The Little World

Normally, I am a pretty careful shopper. Whether it is in the car lot or the supermarket, you can find me squeezing, sniffing, and licking. The only time it seems to cause a problem is in the striptease nightclub. But I have a feeling I should have been a little more circumspect in the hobby shop when I got this kit.

It was not my normal shop – no names, no pack drill, but it was an out-of-the-way shop in a suburb I rarely visit. Not the spaghetti merchant, either…And the kits were just neatly stacked and I did the choosing – but I have a feeling that I should have chosen better.

The box has a noticeable squashed profile, though the plastic bag that contains the sprues was not breached. All parts there, though in two spots you can see items or runners detached from their cast position. This is no real problem. The worrisome thing is the fact that I suspect one half of one wing has been warped at some point. Whether this is the case will be determined at dry-fit stage – and at that point it is my problem to either ignore or fix.

I’m not a Return Rockwell when it comes to consumer goods – in most cases I don’t need to be. I choose carefully and if something is genuinely faulty most retailers refund or exchange with no trouble. In the case of a kit where the plastic bag has been cut open, however, before I can see a potential argument I prefer to skirt it by doing my own repairs.

I’m getting better at correcting kit errors and recovering from the little setbacks that attend this hobby. I think it does me good to cope with stuff on a miniature level as a mechanism for the larger things of life.

There also seems to be more flash on this kit than on other Airfix I’ve seen – I trust it will not prove an entire hazard to navigation.

Size of the crew and their moulding is going to be very interesting – the Hampden has a reputation for being an uncomfortable ride  – and the positions of a couple of the figures suggest this. But as the aircraft has quite large clear sections it will probably be rewarding to get them all kitted up.

The aircraft will be painted for service at an RCAF maritime patrol base – RCAF Doukh Inlet in British Columbia – and will be configured as a torpedo bomber. I don’t have a British 18″ torpedo in my stocks but I daresay a little scratchbuilding should do the trick…and if not, I can leave the bomb bay doors shut and imagine. I suspect the RCAF did just this on lots of occasions.