The Little World

This is unquestionably a mojo build for me. I stuffed up my last military vehicle badly and saw this one the next day as a saviour in the armour aisle. I do not intend to be as impatient and casual in its build as I was with the failure.

I remember these trucks from a childhood spent in construction camps in Canada. There were a lot of the Federals left over from WWII scattered about in the bush doing dog duties. You could see them with water tanks, booms and winches, and even a few as dump trucks for asphalt firms. They were more common than the flat-faced Chevrolet models. This kit lets me see inside one – and it is as delightfully simple as I expected it would be. Wartime production of a basic army lorry.

The sprue trees from an Academy kit are always a treat to contemplate; free of the flash that bedevils the Czech and Russian products, and with a precision that promises fit. The plastic seems to have the ideal balance in consistency between Airfix softness and Hasegawa brittleness. I suspect many of the moulds are ex-Hasegawa anyway, but that doesn’t mean the Koreans have to shoot the same plastic into them.

Likewise the instructions are a model of clarity. Even if there is no colour call-out I am confident upon seeing them that I will be able to get the parts together in the order that the makers intended. I am always amused at spiel papers that tout for other kits or provide instructions on how to cut and glue…but there will be some small boy who will read them, follow them, and start on a long journey of achievement. I should not deny him his successes. I wonder if they should include these sorts of instructions with 500 Kg bomb fuses and redheads…?

Decals? My Stars…