Tag: Workshop
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What Can You Do In Five Minutes?
I mean on a modelling bench. Never mind the bedroom or the toilet… In five minutes you can: a. Finally rescue that paint that settled in the jar. Dilute it, stir it, clean the cap and threads. Label it properly. b. Get fresh blades on your knives and safely dispose of the dull old ones.…
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Dissatisfaction
Is the step-mother of invention. With cheapness as a sibling – how could I resist the temptation to rebuild the modelling desk. The old one featured a wall of Chinese take-away food containers that held tools and materials – they were hot-glued to a sheet of foam board gaffer-taped to the workbench. No expense spared…
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Am I A Modeller?
Or a Tetris player? This thought occurred as I was shifting cabinets and restringing electric lights in my workshop. There was no real need to do so – the space produced perfectly good scale models prior to this. But, like a woman moving a piano about the living room, I just could not stop myself.…
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Potez 63-11 – Part Three – The Problem
Solved. Until the next one crops up. The fuselage, wings, and tail of the Potez observation aircraft are together and the amount of filler is absolutely minimal. I have undercoated and smoothed it, and could not be happier. In the intervals of waiting for things to set or dry I tackled the engines, wheels, landing…
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Is it Puttering Or Pottering?
I mean the faffing about that you do in between builds. The tidying up of the workshop and the sharpening of tools. The filling of thinner bottles and the tossing out of dried-up paint. The time when you blow down the air compressor tank and then have to wash the floor. When you vacuum up…
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Sprue Spray?
It was decades before I figured it out. In fact, Airfix and Revell knew it long before me. But it finally took Phil Flory to wise me up. The 5 ” P’s “: Paint Piddly Parts on the Plastic Prior to Parting them. Oh Gosh – I counted wrong. That’s 6 ” P’s “. Of…
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Risk Management In Scale Modelling
The Amalgamated Fireproof Insurance Company Pty Ltd asked me to write this to help prevent modelling disasters that they might have to pay for. The risks they don’t cover – well, knock yourself out. a. Don’t model drunk. Little knives and spray guns become a lot more fun when you’re schickered, but you’ll regret it…
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Big Pinch – Little Pinch
A gripping story… The best tool I ever purchased from Stanbridges was a set of clamps by Xacto. The buy was in 1974 when Stanbridges was Stanbridges and Xacto was Xacto… The clamps are made of metal, though I often wonder which one. I would have guessed aluminium but lately I’m not so sure. Originally…
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Israeli Bell 47 – Part Two – Production Lines For The Win
The idea of serial building is working out, but there is still a place for sub-assembly lines in the scale model factory Even with modern super-glues there is still time required for re-enforcement to set, and of course the drying and setting times of the various paint coats. So there is a real advantage to…
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The Hobby Room
I have a hobby room that has accommodated any number of pursuits – yet I am still chasing perfection. And it is still elusive. The first use of the hobby room – the 5th bedroom in a house that has only three sleepers – was as a photographic darkroom. It was the days of film…
The Little World 