Neil's Meccano And Stuff
Plastic Models
As well as Meccano, balsa wood gliders and card buildings, I used to make a lot of plastic models - Airfix, Tamiya, Matchbox and so on, as well as some rarer car models from the USA.
I still have a large pile which are un-assembled but I will share with you a few of the better made-up ones.
This type of model making allows a very high degree of detail. With something like Meccano you are limited by the 1/2 inch spacing of the holes and the finite choice of parts but with a plastic kit, the dimensions will be spot-on (if the manufacturer was careful enough when making their injection-moulding tooling - which is not always the case - there are plenty of errors out there).
These kits come as a whole lot of pieces which must be cut from a sprue and glued together and then painted - relaxing, fun and very rewarding.
This one is a British Universal Carrier from WW2, also known as a Bren Gun Carrier because of its main armament.
This particular model is from an excellent Japanese company called Tamiya and is at a scale of 1:35 (ie the real thing is 35 times larger than the model)
It takes a while to paint and assemble a kit like this but I find it a very enjoyable and relaxing process.
This little British infantry patrol are also 1:35 scale and also by Tamiya.
These figures are only 54mm tall and some very careful brushwork is needed to get decent results.
I like to think that these are not too bad, but an expert modeller would have gone much further with them than I have - this hobby is for all abilities and I am somewhere in the middle.
Shadows (dark) and high-points (light) have been painted on. At this small scale, you need to overdo this just a little - it is a bit like the heavy 'stage make-up' that actors wear in a theatre, so that it can be seen at a distance
A much smaller scale is 1:76 as shown by the 20p coin next to this Stuart light tank.
This is an old plastic kit which was made by Matchbox (they made some very good kits).
The desert camouflage of sand and pale blue is peculiar but absolutely correct and makes for an interesting model.
There are some kits which you make more than once over a lifetime of model making.
The Airfix Buffalo Amphibian is an example in my case.
This was one of my favourites as a lad.
This was 1:72 scale, almost the same as the Matchbox Stuart tank and so close that I wonder why Matchbox chose 1:76 and did not follow the 1:72 set many years before by Airfix - perhaps because OO gauge model railways are also scaled at 1:76?
The Jeep is a nice little model in its own right.
Hitler's Mercedes - or one of them, as he had several.
These were bullet proof, armour-plated, 120mph 6x4 cars back in 1940.
Here you can see the difference between 1:72 and 1:35 scales.
Both are great. One offers more chance for detailing and one is cheaper and easier to display.
More recently, 1:48 scale is becoming quite a popular compromise.
Another one from Tamiya - an original Fiat 500 Abarth in 1:24 scale.
Tamiya make great car kits.
The Abarth was the sports version - a bit like a Mini Cooper and very cool indeed.
This one is a US Half Track and was the first kit which I built as an adult, around 20 years ago.
This one is 1:35 scale and by the Japanese company Tamiya.
Another kit from Tamiya.
There were literally millions of horses used in the Second World War - far more than people think.
Modelling people and animals is hard work - a lot harder than modelling a machine.