The Little World

What on earth would induce grown people to spend an entire weekend standing around a hall at the dog race track looking at plastic models? Are they mad?

Hopefully, yes. This thought is held sacred by a number of hobby retailers who also stand round…round the back of the tills. The more madness and money that are seen in the hall, the better they like it. Because, at the bottom of it all, they are not there to err…” romance ” spiders.

They have worked darned hard to be there – harder in many instances than the other exhibitors…and risked a lot more capital to do so. It can’t fail to escape the notice of a modeller who arrived in a Suzuki hatchback with his entire display that the dealers are forced to do it in a furniture van.

Plus they have to arrange for trade with signs, cash, credit card machines and links, and multiple staff members. These workers have the job of loading at the shop, hauling the stock, unloading and display construction, a full two days of service, and a reverse saga of breakdown and haulage. Later in the week there will be restocking and accountancy…the curse of the retail shop.

Hats off to the people who can do this with a good heart and polite manner. I should run mad with a fire axe after the first four hours…

I can only hope that each trader had enough success to render the weekend profitable and encouraging for the next year. It certainly was for a chap at our table as he sought to divest himself of an excess of kits prior to a house removal. He cleared his tables. I only sold one thing, but any little space gained in my model studio is an advancement.

A word for the swapmeet or stash sale held on the Sunday: delightful. I have learned to be vigilant when the doors open and look deliberately for kits in my scale: 1/72. They are likely to be smaller boxes in taller stacks so all I have to do is head for the tables where this sort of pile waits. I am not greedy – I don’t demand swingeing discounts or armloads of kits. One or two at most will repay me for building over the following months, and if I have organised a list of wants, very often something will turn up.

You can’t decry the serendipitous kit either – some of the most fun ones I’ve built have been unexpected offerings. The advantage of having a diverse collection is that you can always make room for a new category.

After all, I’m a grown people…