The Little World

Actually, too long on several shelves…

This model was purchased at my favourite local hobby shop to rescue it from obscurity on the back shelf. It had lain there – along with a number of obscure Soviet experimental and propaganda ships – for as long as I had been going to the place.

Finally they had a sale and slapped a smaller price on it – and as I had spare coins I purchased it. It languished here on my stash shelf ever since – not as an undesired object, but as a challenge – I thought the struts and floats would be too hard to do. Well, in the interim, I have coped with far worse than this, and figured out my procedures – it is time to wash it off and start to cement.

The small sprue trees – this is a small aircraft – are delightfully precise. I know Amodel plastic of old and treat it with caution, but it is better stuff than Roden and I have tamed that. The instructions are very clear and the decal sheet pretty simple in itself. I’ll still coat it with clear lacquer before trying the letters, but the lining may done with a pen.

The real temptation will come when I get to the underside. I see on the sprue trees that there is a normal wheeled undercart as well as the amphibious float and wheel set. Do I make it as per the box or do I keep it as a land plane for a 30’s airport?

This is the type of thing that keeps me up at night – and at my age that means past 9:30 PM.