The Little World

WRITTEN DURING THE AUSTRALIAN SUMMERTIME, WHICH IT IS NOT RIGHT NOW…

Well, it’s the hot dry weather, isn’t it. You should see what the front door is doing. I used to think it was made from MDF board but now I suspect it started life as a Möbius strip.

But back to the time warpage. Remember in a previous post I mentioned that as you get to the end of a build time speeds up – particularly if you have prepared a number of sub assemblies to add to the main structure. You just pop ’em on and you’re done.

Well, I lied. As you get to the end of a build time slows down, sub assemblies and all. You crawl forward one tiny step at a time as some delicate part dries in place or another coat of something bakes away under a cover. The variety of adhesives you employ starts to widen and frequently you resort to a number of different ones on the same part. I know I don’t trust small binding surface areas on landing gear and always re-enforce them with PVA glue.

And all the while there is a little voice in the back of your mind…” Is that enough? Do you really need to add the control horns and the whisker antennae? Do you really need to put in the actuators for the crew’s coffee machine? ”

You yield or ignore these voices at your own peril as they will return later when it is too late to change your mind and berate you for your decision. Everyone else says you’ve done a marvellous job and you think it’s crap. If you are lucky, both of you are right…

I will tip my hat to another Australian modeller on YouTube seen last year – he advised us to build to our own satisfaction but not to neglect obvious errors we have made. He said to correct them when you first see them, then forget them forever.