The Little World

I was at dinner with a group of friends in Sydney when one of them pulled out a couple of old 1:72 kits from a shopping bag. They were historic remainders from his teenage stash…and as he’s distanced from that somewhat, they are truly historic. One’s a Matchbox Spitfire and one’s an Airfix Buccaneer. I am still looking at the Bucc with some speculation, but the Spitfire has come forward to fulfil its destiny.

That same holiday took me out to Sherriff’s Mini Cars in Maryong to discover their shelves full of kits. Some were regular items, some were stash refugees, and some were unsalables. The despair of the retailer and the delight of the fossicker. They also had a couple of boxes of aftermarket decals – the sort of thing that I am increasingly drawn to.

I am not a buyer of expensive decals – at least not willingly. I go for the more modest sets and I really only buy what I have set out to build. Thus when I find a couple of cheap envelopes that seem to have been specifically printed for me I leap at them. Oddly enough, had I not received the gift Spit I would have passed the single-engine decals by. And there will be another story about the twin-engine decals later in the year…

This is an old kit – in brittle plastic – with little interior detail – and a dead decal sheet.

But I am delighted with it as it is the basis of a special machine. The brown and green colouration of the sprues is excruciating, and there is no clear canopy. I shall source it from a friend – Spitfires cannot be rare on the market…

The only cavil is the landing gear.  This is simple single leg on either side, but I have not seen as skinny a pair on a model since Twiggy. I shouldn’t be surprised if they suddenly become two bits of bent wire. And I cannot look at the instructions without getting nostalgic…and they don’t make nostalgia like they used to…