The Little World

In each of the two pictures on this post there are four plastic parts. They’re glued up and setting overnight. The time taken to get to this point, including the washing of the parts, was about one hour. I’ve spent longer in the barbers.

This would be a terrible thing for some modellers to contemplate. Indeed, these Hobby Boss models sometimes get a sneering treatment from the old codgers at the Men’s Shed plastic model society. ” Fit for children “, I hear them say. So they may well be, when you consider the ease of construction, but fit for serious painters when you look at the detail on them.

I do not decry the middle of the road plastic kit makers – the Italeri, Airfix, etc. as I love to build their kits. I respect the top-end factories like Tamiya and Bandai and grouch at the crudities that flow out of Eastern Europe. But I have also got immense respect for the Hobby Boss people and some of the other Chinese and Korean manufacturers – they produce what they set out to do and do it without compromise or crudity.

My dearest hope is that the Hobby Boss people will venture out further and further into interesting prototypes – then there might be models in my area of interest that go beyond the high-selling average toy. I know the accountants at the factories have to be satisfied before the customers, but let’s hope that they get some adventurous accountants.

The Wildcat is moulded very well – I am particularly impressed with the landing gear. I’ve built an Airfix Martlet and struggled somewhat with the complex Grumman gear – Airfix were determined to include every strut and actuator. It succeeded in the end but there were moments. Here the Hobby Boss solution gives much the same impression but is done in two legs and two wheels.And it can be plugged in after the rest of the plane is painted and decaled.

Likewise the engine cowling can be detailed and painted and added just at the end of the entire build. Far preferable to the ones that sit there attracting stray glue drops and fingernails, waiting to break.