So you feel like you’re not getting anywhere (May 2020) Some modellers make one masterpiece at a time, lavishing infinite skill and patience over every tiny detail and finishing their creations with the skill of master craftsmen. Then they spend as much time again giving it the patina that turns their model from a simple…

Deep thinking at the modelling club (October 2015) Here is a photo taken at our most recent MoB meeting by Master Sean. It shows four MoBsters, innocently it seems, sitting at a table. Master Rod, on the right, is in a state of deep mystical meditation on the completion of his latest modelling project. Master…

How I made trouble for myself, again (October 2013) If you find yourself chatting to Master Mark about his modelling you will soon discover that a part of the process he really enjoys is the planning of his projects. You may find yourself looking into a box of Mach 2 parts and wondering how anything…

New tools and techniques (April 2013) I guess that every modeller has their own collection of tools and techniques for using them. They probably have different ways of storing their tools so they are ready to hand when they are needed. For years I kept my tools in boxes and mugs so they were easy…

A modellling holiday (April 2013) Despite rumours to the contrary, where I did disappear to was Hobart. You know, that bit at the bottom of the forgotten island at the bottom of Australia. The main reason for this hiatus was to look after the dog belonging to a friend who had to go overseas for…

When too many kits is barely enough (February 2013) This is the first time I’ve been to an analyst in a few years. Do you still do things the same way, I lie on this couch and you sit over there taking notes? You do. Good. I’ll just lie down here, make myself comfortable. And…

A refutation of the whig view of modelling (August 2005) Several thousand years ago, or so it seems, one of the most advanced kit makers of the time released a kit of an obscure British aeroplane. Of course, Frog had always dabbled in oddities such as the Gloster E28/39 and the Bristol 138, but even…

(what’s in the box) (August 2004) Now, where was I? The last time I ran out of time to get a model finished before the next meeting I was reduced to writing about my tool box. This time other work has kept me from finishing a lovely little avions Francaise so it is time to…

(where do we put the tools we use) (May 2001) This month one of my tools has let me down so I haven’t completed a model. My compressor has finally decided that compressing air is just asking too much of it and can’t be bothered any more. It sits there going chug-chug-chug as usual, but…

(Decaling the Fokker E.V and Airbus A.380) (August 2012) There comes a time in the construction of any model when all the seam lines have been filled, the bit and pieces have been stuck on more or less straight and the paint scheme is completed to a standard that DaVinci would be proud of. In…

(Fun making little French Aircraft) (February 2012) I don’t care what you say, French aeroplanes are amongst the most gorgeous looking flying machines ever made. (Some of their bombers might have lacked something in the aesthetic stakes, but I never said that if the case goes to court.) To prove my point, I submit as…

(December 2010) It occurs to me that this is becoming something of a running column of modelling disasters, one after the other. I wonder if other modellers have so many problems in pursuing their personal form of torment, or am I just going through a rough patch. Perhaps you all have the same troubles that…