After completing my last project I set down at the bench intent on cleaning house before I began the next project. Various bit of plastic, dust, wire, decal paper, tools, brushes, and you name it littered my work area. A few deep breaths later I decided to cruise the boards before I dug into job.
I flipped from site to site, from page to page reading bits and looking at the work of other fellow modelers. Soon I was lost in the web of fabulous looking planes and armor. I even braved the ships for a while. And all to soon I decided that I needed to get on with the task at hand. But before that I decided to TRY and decide which model I would start next. I had been trying to make a choice long before my last project was done, moving from one kit to another. Then it occured to me that I had become a little “stale” for lack of a better term. Or maybe just bored. What was missing?
After staring at the stack of anxiously waiting kits I noticed a certain stack of one particular kit that brought back something. What, I did not know, but something. I reached for the stack, picking out a kit on the way, and brought it to the desk top. Opening the box with a sedated interest I began to browse through the sprues, taking more notice as I went, that I really enjoyed what I was seeing. Crisply molded lines, well defined parts, copious detail. Then I looked at the graceful lines, the beautiful curves, the potent and simple beauty of the subject. Like a resting tiger on a lazy day. Deadly, confident, but safely resting.
Decision made and the cleaning project forgotten I packed up the kit just well enough to lift it out of the way while a brisk motion of my other hand banished most of the debri from a small square of desk top in front of me. I immediately dug in. Cockpit interior and fuselage sides came to life as did my own interest and I soon found myself excited about the new project. The familiar layout. The familiar pieces.
And as I write this now I find myself very ready to get back to the project.
Out of the pile I pulled a version of my first aircraft love. The first project I ever layed real “glue” to so many years ago in my youth.
The kit is Accurate Minitures A-36 and it’s an early production of the kit. Instructions of a type I’ve yet to see, the false floor being printed long before the beautiful artist renditions we see today.
Yup, that pile of AM Mustangs has finally got my attention. Funny how much a return to the past can invigorate the present.