything With Your Hobby…

That isn’t fun. Because then it will not be a hobby – it will be a task – and a burdensome one, at that. Once it becomes work, you become a worker, and then you have to beware of the boss: a. a shop owner who employs you as a salesperson or repairman. Perhaps as…
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The Dinner On The Workbench Idea

No, I’m not talking about a plate of stew in the middle of painting a new model. That will not end well. This is a post about prices. We pay varying amounts of money for our models – Some come free and are all the sweeter for that – some cost a lot. Unless we…
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Airfix Boomerang – Part Four – Classy Vintage

Well, if the Airfix 2023 announcements are anything to go by, it is going to be a good year for Vintage Classics. And if this kit is a sample of what will come along I shall buy the entire range. The result at the end of the build has been all I could ask for…

