The Little World

It’s worthwhile doing badly. Then looking at what can be improved, and doing it again. This was the unfortunate story of Ploesti, but that was also a tale of the baleful effects of listening to authority when you know you’re right.

The other thing to consider is that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing cheaply. This’ll outrage some, as they think that extra expense = extra success = extra virtue. I beg to differ.

Every workshop has tools and…’ tools ‘. The former are the standard items one buys from Bunnings  – the drills, hammers, saws, etc. of standard hardware. The latter are the things that are inherited, invented, or made from broken bits of other machinery. The very best of these are rusty and horrible, and it will give the philosophical workman a glow of satisfaction when he realises that these pieces of scrap are used every day and turn out perfect results. Artists and model makers will all have a paintbrush somewhere that is the same.

Aside from the fact that the ‘ tool ‘ is perfectly suited to the hand and eye of the user, costs nothing, and is reusable, it has the further advantage that it does not attract the eye. Neither shop thieves nor family members will seize upon it and bear it away. It can be secreted in plain view with safety.

Likewise, every creative workplace can accumulate cast-offs. Items that have served other purposes and other people, but have become unfashionable or excess to requirement, and can be had for the asking. A case in point is the pair of plastic office storage cases that were about to be binned by my wife. She was happy to give them to me and I recognised them instantly as paint drying chambers for model work. Safe in these spaces, even slow-drying enamels can sit there and bake quietly for days in the shop heat without picking up flyspecks, dust, or overspray. You can get on with the next model in the meantime…

You can also place it in the sunshine on days that are otherwise cold and build up quite a useful little bit of drying heat in there.

Note the painting stages – hinged pieces of leftover foam board that support aircraft on the painting table. They cost nothing and do everything – my kind of idea.