The Little World

You’ll know you have it when the smell of fresh thinner makes you ill.

It will probably not be pregnancy, particularly if you are a member of the local Men’s Shed. Few of the chaps over 60 in my club fall pregnant in the course of a year.

It may be one of a number of things:

a. Greed. If the manufacturer has just announced the new Spring line of 1:32 bombers and you want all 15 of them, you may be forced to admit that you don’t have enough money to buy them or space to display them.

b. Guilt. If you have just closed up the hull of your tank and noticed the engine compartment still sitting on the sprue tree you may be suffering.

c. Jealousy. If you are nearly done with your model and another builder shows a finished one first, yours falls somewhat into the shade.

d. Frustration. If the diagrams are drawn by a person who cannot decipher plans, and captioned by a person who cannot read, you are the person who will get the queasy stomach.

There are a few things you can do. Put on virtual or actual blinkers when in the club and don’t look at what others are doing. Build only as far as your wallet will let you. If you cannot see inside the tank hull, neither can anyone else. Throw away the engine compartment.

And congratulate the other modeller for finishing before you. Put the extra sprue tree with the engine compartment in their kit box and let them have a moment of confused horror.