The Little World

I would be the first person to admit my mistakes – at least the ones I cannot hide under the rug. Or blame on other people. This kit prompted a mistake.

I thought that I was going to make an Israeli Meteor to be displayed in 1956 colours at my air museum at Schmatterim. The tail spare included in this old box suggested that it would be easy. I just needed to chop off the tail of the Meteor F.3 and cement on the F.8 tail and that would be it.

Wrong. I chopped and cemented – noting that the fuselage was not going to be quite a fit – and then looked at the plan view of the F.8. Clipped wings. Long engine nacelles and a long canopy. I had chopped myself into more work than I wanted to do.

So I reversed course. I cemented a length of Evergreen square plastic beam into the old F.3 tail and then into the fuselage. The saw cut I’d made to chop the tail was quite even and the gap closed up very easily.

There were audible sighs of relief in the workshop…because I had discovered by this time that the fit of the parts on this very old Airfix kit was as good as anything that the big Tam or the big Ban can do nowadays. Had I not tailed it, there would have been no filler anywhere.

I must learn not to rush in where angels fear to tread.