The Little World

If you ever want to practice your anxiety, I can think of no better exercise than driving somewhere with a scale model in the car.

Oh, I hasten to add, that’s a completed model…just tooling home from the hobby shop with a kit in a box plus $ 85 dollars of new paint is no problem. You can drive as erratically as you like.

However, you cannot do this with the finished item – because there is no way to pack or tie down a complex scale model that will not break something off it. Any turn, and stop, risks throwing the thing against the side of the container and shearing off pitot tubes, antennae, and guns.

Some stalwarts pack them in styrofoam containers with satay sticks to hold them free of the walls. It is sometimes nearly successful, as long as you are prepared to super-glue extensively.

I think it would be a wise study to look and see how professional movers pack delicate objects. Even full-size tow trucks and car transporters are object lessons. Expensive automobiles can be put into some of the most ungainly postures on these trips and they seem to survive.

Perhaps we need to make deliberate provision when building a model for subsequent transportation…not just leave it to desperation and satay sticks when exhibition time comes along.