The Little World

How far into fantasy are you prepared to take your modelling? Why would you go there? Will it satisfy you or others?

Good questions. From the dream doll house to the whiffery Heinkel to the improbable hot rod, we have all seen modellers exercising their imaginations as much as their hobby knives. Some of these fanciful trips are scratch-built and some are completely kitted. Some are ab initio and some are copies of cinema or popular fiction images.

The imagination was first loosed for many of us with the 3-in-1 model car kits of the 60’s. We combined parts, decals, and decorating schemes as well as we could…even departing from hot rod models that were themselves automotive confections. Only the most disciplined and observant of the teen modellers made cars that could really have existed.

We responded to Hollywood and television with models of monsters, then heroes, then manga and anime. Some models are produced that are directly marketed by the people who made the shows, and there is a vast skilled coterie of modellers who follow sci-fi and fantasy very closely.

We see whiffery models that are nearly as believable as real prototypes, and presumably say something to the builders that history does not.

And we scour the internet, printed archives, and every possible source for alternate paint and decal schemes for common models. I won’t say that there are deliberate falsehoods, but I suspect that there are a lot of hefty guesses.