The Little World

My daughter visited Japan some 5 years ago – pre Covid. I tasked her with bringing me back something that wasn’t available in our local shops.

Fortunately she wandered into one of the Leonardo’s shops in Akihabara and was able to talk to the sales staff. She selected 4 models that were old, odd, and able to be packed into her luggage. This LS Pitts S2A is the last of the builds.

I’ve hesitated with it because of the age of the kit – 1980’s – and the tiny size. It is, by far, the smallest 1/72 aircraft I’ve ever built.

The box was barely surviving but the art was fine. The kit inside was pristine – moulded with no flash or sink marks, and a clear sprue tree that would shame some modern makers. Red, of course, so that a kid builder would love it – I would need to mask that before the white was painted.

The instructions were adequate, if small. The decal sheet exquisite, and not yet foxed or broken. It would be the worry of the build, as the details were extensive and if there was no decoration a lot of the appeal would not be there.

As this was the second LS kit I’d encountered – one of the other Leonardo buys was an LS Dinah – I knew that the plastic was resilient enough to trim from the trees. Some kits are bad in this – ICM and Roden are worrisome for small parts. I must say, even the clear parts behaved themselves.

Can’t praise Leonardo’s enough.