Tricky Sticky

When I was a kid I never read the instructions that came with model kits. I would cheerfully glue them together in whatever fashion seemed most appropriate and generally that worked. I mean there’s only so many ways the pieces of a Spitfire will fit together, so who needs to look at diagrams (other than to get a cheap adolescent thrill from the instruction “insert male piece A into female piece B” –fnur, fnur)?

As I got older and the model kits got more complicated - HMS Victory, the Cutty Sark et al, I would deign to dip into the instructions for the more fiddly bits, but large chunks would still get slung together regardless.

These days I rarely make model kits, but when I do, I employ a combination of experienced arrogance and a meek thumbing through the instructions to work out what the next odd-shaped piece of plastic is supposed to be and where it’s supposed to go (I can still do an Airfix Spitfire without help, though). I have long since learned to keep the glue well away from transparent plastic, too.

I arrived home last night to finds that the “Welcome Aboard” TARDIS, Doctor and Martha Airfix kit I had won on eBay had arrived¹. You wouldn’t believe how complex a kit can be produced to assemble a geometric box and two figures. I’m not sure what the level of detail would have done to my 11 year old brain had it been available back then, but I know what it’s doing to my brain now.



Suffice it to say that I shall be using the instruction book, both for assembly and for the painting guide. Hopefully when I have finished the Doctor will not look like Heath Ledger’s take on The Joker.


¹Thank you, Parcel Farce for leaving it in the passageway, open to the elements and hidden behind the gate where it might have been crushed, rained on or stolen.

Tricky Sticky

When I was a kid I never read the instructions that came with model kits. I would cheerfully glue them together in whatever fashion seemed most appropriate and generally that worked. I mean there’s only so many ways the pieces of a Spitfire will fit together, so who needs to look at diagrams (other than to get a cheap adolescent thrill from the instruction “insert male piece A into female piece B” –fnur, fnur)?

As I got older and the model kits got more complicated - HMS Victory, the Cutty Sark et al, I would deign to dip into the instructions for the more fiddly bits, but large chunks would still get slung together regardless.

These days I rarely make model kits, but when I do, I employ a combination of experienced arrogance and a meek thumbing through the instructions to work out what the next odd-shaped piece of plastic is supposed to be and where it’s supposed to go (I can still do an Airfix Spitfire without help, though). I have long since learned to keep the glue well away from transparent plastic, too.

I arrived home last night to finds that the “Welcome Aboard” TARDIS, Doctor and Martha Airfix kit I had won on eBay had arrived¹. You wouldn’t believe how complex a kit can be produced to assemble a geometric box and two figures. I’m not sure what the level of detail would have done to my 11 year old brain had it been available back then, but I know what it’s doing to my brain now.



Suffice it to say that I shall be using the instruction book, both for assembly and for the painting guide. Hopefully when I have finished the Doctor will not look like Heath Ledger’s take on The Joker.


¹Thank you, Parcel Farce for leaving it in the passageway, open to the elements and hidden behind the gate where it might have been crushed, rained on or stolen.

Roy Scheider

With the death of Roy Scheider a couple of days ago, I toyed with the idea of writing an entry about it, but in the end I didn't bother.

But now I have found a fitting epitaph and I have changed my mind:



Roy Scheider's obituary on the BBC.

Roy Scheider

With the death of Roy Scheider a couple of days ago, I toyed with the idea of writing an entry about it, but in the end I didn't bother.

But now I have found a fitting epitaph and I have changed my mind:



Roy Scheider's obituary on the BBC.