The Little World

Lo and Behold. A dear old Monogram F-82 kit at a swap meet. The price of Hobby Boss click-together. What’s not to like!

The kit is complete – the decals are reasonable, the canopies are all there. It is out of fashion as an older mould, but the raising of the panel lines has lowered the price and I am the beneficiary.

Sprue trees are crisp and hard. Little flash, and sink marks are hard to see on the black plastic. More than enough detail for my purposes and the exact sort of markings and equipage that I want as a contrast to the Alaskan twin.

I note the instructions feature a good deal of written English breaking the construction down into steps. As the model might have been aimed at the junior worker, this was no bad thing. Literacy was being fostered as well as fine motor skills. And the instructions were less likely to contain diagrammatic bloopers that would spoil models – this was a day before the internet could be counted on to present actual pictures of preserved aircraft.

I had no idea I would be this close to a second aircraft kit when I completed the first one. The only disadvantage will be the fact that it will take up twice the shelf space in the collection!