The Little World

Every plane, train, car, and structure you build in scale makes your brain better. The act of turning over the parts, relating them to the instructions, fitting them together, and observing the relationships between the surfaces teaches you far more about the particular full-size object than any photograph or screen representation ever can. And if you deliberately remain within one scale as you build, you get an additional correlation between different sizes, designs, and builder’s philosophies.

This became evident when I started on the Nakajima ‘ Kate ‘ just before the Republic P-47 – and then compared the resultant models side by side – I knew the  Jug had a reputation for being a large fighter, but I did not realise how large until now. I am presuming that the different manufacturers are adhering to the 1:72nd scale and not veering off into other measurements.

The pendulum swung back when I fitted the P-38 together. The layout seems correct and the size of the pilot’s seat and cockpit suggest that it is accurately scaled, but the size of the rear booms as they approach the tailplane seems surprisingly delicate. I guess the metal of the real aircraft was able to take the stresses, and the amount of aluminium in two booms would have been as much as in one larger fuselage for a single-engine plane…but I’ll have to wait until it is all finished to see whether it looks right.

The experience of looking at a model and getting the feeling that it is not right may be disconcerting. But the problem can occur when we compare our mental impressions of something derived from old photographs to the object in our hand. I think it arises from the fact that the older photos were taken from fixed vantage points and in some cases rarely varied from one shot to the next. My book on Zemke’s gangsters had lots of pictures of the 56th planes but many were taken from the same point of view – I really had to scour the net to see the P-47’s from different angles and the tailwheel remains much of a mystery still. I assume Hobby Boss made a good job of it.

Some aircraft are inherently beautiful – like the P-38 or the Supermarine Seahawk – and some are just the other way. Lovers of British or French biplane bombers may wish to stop reading now…but some of them were the ugliest collection of spars and screws ever seen. But we build them to complete collections or just to give ourselves the horrors. I am not looking forward to my 30’s period…