The Little World

Are they modellers as such?

This question has come up repeatedly in my life as I have been attracted by scale models of all sorts. I’ve purchased die-cast ships, cars, and planes that were complete in themselves right out of the box – exquisite in some cases.

Some became part of a larger collection that continued until no more examples could be readily obtained. This was the case with the tiny ships and with the 1: 18th scale cars. I started collecting as the craze for the models was dying down and few new models produced were relevant. The lack of a future in a collection is what kills it – that and the discovery that like-minded collectors had no conversation aside from their acquisitions. Stick with them and you would become them…

It looks as though the scale model kit hobby has a lot more chance for expansion – even though the Mustspitschmitt kits will always dominate the shelves. One can shift sideways into different scales or genres and the horizon broadens.

The model railway hobby is broader yet, and necessarily involves a lot of ancillary building to get going. If you need to pause to catch your breath you can collect freight cars and passenger coaches in the meantime and make shelf displays of them. Collecting locomotives would be an expensive offshoot, but a perfectly legitimate one – visually very rewarding – perfectly suited to commercial bookcases.