The Little World

The two colours of plastic in the Lockheed kit were startling on the sprue trees but have become less so when assembled together. As they will shortly disappear under an undercoat and then silver they are of no consequence.

Of greater import is the splendid fit of the structure. Making up the twin-rudder tail separately meant that the vertical stabilisers could be kept truly so and the bulk of the adjustments made by sanding the horizontal stabiliser fit with the fuselage. There was never going to be the positive registration one expects with an Airfix, Tamiya, or Italeri kit, but at least there were a pair of reasonably sized mating surfaces.

The question of the fuselage’s windows arose next. I’d previously measured them to see if they could be inserted post-painting. While this is a tricky operation, I am coming to prefer it to the older practise of forming up an entire strip of clear styrene and gluing it on the inside. That is rarely as precise, and somewhat iffy to mask. The edges of the finished window never seem to be as good, no matter what mask is employed.

As a small request, could the designers of Prague please incorporate a ledge in the window frame in future aircraft to allow a positive seat without danger of the window popping into the fuselage? Thank you.