The Little World

A guide to repentance and the re-enforced joint.

As scale modelling sinners we often risk judgement and damnation through our treatment of the innocent…the innocent kit, I mean. Each one of these comes to us pristine and unsullied, unless it has been bought at a stash sale – and in that case anything that happens to us we deserve.

When we first see the kit box on the shelf of the hobby shop it will likely be end-on. The maker will have put a title to it, and sometimes a small repeat of the box art. The shop will generally have a price sticker as well, unless they are afraid this will cause shoppers to collapse in the aisle. This is the opportunity to decide whether we wish to go to Heaven or to Hell, and to pay a week’s drinking money for the journey.

Oh, sinner, consider well what thou doest. If thou wilt never build the kit in a pink fit, do not take it down and weigh it in thy hand lest thee weaken and head for the till. Once outside with the thing in a bag, the fiend will pursue thee.

If you are determined, press on, but give thought to which of the adhesives it is to which you would adhere. Some plastics respond well to one but not another. Some cements fight each other and some glues unstick themselves just to be a nuisance.

By all means try to use as thin a cement as you can, but be aware that the temptation to wipe and daub with too little chemical will lead to becoming unstuck later. Every subsequent stage of a build depends upon a solid bond of previous parts. When in doubt, tack with a quick setting material, then add the slower setter to the mixture and give it the correct time to work.

You can glue too much, of course, and see the joint flood plastic out onto surrounding areas – but even here extra material may be trimmed off more easily than it would be added to a gap.