The Little World

Every build has a mistake – a flaw – a piece of bad judgement. In the case of the Airfix DH Heron Mk II it has come in a rush.

I was shifting photographic backdrops in the workshop this morning and inadvertently hit the wing of the Heron. It slid off the building stand and crashed to the concrete floor. I am happy to say that I was adult enough to continue the task I was engaged in and move those backdrops before returning to the scene of the tragedy. I had no idea how much of the structure had been lost.

As it happened, one tail plane dismounted from its socket and the nose developed a 1 cm crack. The Heron is weighted at the nose and this was the point that struck the floor first.

Well it could have been worse – fortunately Tamiya Extra Thin cement welded it together and putty cured the crack. The tail yielded to cement as well, and as far as I can tell, that is all the consequence of a potential kit-killer mishap.

I have had cameras pull over from tripods with worse results – and indeed lost one in a drain when alighting from a car. It’s sickening feeling, but you just can’t let it be a Yamaguchi Moment.