The Little World

I have to take my hat off to several sets of modellers seen at the recent plastic model show – and none of them are plastic modellers.

a. the 1:72 ship society.

Radio controlled ships these, and the discipline of the club is such that they are all kept to common scale and a pretty plausible time frame. The size means that they have to build them from scratch and do quite complex construction with wood and metal before they can even look at fibreglass.

Big ships need big ballast, and they need to solve the problem of weighting to a waterline before they can even set sail. Some cases are solved with water tanks that can be filled at the sailing site. They also need big power, and that power has to be kept under control, leading to some pretty big motors and batteries.

The sheer weight and size also makes dry-land transport and storage a nightmare for some of the larger vessels. Hats off to the logistics crews who manage to get these models down to the water intact. And then maintain them after the day’s sailing – models that encounter water need a lot of cleaning and adjusting to keep working year after year.

b. The radio flyer who builds big jets and turboprops.

Size may not be as great with these models as the ships but the added requirement of lightness, strength, noise, and control ability mean that these are even more nerve-wracking to operate. They a re probably restricted to special fields in the metro area at special times. They cannot be cheap to make or to run, and I should not be at al surprised to find their starting price at $ 3000 at the least. The thought of a bad landing is daunting.

c. The science fiction club – here they have all the movies, television, and literature to draw their prototypes from and a level of dedication fully as intense as the modellers who make more mundane planes and vehicles. You can tell that most of the members have loved the subject from their childhoods, and have preserved the memories of quite old shows. I will not use the term” geek ” as this applies to a different class of enthusiast – these are specialist modellers.