The Little World

Is there a ” 40 Kph Men Working ” sign at your modelling club?

Is someone always looming up behind you and asking ” Are you done yet? “. Perhaps you are out of synch…

Phil Flory nailed it some time ago – and I suspect he has a pretty good handle on most of scale modelling. He said that you should be doing it for pleasure – for relaxation – for fun. At the time he looked desperate, but that could have been a trick of the light. However, I wholeheartedly agree with him. What we do as hobbyists should be a hobby, and a pleasurable one at that.

How fast should you go when building a model? Well I have three speeds – occasioned by three circumstances. I model once a fortnight at a public library with a group of reprobates. I model one a week in the club rooms with a different group of reprobates. I model daily by myself, and have to do the reprobating duty alone. So far I have succeeded.

The fortnightly models do not get finished as fast as the weekly ones – and these not as fast as the daily ones – but they all do eventually get finished and I am as pleased as I can be in each instance. The pleasure is an internally-generated emotion and sometimes not related to the quality of either the kit or the build. But it is genuine, and I treasure it.

I do have fun.

The moral of this all is to set your own pace. If your life allows you only an hour at the workbench or kitchen table to build your model – and your purse means that it will be the most modest of kits – savour the experience. Build to your level of expertise and take pride in it. Delight in the rising structure and the finished product. Be happy, and defend your happiness against all who would tear it down. You did something good.