The Little World

Ce n’est pas de plus beau…

Oh, it’s a Beaufighter all right, and a marvellously complex moulding design. But someone in India pulled it out of the mould early and hot and it cooled on the bench. So the two halves of the fuselage have taken their own particular set – and the interior floor has expressed yet another geometrical opinion. All three must be reconciled if the wings are to be joined, and some of the marvellous precision of the design is going to be sacrificed in that compromise.

Never mind – it will still form a good airplane – if a little strained in the doing. This is not the first warped wonder from Airfix. I have struggled through a Hampden, a Marauder, and a Liberator with similar issues. I realise the source of the flaws and have stopped blaming the hobby shops. And with a little imaginative hot water, sanding, and progressive clamping, it will come mostly right.

It’s just a bit of a pain to be compelled to it at the price of the kits. I have not experienced this with the Academy, Hasegawa, or Tamiya products. Or the Italeri ones, to be fair.