Dreaming

This being high summer – even in the Pacific Northwest – my attention is often pulled away from the modelling workbench. Trimming the junipers, mowing the grass, doing battle with the sinister wild blackberry bushes that are always lurking in the corners of the property. But I also, to a certain extent, just lose the desire to go into a hot hobby room and sweat my way through a session. But when I finally did go in this week, I realized that I only had a couple of models that were still in the construction phase.

In other words, most that were in process had been completed. You haven’t seen them all yet, though I’ll be rolling them out in the coming days. But this meant that I had a perfect opportunity to indulge in that beloved activity of modellers: planning new projects.

Because, let’s face it, modellers love to dream. That’s why we love to buy new kits we know – absolutely know – that we won’t be building anytime soon. Because when the kit is in the box, it is potentially the best thing you’ve ever built. No seam lines, no silvered decals, no ever-so-slightly misaligned tailplanes, no blotchy paint. It isn’t until we actually start to build something that errors and hamfisted techniques start to show up physically. The pre-build period is a sort of dreamy time of prize-winning dust-free models placed under a revolving spotlight while all your modelling cohorts shake their heads in envious awe. Right before the bubble bursts and you are forced to confront that big gluey fingerprint on the fuselage.

Shortly, I’ll be listing out the new models that will be entering the production scheme this summer. Late war jets, RAF twins, some postwar USN fighters, and even one Luft46 type. You can never tell what the curious fellows of the 72 Land production facilities are going to get into next.