The Little World

I’m not the brightest of individuals but I can see a trend emerging – the Czechs are taking over*.

At least they seem to be taking over the shelves of the local hobby shops with their 1:72 scale plastic model kits. I’ve encountered them in Melbourne and again here in Perth and it would appear that there are any number of firms engaged in the trade. I’ve just turned up another new maker in the single-engine WWII category – MPM. They appear to be a Prague firm with an on-line store.

Their website has, thankfully, an English version, and it appears that they sell a great many things. this includes decals and kits from other makers as well. I am immensely encouraged by this find, as well as by other new products out in the suburban Perth store.

This time I was cautious – the product box was basic but it listed the contents as injection-moulded rather than resin-cast. My experience with the Special Hobby Anson has scarred me for life and I will read the boxes carefully in the future. I even popped the seals open once I had it in the car just to reassure myself…

The box art promised a Dutch attack bomber, but I was sure I had seen that profile before. The thought of doing a Dutch East Indies model for my RAAF base was the driving force behind the purchase, but as it was an economical $ 30 model, I wasn’t really too worried about the risk. Turns out that these aircraft were Northrop A-17’s and all captured or destroyed in Europe at the start of the war. But then Google confirmed my suspicions about them – a number of them were acquired by the RCAF from a cancelled French order and used for training and target tugging over the prairies. Score!

And it looks as though one other Czech model firm – Special Hobby – made a variant of this exact type of aircraft. Trainer Yellow and black in bumble bee stripes. That’s their box art. It’ll mean some extra roundels from the spares box and possibly a custom decal for the numbers under the wing, but the yellow/black is almost irresistible. The Canadian variant had a complex exhaust manifold and dump tube out the starboard side of the ship for the crew heater, but this should be easy enough to do from sprue. The illustration from this has been drawn from Google, and I am not at all convinced by their depiction of Trainer Yellow, but the look of it is clear enough.

My Dutch friends need not be too sad at losing out this time. I’ll save the decal markings for another time – there are still a number of distinctive aircraft that escaped from the Dutch East Indies to Australia in 1942 and I plan to add them to the collection.

A note at this time regarding my collecting hobby:

I’ve been engaged in die-cast model car collecting for some years now, and if Heaven permits and the Chinese factories turn out some fresh moulds, I will continue to add to my 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s divisions. The pace of this has slowed down a little, however, as the makers turned their attention to other eras and other vehicles to capture a younger market. The heyday of the 50’s and 60’s metal model may have passed with the increased prices demanded by the makers.

I am not discouraged – collecting is only one aspect of the Little World. I have the honour to be a tabletop photographer as well as a collector, and the models I do have can be treated as stars of illustration for years to come. As well, I am starting to re-develop my interest and ability with plastic models and have set myself a number of goals to integrate them into the Little Studio’s view of the Little World.

Now all I need is for the weather to moderate a little to allow me more time in the Little Workshop – the new interest in 1:72 scale model aircraft and the associated 1:76 and 1:87 vehicles and structures means there is a vast new vista of fun opening up in front of me. And it is on the inexpensive side of the modelling spectrum.

I will seek to make new acquaintances and, hopefully, new friends who share these interests. I think I have the Czechs to thank for this.

*  I, for one, welcome our Bohemian overlords. If they are prepared to bring in sausage, Pilsner beer, and scale model aircraft kits, I ask no more. I wish to state that I have always been a fan of the Good Soldier Schweik…