The Little World

There can be two lists connected with every scale model airplane kit; the list of things that went right and the list of things that went wrong. You’re only in trouble if the lists contain the same items…Here’s the good one for this Airfix Mosquito:

1. It was free.
2. I had special decals saved up for a possible build at some time in the future.
3. I knew what Mosquitos looked like from having built a Tamiya kit of one.

Now for the bad list:

1. It is an old raised-rivet kit.
2. There are enough sinkholes and ejector marks to play a round of golf in.
3. Ditto parts numbers moulded on the parts.
4. The perspex canopy reminds you of Robert Maxwell – thick and crude.
5. The landing gear is spindly and depends upon a complex assembly job early in the build. This is De Havilland’s fault – not Airfix’s.
6. Some other parts are unexpectedly spindly – the four nose guns, for instance.
7. The cockpit is sparse.
8.  I knew what Mosquitos looked like from having built a Tamiya kit of one.

Well, we’ll deal with the last point first. They say comparisons are odious, and as far as people go that is true. With products, however, I think it is fair – particularly if you are exchanging money for them. In this case, no money was needed and that wiped out a great many objections. Call me cheap and venal, if you will, but do call me when they pass out the free stuff.

The particularly thick canopy is no problem if I proceed with my little plan of finishing – likewise the rather sparse cockpit can be tizzied up from the spares box with little trouble.

I do not relish the thought of the landing gear – the Tamiya version was hard enough to do and final fitting involved leaving out spare oil reservoir tanks. If the Airfix plane is hard to do there is a Plan B that will shore it up – but I am hoping the warnings seen in the plastic model press about this sort of gear do not prove as serious as all that. I am quite prepared to re-enforce landing gear for many kits with other forms of support and cement.

Of course the sink holes and ejector pins can be filled, and the numbers carved off. This is just basic modelling work. The rivets can stay, as they often make a silver-finish plane look quite good. And finally the guns – well in my evocation of this plane, in the situation it will occupy, it is quite within reason to remove the guns and just leave open holes in the nose. I wouldn’t do this for many planes, but it actually makes sense with this one.