The Little World

If you are a model builder with one kit, you have no trouble deciding what your next build will be. Most of us who built models as children were in just this position all the time. The only occasion when you might have had a multiplicity of kits was on a birthday or holiday.

But now we are all old and rich and have stashes. This is three or more kits unbuilt in their boxes or bags. When you contemplate them, you must decide which is the next to go onto the workbench. You are in precisely the same position as a musical composer when they pick up a pen and address a sheet of music lines…though there are fewer kits available for build-a-symphony.

Rhythm – that’s the thing. For you as well as a Wolfgang or Ludwig. You need to decide what the rhythm of your hobby is to be before you grasp the next box or bag. Will you build to a solid beat – the same scale each time, the same sort of model, the same size, etc. Will it be the steady solid fighter plane or tank, varied only in decoration – with a clear progression of unit markings to form a complete collection? Are you John Cage with a stash full of Spitfires?

Are you Mozart? Will you do something of everything, and do it well? Will a different scale be the next thing – or a different vehicle? Is there going to be a grand diorama or the frippery of a single figure? Do you do this to avoid boredom, or to work to an even grander scale of vision?

Is your build to be satisfying to just yourself? Or to a small coterie of enthusiasts…like a special interest group? Or to a universal set of viewers – the grand audience of the world? It would depend on how anxious you are for approval from others. Some people are anxious in a hobby that might be thought to soothe the mind…but then they would be as worried about other aspects of life as well.

For myself, I find my stash is a fine collection of things got along the way…some purchased and some donated. It could not be the material of a grand symphony, but it has enough elements that it can be mixed into jazz. If I was Handy I could be like W.C.