The Little World

Alchemy in scale.

The old concept of the Philosopher’s Stone that would transmute lead into gold never quite got off the ground – both substances defying the power of 18th century aero engines to achieve lift.

Even when modern jets and rockets were strapped to freight cars full of lead and the vehicles sent down the track, no gold was produced. Some spectacular holes in the landscape, mind…

The same might be said for the modern scale modeller’s Philosopher Stones; resin castings and photo-etch brass. They can be applied to re-popped model kits from 1950’s moulds, but the result never glitters. The basic material is so base as to defy chemistry.

I think this is entirely wrong – the approach to these old moulds should be reverential and authentic. We should accept them for what they are and were, and not hope for what they could be. We should be prepared to deal with them in the spirit of former times.

Buy a kit, open it on Christmas morning, build it by tea-time. Or save for a month, buy it, and set fire to it the next week.

Do not expect things to fit in any way except inside the box. If there are locating pins evenly spaced between the giant rivets and the enormous sink-holes, that is all you need. The maker knows best.

If the position of the decals ( all eight of them ) is delineated on the wing and fuselage with raised outlines, be grateful. You need not refer to a diagram to know where to put them. Cartograf ask too much of us.

Canopies? Glue? Fingers? I need not tell Granny how to suck eggs…

And do not forget the display stand. People in Illinois are starving. You should be grateful you have a display stand and glue it under every tank and hot rod.

You never had it so good…