The Little World

I have always been surprised when I’ve read people complaining about getting extra parts in a model kit. It seems a sort of sacrilege – like objecting to an extra scoop of ice cream. Makes you want to edge away from them in case they do something disgusting.

So every time I have a kit with extra parts I pack them away with delight – they are bound to come in handy for something in the future. This applied very much so in the 1960’s when I built AMT 3-in-1 car kits and is going on right now as I start again on 1:72 aircraft. The makers are not at all shy in making one sprue serve several marks of aircraft by adding different plastic pieces for the same price.

In a lot of cases they are giving me a diagram of the various sprues with the un-needed parts crossed out. This is great as it means I am less puzzled when inspecting the parts. I’ve methodically hived them all off into divisions; armament, fuel tanks, fuselage pieces, glazing parts, etc. I’ve even got a couple of spare radial engines and a half-dozen different props. All to the good.

The Blenheim Mk 1 is shown in the box art as an early-war night fighter. But the kit parts are there for a fully bombed-up version as well. Perverse me selected that as my prototype, and I’m thankful for the internet as a source for images of the real thing to let me see how the bomb bay doors and racks were fitted.

Much the same for the later Blenheim IV kit that gave me the long nose for the Bristol/Fairchild Bolingbroke. I gained a number of racks and bombs that will turn up somewhere else later. If I never get to use some of this stuff on an actual aircraft ( And I am not really going to be going in for may what-ifs…) I can use them as separate displays in the Air World museum. already the bombs from the Airfix RAF Bomber Command re-supply set have been dedicated to this as inert rounds.

A friend has suggested that I could do this as well with accessory packs in resin and whitemetal that are intended for modification of standard kits. Nice idea, but the prices that these accessory packs command on the hobby market rather prejudice me against them. I like the freebies that you can salvage from the kits you’ve already bought.

Frugality is a dangerous sin, however…the further I go in it the greater danger that I’ll empty all the unused Humbrol enamel pots I have into a big jar and spray-paint something with the result. It’s almost worthwhile doing it just for the hell of it – I’m willing to guess that I would end up with a warmish grey semi gloss that would look very nice. Or a nauseating salmon pink. Canadian back porch colours.