Nothing much happens in Australia in January, we’re all off at the beach, watching the cricket, drinking to excess or doing other relaxing things.  Thus, no update on bench activities for January and a little more creativity since we actually did some modelling during the holiday period.  So here is what has been achieved recently.…

(December 2021) It is Christmas Day 2021 and I am led to reflect that it is now precisely sixty-three years since I got my first scale model kit, the Airfix 1/72 Hawker Hurricane IVRP. It was a Christmas present from my patents which they had probably picked up without much consideration in the local newsagency.…

What to do with models after they’ve been on the bench (April 2021) ‘On The Bench’ is the oldest and most enjoyable – for me – scale modelling podcasts. I enjoy the chat between other podcasts out there but I identify with the way in which the three Australians banter seems to me to convey…

that I can’t model without (April 2021) When you listen to or watch any of the modelling podcasts or live streams one of the questions that comes up fairly often is about tools. ‘What is your favourite tool’ or ‘what tools do you recommend for a starting modeller’, that sort of thing. I hadn’t really…

There is life after superdetailing and weathering (December 2020) It’s like this, I keep having these urges. It’s as if some strange alien entity has got into the back of my mind and keeps pushing and pushing, wanting me to do things that I don’t want to do. Dirty, crazy, unimaginable things. I think it…

What are they and where to find them (December 2019) You might recall that earlier this year I made some Bloch 150 series fighters and ended up whinging about the colours of paint I was forced by circumstances to use. I’d bought the Hataka acrylic lacquer French World War II set of ‘authentic’ colours and…

Praise the Lord! (May 2019) I don’t know about other scale modellers, but the first few models I made, Airfix, Frog and Revell, went unpainted. It was enough for me to have the bare plastic with the simple decals the kit provided stuck on them. Then I took to reading the kit instructions more carefully…

but you wouldn’t want to make them now (August 2018) A couple of things that have happened in the past day or so led me to reflect on how much the kits from which we make models has changed since I made my first Airfix kit in 1959. This led me to peek into a…

Approaching Airbrush Heaven (December 2018) I think I may have found the airbrush of my dreams. It arrived only yesterday and right away I fell in love with it. It is, like all my other airbrushes, a Badger: this one is the Xtreme Patrtiot 105. Here is a photo of the four airbrushes in my…

(May 2017) Here’s a tool that I use every day and which I can’t remember not using, although I must have. It serves two main purposes; as a base when painting something and, secondly, to give me a place to put the detailed bits on toothpicks so they don’t get lost. It is also useful…

You can’t model without it (December 2016) As we are all told, beauty is only skin deep. My researches so far have led me to the conclusion that when it comes to people there is a surface beauty and an inner beauty, and while the outer impression might win competitions, the inner component is somewhat…

Two Shades of Grey (September 2013) I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your attention, but just in case, I’ll say it again. I like to model airliners. I don’t know where this interest came from but it may go back to my childhood when my mother took my sister and I to visit her parent’s place…