The Little World

This is no finger-tangler of a model. A day or two of cementing and sanding and the air compressor can be turned on.

The assembly is no mean feat, however, as the tolerances with which this kit are moulded are anything but generous. Each of the location pins has had to be shaved to get into the holes, and the main airframe fit into the thrust structure is as tight as anything I’ve built. Cement day will be followed by drying night to allow everything to set before sanding.

Not that there will be much of that. The fit is superb.

I am going to choose the Mk 4 vehicle – apparently that was the fitment when the missile squadrons were deployed in the early 1960’s. Our house was perfectly safe from Soviet attack, being situated within a ring comprised of 9 ICBM missile launch fields and the biggest B-52 base in the north west of the country. Never once did the Russians harass us on the way to school.

I was a little curious to see what the Mk 38 or the Mk 49 options in this kit would look like on the top of the Atlas. The Mk 4 is the best choice, though the Mk 2 is reminiscent of the Thor warheads that were seen in the UK. I plotted what they would do if we reduced their effects to 1:72 scale and it looks like bad news from the RAAF museum in one direction to the Chinese restaurant the other way. Good bye shopping centre…

If you can’t actually scale reduce the blast effects it will be hard on the entire metro area. I will keep the scale model plastic warheads in a safe spot and not let children play with them.