The Little World

And self really needs to take note:

a. Paint on a brush may go where you intend it. Paint on a finger never does.

b. Near enough is close enough is good enough is never enough.

c. Cement runs both ways – down the brush and up the brush. But never in the amount you want.

d. It’s the wrong shade of grey.

e. Good camouflage is hard to see. Bad camouflage is easy to see. Which may explain why some models stand out more at exhibitions.

f. If you can paint the entire kit on the sprue and attach the decals and varnish it at the same time, it will save losing parts.

g. The kit is rarely as exciting as the box art.

h. Good expensive kits are the same as bad cheap kits except they cost more and are harder to get in the house undetected.

i. A stash never grows smaller – that is a rule of physics. You need not feel bad about it until there is no more space in the linen cupboard.

j. No aerial survives weathering.

k. No weathering job is exactly right. It can be not enough or too much but those are the only two choices.

l. No steel mould is ever too worn out to produce another range of model kit. You just have to keep selling it further east.

m. One day there will be a revival of box-scale kits as a niche market. 1/45th. 1/127th… Whatever fits in whatever box can be bought cheap from wherever. And people will stash them…

n. Oriental parody kits can be made of anything…and they’ll be better moulds than serious attempts at scale models. All you need to do to market them is put anime girls on the box art.

m. One day a photo-etch kit will be brought out that has a small packet of injected parts in it.

n. The best paintbrush you have will be taken to do makeup with and then left in the bathroom overnight…on it’s bristles.

o. Masts are made to lean.

p. NOTHING worthwhile comes with paint and glue.

q. As soon as you have a perfect surface and the seam line has disappeared the part will crack off.

r. Your 1500-hour scratch-built prototype only-one-in-existence model will come out as a Snap-Tight kit a week after you finish it.