The Little World

Not just the computer operating system – windows in general.

Particularly when they are all down the side of a model airplane but only on the inside. If I want them to be open I have to carefully cut them out myself. That’s one of the horrors of the multi-purpose kit.

I thought this sort of thing was the special punishment meted out to British railway modellers who insisted upon making their own carriages from scratch. The ones who take a sheet of Bristol board or plastic card and start to model the Edinburgh Express. They are sort of like the armour modellers who spend a month knitting plastic tracks together before they can attach the first sheet of the tank hull. All cheerful at the start and murderous at the end.

To be fair, Revell have given clear indication inside the fuselage of the position and size of the windows. They are deeply engraved and all you need is a very sharp knife and a very dull mind and you are set. I was a good modeller – carefully scoring the inside lightly and then repeating the strokes until there was breakthrough.

Then sanding the edges square and the corners round. And trying the individual panes of plastic to make sure they fit and were not going to protrude from the fuselage line.

The saving grace for this plane is the fact that the inside is so very dark. Once I did the interior colour I could cement the windows in, re-enforce them with PVA glue, and then close up. They were sturdy enough to take outside masking without popping in. A full day’s work, mind.