Models For Motorheads

What Were Once Hobbies Become Vices

Back before I discovered girls, guns, booze & assorted herbal supplements, I spent quite a bit of time building models. 

The first few as a pre-teen weren't very good.  I had a SPAD biplane that ended up resembling a lopsided boomerang, and a Formula One racer that never got beyond the frame and chassis stage before half the parts got lost.

Even after I managed to complete some builds, they were usually glue-soaked wrecks, rarely painted and often dispatched with handfuls of firecrackers.

But, I did eventually get better.  Learned how to use a sprue cutter, X-acto blade and emery board.  Learned to paint parts while still on the sprue. Even learned advanced painting techniques (highlighting, washing) and how to get those got-damned decals off the slip sheet and onto the plastic without bubbles.

I'd go years without building anything, then the bug would strike and I'd be snipping parts and sniffing glue.  I spent an entire semester building a full-rigged sailing ship for Dad, and a B-17 with a 4 foot wingspan.   Did a giant model of  WWII destroyer, and several Star Trek ships.

Haven't built anything in quite a while, though, until I saw this on eBay:

It seemed just the thing to introduce my nephew into modelmaking.  It can sit in the box until he visits, then we can work on it together, and if it takes 2 years to complete, no worries.

It only cost $30 or so.  Cheap entertainment, anyway.

What I really wanted, though, was this one:

A vintage 1/4 scale Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engine.  See-through, with all working parts!

SWEET!!!

Y'know how much it eventually sold for on eBay?  $610 + $30 shipping...