The Little World

As scale modellers we tend to forget a lot.

We forget to save money in the hobby shop and we forget to put nose weights into our aircraft. We forget to to sign the club attendance book and to wash our hands in the loo. Most times we get away with it.

However, the universe has a perfect memory and whenever we cross certain boundaries it leaps out of the dark and whacks us over the head. One day in the workshop was one of those times.

I had sprayed the top side of a new airplane with a white undercoat and decided to make up the wooden base for the stand while the paint dried. That involved using a jigsaw on a big piece of MDF board. It all went well and the base was eventually finished with a can of black spray paint.

Then back to the underside of the model for the next coat of white. Only in the interval I had put a haze of MDF dust into the air – which the paint promptly fastened to the surface of the model. Fortunately I spotted the disaster in time to stop early.

I waited an hour, buffed off the bumps and particles, and wiped the model well with a damp washcloth. Eventually it was ready for the undercoat and this time it was bump-free. Lesson learned, and I will not do that again. As a bonus, the shop got a good vacuuming.