The Little World

Well, that’ll teach me…but I am not sure what.

I was going so well with my Special Hobby Seversky P-35 model. I had used most of the photo etch in the cockpit successfully and even managed the photo-etch aileron horns on the underside of the wing. And the new Super-Metallic Super Silver from Mr. Color went on a treat – I was on a roll…

Unfortunately it has turned out to be mouldy roll. When I finished the decalling and the clear protective coat I turned my attention to the cockpit canopy. And discovered that the windscreen portion of it had detached itself from the spue and gone totally missing. No amount of searching anywhere in the modelling landscape turned it up. Gone – and gone for a kit that is quite rare.

This is the point that modellers are tempted to throw things against the wall and stomp out – the Yamaguchi Moment. When you commit suicide to supposedly make amends for failures. In reality it never makes anything better at all. Far better to shift your flag to another vessel and fight on.

I had the center section, the aft portion, and the box lid as illustration of what it looked like. I also had the corner of a clear  lid from a glue packet. A little cutting and fitting made a rough copy of the windscreen.

It’d never pass muster if you could see it plainly. But if you filled in the gaps with putty…

And then covered the ship with plastic wrap and formed a tissue-paper tarpaulin over it…

And then painted it khaki…

Not what I set out to do a few days ago, and I am sorry you won’t be able to see the interior, but with a few tie-down ropes to make it look real, the ship will sail on. Not all museum exhibits are finished works.