The Little World

I am not sure I’ll ever deserve it, but I have certainly met people who do – and some of them have been in my scale modelling club.

I write ” have ” because time rolls on and removes people from time to time. The respect you may have formed for them when they were alive need not disappear when you can no longer talk to them – you can talk of them and of their accomplishments.

One of the best ways I can do this is feature some of their models on this page or on the club pages in newsletters or websites. The former two are started and the last-named in prospect – I hope it will come to fruition. The models are sometimes kept as monuments in the club rooms – and in some cases threaten to overwhelm the space available – but this will be sorted in some wise in the future.

Sometimes the models they started can be finished by others as a mark of respect. In many cases un-built models are purchased at a deceased estate sale. This may be a formal thing or just in-club…but there are several things to note about it:

a. The models may have been given into the club’s care by the modeller’s widow or children free of charge. But if they are sold or distributed to club members payment must be sent for them. This is only decent – every service person recognizes the situation and knows the drill.

Anyone trying cadge goods for free deserves a boot in the ring.

b. The models purchased may be built to any standard, but it is most respectful if it is a good one. The departed had an idea regarding the kit and laid out money for it themselves – don’t just waste the potential it represents.

c. Old animosities can be laid in the pine box with the departed. Don’t tell me about the fights you had with them and what you said. The conversation is closed – if you re-open it you do so from a position of cowardly power.

d. If the old models fall apart, either repair them or give them a viking funeral. Don’t let a person’s memory be a dust magnet of broken parts.