The Little World

This kit is the second venture I’m making in 1/35 scale – and this is a deliberate choice, rather than a chance purchase.

The little Polish armoured car kit that I bought for a dollar proved to be so much fun to build that I determined to add more to the Stein’s Military World museum. I set out for my local hobby shop with the intention of buying a French tank – a Somua S35.

Nothing doing. There was a Tamiya Char B that would have been wonderful but I had not researched it in preserved form – and the shop was asking $ 99 for it. That went above my budget by a fair way.

All the shelves had lots of AFV and vehicles in 1/35. Some standard stuff and some really arcane vehicles. I was actually put off by the variety on offer – and by the size and complexity of some models. When they threaten 500 pieces, I quail.

However, on a lonely shelf some IBG models were hidden. I knew the name from the Flory forum broadcasts, and as they are a Polish firm, I am curious about them. My experience with Mister Craft aircraft models was a curate’s egg, but the little Mirage armoured car was delightful. Buying another Polish product was like getting a styrene lotto ticket from Warsaw. But the price was affordable and the tinky mature of the tankette was attractive – think in terms of a covered Bren gun carrier.

I never open the boxes until I get home – sort of a delayed tease to heighten the fun. Imagine my pleasure when I discovered that this $ 40 box was not only filled with sealed plastic bags of sprue trees, but there was PE brass – and paints, a brush, and cement. I’d bought a starter kit unbeknownst.

The paints are Hataka acrylics supposedly optimised for brushing. If I had purchased the colours from my normal maker, plus an equivalent brush and tube of cement I would have spent more than the kit cost. Essentially the kit’s sprue trees are now free!

Before you pooh pooh the accountancy, remember that I had a good experience with an experimental Revell starter set that also provided cement, paint, and a brush. I’ve since used several of these extras on other models. The brush painting was unusual for an aircraft, but will be a piece of ( Polish ) cake with this little vehicle. In the larger scale the results should be perfect.

It’s always fun to build from an unknown maker, and when the thing is a bargain, it is doubly so.