The Little World

The error. The mistake. The blunder. The failure.

Every build has one, and some builds have many. And there are a variety of them:

a. The bad kit.

Some kits are bad. Badly designed, badly moulded, badly boxed and badly shipped. In this case you are being beaten up by the manufacturere and the only way to avoid this is to leave the blastd thing on the shelf in the first place.

b. The bad buy.

If the price is too high, no matter how good the kit is, it is a bad buy. In the case of the really bad kits ( see a. above ) the too-high price may be quite low. In the worst circumstances, a terrible kit for free is a bad buy.

Look into your wallet and use your brain – not vice versa. If there is a major disparity between the sticker price and what you expect to get in enjoyment, put the kit back on the shelf.

c. The bad choice.

We generally get a choice with the modern kit of several schemes to build it to. Some are perfect, some not. If you choose to do one that is going to fail big time, you set yourself up for big-time failure.

This may revolve around complexity of build and decoration. If the decal sheet has too many elements broken into too many components you multiply your chance of failure. If the scheme is just naff, you need to see that at the start and set out to do another. Rarely, all the options in the kit are unattractive and you have to ask yourself why you picked that model to do.

d. The bad cut.

Or bad cut and sand. If the kit has impossible sprue gates and you do not pay attention you can produce component parts that do not fit, or a so scarred as to be unusable. Slow and careful and use a magnifier if need be. DO not sand drunk.

e. The bad cementation

Where to start…You can use any of the modeller’s cements and glues badly and often the containers in which they are supplied assist you to do this. Squirt, Spurt, and Drip Pty Ltd make the best worst cement tubes but th other manufacturers are catching up quick. In most cases it is best to take whichever adhesive you want to apply out of the tube or bottle onto a separate palette and apply it with a brush or fine wooden applicator. You’ll occasionally stick yourself to the palette but most of the carnage will be kept away from the model.

f. The bad sanding/filling/undercoat

These are generally bad when you just do not do them carefully or stop too soon. Getting sick of filling and sanding means you are tempted to skip on the final touches that would otherwise have avoided the mistake.

Persist. Give adequate time for setting and drying of anything you put on the model. Look at the critical parts critically – don’t get mad at the model or yourself, but contiue to refine them. Perfect is always a good platform to stand on for your next step.

g. The bad paint job

Too much, too little, do high air pressure, dirt in the air, paint, or on the model, a stray fly landing on the fresh paint, wrong thinner, wrong paint, too much thinner…We could go on, but we won’t. Make all of these errors for yourself but remember that you only need to make them once. Any more times are just indulgence in stupidity.

DO let every coat of anything dry or set properly – even if this means a 24-hour delay until the next coat. By all means try to lessen this time with warm drying boxes and odd thinners, but remember that this is yet another avenue of failure down which you can wander and the further you go, the longer it’ll take you to walk back.

h. The bad decal job

Try to put decals down on matte paint and you’ll be unhappy. Try to put fragile decals anywhere and you’ll also be sad. Gloss the surface, use a good setting solution, and if you are at all hesitant about the decals ( Russian and no-name European ones particularly. ) coat them with a semi-matte acrylic spray. Give them adequate soaking and resting time and use an additional decal glue if need be.