The Little World

As Marshal McLuhan said, and was misquoted ever after. He had a right to be mad – he’d ordered a large, instead of a medium. And he was too Canadian to complain.

In the hobby world, and especially in the hobby shop, there are lots of mediums – paint mediums, medium brushes, and medium tank kits. Not quite sure what the message is, though.

There are also special kits of tools. These are boxed up at every opportunity by manufacturers keen to get a bigger slice of your pocket money than can be had with just a pack of knife blades and a sheet of sandpaper. The most prolific are the firms that sell wooden boat kits…they also sell lines of magnificently packaged tools that make you think that you can actually build one of their kits.

The tool box may be a chest, travelling case, or even desk. Generally wood, it is better-made than any of the firm’s boat kits and contains everything that they could ever want to get rid of out of their inventory. Will you need a coping saw? You’ll get one. A complex vice? Ditto. And a selection of files and knives that you can start to misplace as soon as the tool chest is home. If you lose a tool you can always buy another from their general range of things that are just a little different in shape from the fitted recess in the chest.

Will you use each one of these tools to build one of their model kits? You will for the first one. You’ll feel culturally obligated to saw with the saw and hammer with the hammer. The fact that you’ll saw crooked and break things with the hammer is beside the point. You’ve USED them. The next kit of the company’s that you build you can ease up. Eventually you’ll be back to the hobby knife and pack of sandpaper and then you can actually make models.

When you finally break free and realise that the company was selling pretty rotten raw materials in their expensive kits, you will have gained enough skills to make your own models with better wood. But you do have to admit one important thing:

Some of the tools you got in the fitted case are not meant to be used. They are only made to be paid for and admired in the case. Take them out and chaos reigns.