The Little World

Either you have the courage to uphold them or the criminal skill to have them quashed…

But when it comes to building plastic kits there are a number of moral issues that you must address if you are to feel right about what you do. Consider:

a. Do you build what you want to build or what everyone else is building? This can be a real thing when you are a member of a model building club or society. You’ll see others making kits that are all the rage and they can be presented as very desirable – but you have to decide whether it is your desire or that of another.

b. Do you build what you can afford to build? No good lusting after the 1:24 model of the Spruce Goose with full operating engines and 67 kilos of photo-etch brass frets in the box. If you could afford the kit you could afford to have Howard Hughes resurrected to build it for you.

At a certain point you have to put the cork back in.

c. Do you buy a kit of kits and spend more on aftermarket parts than the original vehicle was worth? I do not do this – my sole ventures into extras are for decals that would be impossible to reproduce on a printer. Even then I begrudge the money.

d. Do you build the kit to a low, moderate, or high standard? Or an impossibly high one – see (c. ) above. It is entirely legitimate to do any of the first three as long as you accept what you are doing.

For myself, I have set the mark of building a kit to the best of the kit’s realistic potential. Some of them will never be more than crude approximations of the prototype – some will be exact replicas. I accept the abstract nature of the first type – as long as the cost of the kit also reflects the more modest expectation.

e. And finally – is the kit built to gain your approval or the rewards of others? Be assured – the approval of a judge will never be complete, nor will it last long. Build for yourself and let others see your happiness.