The Little World

Conscious or unconscious – our minds tell us what to do. In my case it tells me what to scale model to build.

It does for you, as well. Where are you in the list?

a. The scale builder. Anything in 1:72, 1:48, 1:35, etc. You stick to scale and end up with a coherent collection – every model can be related to every other model by size and shape.

b. The box builder. If it comes in a box, you’ll build it. This frees you from the shackles of scale – because kits have been made in some very disparate scales indeed. Your collection will be a more varied one.

c. The country builder. All you models are from one or other country. Good if you model RAF aircraft or British railways. Bad if you select Uruguay as your only area of interest.

d. The brand builder. You make models from only one factory – again you’ll never be sad if you pick Airfix or one of the prolific major makers like Tamiya. Awkward if you form an attachment to a garage kit firm with three kits on offer per decade.

e. The type builder. All your shelves show one sort of model – tank, plane, ship, car, etc. Again a coherent theme and a pleasure to you and others.

f. The fan builder. All-Ferrari collection – or all Thunderbirds Are Go collection. You’ll hang on annual announcements for new kits, but you’ll have an eclectic mix of your favourites.

g. The material builder. You only build in wood, or styrene, or resin. Or match sticks.

h. The landscape artist. You are building real estate and locations in miniature. any vehicles and structures are incidental.

i. The fantasy builder. It is better when it is your fantasy, but you’ll make kits of other people’s fairy tales too.

j. The money builder. You’ll either build the most expensive kits in the shop or the cheapest ones on the swap table. Either way you are working to the maximum of your resources.

k. The eclectic. Or higgledy piggledy builder. You make everything that comes your way – the collection has something of every class and size. It is not the end product for you, but the process of building.

l. The time builder. You have some spare time and have poured scale modelling into it as a filler.

Note that all of the above are valid reasons to build scale models, and none of them really need to be tied to a specific material, technique, or plan. You need make no excuse for what you do, and anyone who seems to want you to provide it should be ignored.