The Little World

Relax – there will be no hippie touchy-feely stuff.

I’ve written before about trying out different types of modelling to see what you most enjoy. A car, a ship, an airplane, a rocket, and a tank give you a broad look at what is out there. Okay, there are trucks and figures and trains as well, but you get the main idea; cruise the smorgasbord and take a little of each dish on your plate.

Once you have found your taste, you need to refine it. Suppose you choose aircraft. The relevant section of the hobby shop shelves is massive, with a daunting variety of not only prototypes but scales as well. Now you know you like wings and tails, you need to try kits in all sizes.

Tiny? Well, unless your interest is die-cast collection only, the smallest common kit size is 1/144. Wonderful for big airliners and bombers, good for medium planes, and all right for small ones. Biplanes can be problematical but at least the kits are inexpensive.

1/72. Good for nearly everything except the largest of the multi-engine types. Oh, you can build a good kit, but housing it starts to become tight. Still, you can get the widest possible range of prototypes in this scale so your collection can be massive.

1/48th? Again perfect for single-engine jobs of all types and biplanes become easy to build and rig. You can see more detail, which means you’ll need to put more in. However, the build time will be longer and you’ll use up more shelf space. Plenty of aftermarket accessories out there.

1/32 or 1/35? The latter is new but expect to see more of it as makers seek to match the scale’s success in the armour market. Now you’re building big, and the insides will be complex. Your time will stretch out so you need to plan out which models you really want to build. Also where you’ll store them when completed. Shelf space will be at a premium. Your hobby budget will need to be robust…

1/24th. Well, there are a few especially large kits here and you will be making a real commitment to start and finish them well. You will be proud of whatever eventuates, as well you should, but do not expect manufacturers to make many exotic choices in prototype, nor a great variety of kits.

Box-scale. Here you are on your own with the results of 50’s and 60’s moulding and detailing and in most cases you will be coping with retro moulds. This is not to say they will not be charming and nostalgic, but do not expect the precision of modern modelling.

That said, there are a few models that were once made but have never been repeated in standardised scales. You either make them in box scale or scratch build.