The Little World

That meme and its associated parodies running through the brain, I’ve been doing a little research on the Mach 2 Convair 440 kit that I bought. It seems that there are a number of variants of it that share the plastic but change the decals, and a number of companies that have produced custom decals for it that help to obviate some of the flaws.

The rest of the airliner modelling world is split on the question of these kits. Some are downright contemptuous and scathing about them – some accept them for what they are. I think the latter attitude is best as it means that people are not going to be angry every time they perceive a flaw – they are going to be able to go ahead and overcome it.

The cleverest account I have seen so far was from a modeller who decided to build the kit as if it were a promotional model of an airline – the sort of stand-mounted desk object that we used to see in airlines offices downtown.

In his case he looked at all the obvious problems and either fixed them or detoured around them.

The wings were strengthened internally with coffee stirring sticks as spars.

The windows were completely filled in and the cockpit transparency faired into the fuselage as a solid piece. The basic airframe was sanded smooth and finished with automotive lacquers to give a gleaming result.

Then he applied a third-party set of decals that contained windows as a printed feature in addition to the airlines livery.

I think this is splendid. I’d even go so far as to replace the propellers with clear acrylic discs around the hubs. It is crude, but if done well, has a period feel to it. The only cavil would be the fact that the new decals cost really as much as the basic kit – thus boosting it over the engine/cost barrier. But the fact that the windows need not be transparent in an airline office model leads me to think that they can be home-printed decals or painted panels just as easily. There is a cheap charm to this idea.

The desk stand idea also means that if the landing gear is irredeemably horrible, it need not be seen.