The Little World

Vs the Old Standard.

Is it possible to find happiness in the box of your 115th Spitfire if you elect to decorate it in the colours of the Congolese Air Force?

Only if the other 114 are in RAF standard Day Fighter green/grey/sky and are distinguishable only by tail code. You started to feel confident in your choice of camouflage about No. 80 and it has only been the last 12 that have seemed to be verging on the boring.

The aftermarket decal business is rather wonderful for people denied ready access to little Czech kits or especial new releases. We are constantly wandering the aisles wondering who in their right mind buys some of these kits…and hoping against hope that it will not have to be us.

The decals let us revive some of the older offerings at an affordable price. Cheaper than resin or brass aftermarket kits and much more visible. Yet we do a very odd thing – we trust the decal artists explicitly…where we doubt civic leaders, police officers, and religious advisers.

This may be art triumphing over trade, but I suspect it is just our desperate need for something new and colourful. We need Barbie airplanes.

Well, somebody has to buy those spray cans of Tamiya gloss pink.