The Little World

Are you a North American or European modeller this December? I want you to do an experiment for me. I want you to set up your modelling bench in your garage or in a metal shed out on the back lawn at your house. ( No apartment dwellers need apply. ) then I want to you go out there and build a kit with sanding. cementing, filling, and airbrush painting. Finally I want you to decal the model.

You can build anything you want, but there is one firm rule; no heating of any sort for the garage or shed.

The conclusion of the experiment will be when you are finally stretchered into the house with the model clutched in your frozen hands. Before you expire, I want you to tell me how much fun it has all been, on a scale from 1 to 10. You are allowed negative numbers.

Here in the antipodes we will be conducting a similar test but in the other direction. Our tin sheds will sit exposed to the sun all day until the galvanising starts to run off the metal. We will be inside trying to get paint to come out of the nozzles of our airbrushes – in most cases we will get nothing but dust and dead spiders.

No place will be safe to sit in shorts. Metal tools will have cork handles wrapped around them until the cork ignites and burns away.

I have placed a thermometer in my shed and so far yesterday it got to 42º C. I’m trying for the 50 this year.

Which is a preamble to the real message of this post. Don’t do it. There is no need to make yourself miserable ( that’s what family is for…) by suffering through in a tin shed. Plastic modelling is a portable hobby – even if you are building big models, they are never going to be bigger than a tabletop inside. Make yourself a portable tray with your most-frequently-used tools and whtever paint you need. Come inside to the kitchen table or the study or the laundry if need be – and model on in comparative comfort. You may not be directly under an air conditioning duct but it has to be better than the freezeer or the oven.

If the rest of the household complain, adjourn yourself to the hobby club and spend more time there. The air conditioner works and it may be a lot better for your mental and physical health.