The Little World

No, not leprechauns. Or dwarves or midgets or any other arbitrary divisions of the human race. I mean model figures that accompany our scale models. The denizens of the Little World. By rights they should be the ones we make the dioramas for, instead of with. They are the rightful owners of the scale.

The casual reader of this column – the person with no appreciation of the Little World – may point to packets of plastic soldiers sold in toy stores and just liken everything we do to that. The Little Worlder can look at the squad of model servicemen in the diorama and name them individually and point out what each one is doing. And thinking.

We are sometimes well-served by the model manufactures – sometimes ill…I remember ordering a set of 100 model soldiers from an advertisement in a comic book ( 1950’s ) and being bitterly disappointed that they were flat figures – poor plastic imitations of German Zinnfiguren. On other occasions we pay a small amount for a truly magnificent sculpture…in very small size.  And those of us that are gifted with the ability to paint miniature figures can make the basic plastic or metal mannequin into a real being. I tips my hat to the figure painters.

My own airfields are, as yet, mostly unpopulated. Aside from a few Airfix airmen set out for the odd shoot, there are few little people, I need the confidence to change this. Either I need to spend heavily on commercial figures or get the raw sets and learn to do the job myself. My pilots and aircrew are passable but only under a canopy. There needs to be more life in the population.

Perhaps this is the time to sit at the feet of a figure painter – or take a course – and learn what to do.