The Little World

Move over, Dollar. Step aside, Euro. Bitcoin, I laugh at you. I have my own medium of exchange now. I am no longer tied to your paltry numbers.

I am accepting payment in model kits.

Recently I took a series of portrait photographs for a friend at his request. Rather than charge studio rates to a mate – or be compelled to supply services buckshee – I hit upon the plan of charging in model kits. I told him that the price of the professional photos was whatever model kit he cared to buy me. The only stipulation I made was that it had to be 1:72 scale. He had already seen my airfields in the studio, so he knew what sort of models I was interested in.

The result was magnificent. He elected to get me two Italeri helicopter kits – an Iroquois and a Chinook. I am delighted, as these are just the sort of thing that my modern airfield can sport. I won’t be making them in strict military style, but there are plenty of civilian uses to which the full-size aircraft are put; in m case one rescue chopper and one firefighting water bomber. I am already looking out decal sheets on the Internet.

Some reviewers have expressed disdain for Italeri kits – but I hold them in high esteem. The C-47 and Ju-52 I built were eminently satisfying and from the looks of these parts, these two helicopters are going to be just as good.

The parts are intriguing, if a little foreign. The last model helicopter I built was in 1961 and we had different air then… I can recognise the top rotor and the tail rotor, but everything else in between is a mystery.

Am I building a helicopter or a tadpole? Where is the engine? Does it have an engine? Is this thing a glider?

Okay, that’s the main rotor. But the droop on the blades is upwards. And I DID check the plan for the gluing. Looks as if I need to weight the tips down and leave it in the hot shop for a few hours.

Well, at last. I don’t need to worry about how straight the landing gear wheels are going to be. Cheap and light – I love it.

Who the hell let the painters loose in the hangar? The German version looks like a sneeze in an art store. The Australian army version is suitably discreet, as befits an aircraft that is going to come within rifle range of an enemy, but the rest are just silly. In any case, If I can get Canadian decals from Belcher’s Bits in Ontario I am going to paint it trainer yellow and red.