KIT CRAZY

Our resident model expert Andy Pearson has plenty of spare time on his hands, and plenty of spare parts too, by the sound of it…

HOBBY HABITS

: A model refinery complex

: A rocket gantry

Over the course of a model building career, whether as a professional or a hobbyist, one of the earliest lessons learned is, as far as is possible, never to throw anything away because, at some point, what appears to be extraneous material can provide the seed for a new creation.

Many commercially available model kits will be supplied with parts that are intended to create alternative versions of a subject. Take the perhaps obvious example of the components that, once assembled, provide the extended undercarriage of an aircraft. Should said aircraft be modelled as an in-flight version (ideally suspended from a bedroom ceiling with lengths of cotton) those undercarriage legs and wheels are redundant but, instead of adding immediately to the world’s supply of waste plastic, the forward-thinking modeller adds them to The Spares Box.

The eccentric capitalisation of that phrase is deliberate as every home should have one or possibly two. Some folk even buy kits knowing that The Spares Box is their final destination, rather than being concerned with the construction of the kit as intended.