The Little World

I met three chaps at the 2018 Plastic Modelling Show who were the smartest men on the planet – they were willing to look at themselves and their situation honestly and make the best decision they could about it.They might not be philosophers but they’re wise enough.

They come from Koorda, a town in Western Australia’s wheatbelt. A country spot and somewhat isolated from the normal run of affairs – certainly not on the entertainment circuit for the metro area. I’ll bet it is a nice place and the people are the salt of the earth, but as the three modellers said – if you’re in Koorda there are only two things you can do; join a sporting club or sit down at the boozer.

They elected to do something different – they started out scale modelling and have branched into any number of different aspects of the hobby. I saw some of their artwork in Cannington – they bring it safely to Perth for the annual plastic model blowout. And they were perfectly happy to cooperate with me taking pictures of the figure models they’d made. A black cloth was held up for an impromptu backdrop and away we went.

I must say the busts are delightful – the right lighting would have made them absolutely real. These would be a good subject for a careful tabletop photo session and big printing.

Note: I was also delighted to see a small Airfix 1:72 Avro Anson model at the end of the table. I’ve done such a complaining job about the Special Models version of this on which I sweated my way, that I’d built up a desire to see the older British kit. Now I’ve seen it, I’m more satisfied with the Czech version – I don’t need to locate one on the old-kit market.

Hooray for plastic kit modelling – indeed hooray for any sort of modelling and Little World activity – it can save the sanity and enrich the lives of people all over the state.