The Little World

Is:

• Reputed to be bad.
• Long sold out.
• Never seen locally.
• Not supplied by anyone else…

…you are entitled to scuff your feet and make growling noises. I have been reviewing the chances of getting a 1:72 model of the Avro CF 100 Canuck interceptor and it would appear that this aircraft in model kit form meets all of the above four points.

The maker, Hobbycraft, has a spotted reputation…and from the internet reviews of people who have built this kit, you don’t want to touch any of the spots. Nevertheless, the airplane was a big part of the air defence of my home when I was a boy and I really want to make a model of one. I am prepared to grit my teeth and scratch build the defective parts as long as I can get one of the kits.

It ain’t gonna happen. And this at a time when you can get innumerable ex-Soviet one-off junkers ( and many Junkers as well…) on the shelves of the local hobby shop. Not only do I not care for these kits, I can’t even imagine anyone else caring for them. They form no part of anyone’s history here and never will.

The local airplanes are represented reasonably well by the major makers – at least when they remember to put some Australian roundels and fin flashes on the decal sheet and then trumpet the fact on the front of the box with a sticker. The actual kit may be nowhere near the model of the plane that served here, but if you apply the good old five-foot rule all is well.

I don’t try to convert this stuff to local prototype – I don’t have the reference material to do it nor the desire to crowd someone else’s territory. If I did, it would only be to invite confrontation with the local scale model anoraks who can tell you the service history of every urn in the canteen. I figure if I make Canadian subjects I am far enough away from their geeks to live a quiet life.