My Fear of Vacuum-Form

Well, it’s been a long time hasn’t it? Is this some record for procrastination?

I have never built a vacuum-form kit. [Have you?] Over the years I’ve purchased quite a few vacuum-form kits of aircraft [and even one tank!] that at the time were not available in injection mold or resin and wound up not building them. Luckily for me eventually an injection mold or resin kit did become available and so I sold them.

But why didn't I not build them? Well, of course the first answer is I am a great procrastinator. But my [self proclaimed] reputation is based on starting a kit but never finishing it. I never even started a vacuum-form kit. The biggest reason is my fear of vacuum-form. I’d like to be able to regale you with an anxiety disorder (formerly known as phobias) and a tale of psychological trauma at the hands of a vacuum-formed kit but I can’t. Actually, it’s the type of work involved that stops me. Think about it, one has to cut along the dotted lines to get to the parts. But there aren’t any dotted lines. The poor schmuck saddled with this chore first must make his own dotted line (imaginary or real). It is much easier to snip a part off the sprue. Then there is the sanding and fiddling to get the parts to fit. My biggest worry is the stiffening of major parts such as the fuselage and wings. That’s a lot of plastic beams/tubes. Knowing me I’d wind up melting the whole thing trying to get the stiffeners cemented in. But I guess that’s why the hobby is called model BUILDING. If I had wanted easy I guess I could collect diecast models. But still…

And speaking of resin (well I did use the word twice in the second paragraph) Wespe Models of Romania has some very nice resin military vehicle and AFV kits (http://www.wespemodels.ro/ ). Adrian Laptuca (and I think Adrian is Wespe Models) also sells on eBay under the seller name militaryresinkits. Wespe makes kits in 1/87, 1/76, 1/72, 1/48, 1/35, and 1/24 scale. I have purchased several 1/72 kits from Adrian and am extremely happy with the product, delivery time, and the seller.

And since I am rambling…under the subject of eBay sellers… I get a little frustrated when I purchase something from a seller in the U.S. and they take forever to send my purchase. Recently I purchased two photo-etched sets for two 1/72 scale tank kits. Six days latter I purchased a 1/48 tank gun barrel from a seller in Hong Kong and seven days after that I purchased a 1/72 scale resin kit from Adrian in Romania. Well as of date I have the gun barrel from Hong Kong and the resin kit from Romania but have seen neither the proverbial “hide nor hair” of the PE frets from California. Rhetoric questions: What’s up with that? How much can photo-etch weigh? [BTW: I pay same day with PayPal.]

Off topic but have you seen the BBC adaption of Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather? There’s a great line in the movie (at least I think so) that I now use as an email tagline. Death says this to his aide:

Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know, that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom?

Remember, it is better to have entered a model contest and lost than to have collected stamps.