The Little World

What was the most common thing about plastic model kits in the 1950’s? The size? The subjects? The colour of the plastic? No.

The most common thing was that every model had a stand of some sort. From the grey plastic trapezoids that went under the Revell USS MISSOURI to the two-peg block that underpinned their USS NAUTILUS – from the clear plastic spikes under Airfix airplanes to the hefty constructions under Monogram – every model was only deemed completed if it was on a stand. Only the Aurora 1:48 tanks stood on their own tracks and even then the Revell 105mm howitzer sat on a plastic dirt emplacement.

It was like all models would be sitting on a shelf in a personal museum and none of them would ever be in a diorama to interact with anything else. Built once and never touched thereafter.

Now I see that if one wants to fly a model off a desk one needs to buy an especial plastic stand as an accessory. And must also remember to drill out a fuselage to take the stand.

Of course as kids we hung the airplanes from the ceiling on strings. We lived in rented accommodation so there was no putting pins in the ceiling, but we could make do with light fittings as long as no-one had to change the bulb. It is no exaggeration to say that we had more Lancasters and Wellingtons in a flat spin than ever the RAF did – none of us thought to rig a tail string as well to stop it.

Nowadays I build my models on their wheels and they can sit on a tarmac. When Stein’s Air World is in place they will sit in closed hangars. That’s what most museums do – though our local RAAF museum in Bull Creek has a plastic Spitfire on a pipe plinth out the front and I might do that with some iconic bird.

Thought: Why didn’t the plastic model aircraft makers give you a part that you could glue at the top of the fuselage at the balance point so that you could rig the ceiling string?