The Little World

I am never happier than when building a kit from a maker that I have not encountered before. It is a new land to explore.

This Arii kit from Japan came with very rudimentary instructions - really nothing to help with decal placement or colouring save the box art. Yet the individual components and the decals themselves seemed first-rate. There will hardly ever be sink marks from 1/144 scale kits and as long as the moulds are tight and new, you avoid flash.

The charming addition to this kit – a gift form a kind friend – is the tiny tin tube of what may very well be cement. Someone else commented that it might contain hazardous waste, but when a man eats leftovers regularly, there is little that can frighten him.

The swing wing feature of the prototype is also reproduced in the kit. You have to decide at which stage of the flight to depict it before you attach the fuel tanks.