The Little World

Have you ever wanted to have a perfectly-detailled scale model of a walnut?

Or a woodpecker? I cannot vouch for the first but I remember that there were plastic kits of birds that my friend Trevor built in the late 50’s. The kits came with matt paints and brushes and he was reasonably good at making them…to my bafflement. Why anyone would spend money on a oriole when they could have a Lancaster was beyond me.

I am also baffled by many whiffer models and some of the sci-fi stuff, but I can see them being closer to the general run of kits. And I understand the attraction and artistry of the figure models that get such excellent paint jobs.

But the wooden press-outs? The Lego? The Japanese anime?

In a way, I should be grateful for these divisions in the Little World. People concentrating upon them spend money in the hobby shop, keeping it solvent and giving the owners capital to stock the things I buy. They do not impinge upon my shelves, and the paints and finishing products they need are part of the range I buy. Were I a competition modeller, they would be in a different division and no threat to me.

But I can still recall those bird kits…