The Little World

I am indebted to a friend, Paul, for that bit of philosophy. He’s another modeller/collector/builder type and makes regular visits to hobby shops and toy stores wherever he goes. And he has the modeller’s eye that sees viable scale building materials in completely unlikely products.

In my case it was a visit to a store that sells goods for the model wargamers. Oh, so many goods. Things you’ve never dreamed of. Things that have no possible use and therefore sell well to people who use them. That’s modelling, folks. Well, I can’t use the 45-sided dice or the 1000-Orc army in a bag, but I do take the occasional turn past the plastic vehicle and building shelves and have benefitted every time.

This week it was their very small airplane kit section. I think they only keep a tiny shelf because they can’t be bothered, or maybe they can’t squeeze more space. Whatever reason, they didn’t have a lot. But they did have a few old-stock Hobby Boss fighters at 2/3 the price that other shops are charging. As I have a list and the list contains the Me 109, well, don’t mind if I do!

I must say, though, if I was purchasing a kit based upon the box art, this would still be on the shelf. It is quite the most garish representation of a camouflage scheme that I’ve ever seen. Even the US bombers they painted as assembly leaders were not this bright!

Fortunately the thing becomes a lot better when you open the box. It is a direct equivalent of the Hawker Hurricane kit I built – tray presentation and all. The fuselage is a top and bottom and I will not have to worry about measuring the dihedral angle – it is cast in. I look forward to a rewarding build.

The decal sheet will be going begging to someone else as I’ve found out an intriguing scheme involving another air force. The instructions are up to the usual Hobby Boss standard – you can make out what they mean but you need to study a bit.  In any case, as this is a bargain kit I am more than satisfied with it.

Never thought I would ever build a Messerschmitt – all my kid’s hobby money was spent on Allied equipment. I gotta lotta learning to do.