The Little World

They just flash away…

I have been engaged in dealing with plastic model kits that made from old moulds. In one case I suspected the thing was new on the market when I was in Grade 10 and had been offered in various guises ever since. The kit was fun to build, but I am forced to recognise that time marches on, and eventually what may have been cutting edge becomes decidedly dull.

Yet I am not going to restrict my hobby work to the latest and greatest – both because the latest and greatest may be excessively difficult to build while at the same time being priced in the silly/expensive range. I’ve gotten wiser as I’ve gotten older and part of that wisdom is the ability to detect when I am being whizzed on. The older moulds at a reasonable price are far more acceptable.

Well, benefitting by a lower price is one thing – being forked into the hell of bad fit, ridiculous surface details, and appalling clear parts is another. The modern practice of sealing a kit box firmly until you get it home prevents you from discovering these sort of problems until it is too late, so there are a number of avenues you might take:

a. Avoid any kit that doesn’t get a good write-up on the net or in the magazines.

This is reasonable until you hit the price point noted earlier or discover that you will never been able to build the pivotal model of your collection because no-one has boxed it since 1963.

b. Sand off all rivet detail, re-scribe all panel lines , then re-rivet with a pounce wheel.

Oh good. The $ 25 model will now take 6 months to actually complete and the detail lines will be ever so slightly off-kilter. I’ll bet you’ll be just itching every day to get to that bench and sand and re-scribe…

c. Buy the $ 25 kit and $ 112 worth of aftermarket resin, brass, and decals. Close the canopy and hide $ 45 worth of photo-etch. Wonder why the family sneer at you.

d. Carry on, build as before, go on a nostalgia kick.

This is fine but nostalgia for when you were in grade school means that you can’t drink or go out with girls. And you can’t build your kit until you finish your homework. Clean up your room and don’t give me that look…