The Little World

The choice of 1:72 scale to model for my collection is politic – I can only fit so much in a small space. Most of the aircraft can be built on a bench and shown on shelf. My new jigs make this a real pleasure.

But occasionally the sheer scale of the subject defeats this idea of miniaturisation. It was so with the B-17, B-24, and KB-29. So it is with this Sunderland. No jig will accommodate it.

So it was a case of casting about for help from the household. The wire rack may have come from an old office and was intended to hold cardboard folders for filing. Or it might have been an LP rack. I’ve used it as a drying rack for photos and inkjet prints. Now it is an assembly rack for a Sunderland.

The trick here was to minutely shave and sand the mating surfaces of the hull and wings until they were going to offer the maximum weld area. There is going to be an immense moment of force from the wing, no matter how the model is displayed. The hull halves had to be secure and the wing root seam as perfect as possible.

The cement is the viscose Mr Cement – a slow setter that can penetrate well. To aid it you need to keep the joint in vertical balance for an hour. This is easy on the first half as the hull sits on the opposite shoulder. For the second wing you need something to suspend the first assembly within. I think scale modellers would make excellent general riggers in a workshop as we have done it all with small bits.