The Little World

This model kit was an overlooked box in the estate stash that came to our modelling club. But not overlooked for long.

I looked it over, and decided building it was the best way of remembering the old club mate who had relinquished it. I suspect he had plans for it as an RAAF aircraft – one of the between-the-wars trainers that the RAF sent out to the empire.

I have different plans. I have taken on responsibility for Swuping Province in the Republic of China, and as Generalissimo I need to have reliable personal transport – in this case warmed up and ready at the airfield. There needs to be space for myself and a number of pieces of luggage. Fortunately precious stones are not very large in volume and carpet bags are not heavy. The Westland Wallace has enough cargo space for its intended purpose. It is not fast, but fast enough…

The kit seems to be made in Russia by Maquette – a short run firm that has bought some old FROG moulds. The results on the sprue trees certainly suggest this sort of scenario. I hope to find useable surfaces under large sprue feed channels and I am going to be forgiving of the clear parts in any case.

The instructions may be a redrawing of the FROG originals but the decals look much newer. I won’t be using them, but they do look attractive. Still, I’ve said that about Mr. Craft decals from Poland and lived to chew my words.

In any case, it cannot be worse than many short runners, and if the Generalissimo needs to inspect the Swiss banks urgently, he will not be fussy. Just warmed up and ready, Honorable Pilot – that’s all.