Middleditch Littlebitch

Why does “nerd hole” sound way dirtier than “rabbit hole”?

Either way, I’m building a model airplane.  The ol’ Messerschmidt Bf 109 G-10.  It’s a late-war version of the famous German ace maker.  By this time in the war, it was generally outclassed by many Allied aircraft but it still had speed and a stable gun platform which was greatly needed to take down the unending stream of bombers flying overhead.  The 109 (G-2 variant, however) is on my top 3 favorite WWII aircraft list, tied with the American F4-U Corsair and the Russian Mig-3.  

It’s both fun and terrifying that I can talk to in-depth about this stuff.  Only 1% of people would think that’s cool, but this blog isn’t about being cool.  It’s about being awesome.  So either get awesome or turn off your computer and never come to this blog again.

In all honesty, I was never into building models as a boy.  My older brother painted Dungeons & Dragons lead figurines (yup, it runs in the family) and I remember wanting desperately to play with them but that was so far out of the picture any request to do so was met with furious anger on my brother’s part.  Heaven forbid I break the hilt of a mace.  No, seriously, that would be awful.  I think I did that and I was beaten severely for it.  I remember the smell of the paints, and the hours on end my brother spent hunched over the little lead men, painting away with tiny brushes.

Some years back, I built my first model.  I forget the version model, but it was a Japanese Zero.  I did a horrible job, wanting only for it to be completed and not caring how good it looked.  It was pretty shoddy work.  Glue marks, poor paint job, embarrassing really.  But now, things are different.

I’ve got an incredible amount of free time currently.  I’m in New Orleans shooting my small contribution to a film called Dog Fight (yay!) and in between shoot days there are some considerably lengthy periods of downtime.  I forgot my usual gateway to time-wasting (Xbox) so I figured “why not take another stab at building a model?”  

I don’t know what happened, but something clicked in me where I realized it’s not about the end, but doing the work to get you there.  I’m WAY more patient this time around.  I just turn the TV over to the desk, pop on HBO, and quietly snip off the various pieces, smooth out all the little jagged edges, and methodically piece together everything.  It’s surprisingly relaxing, and even downright fun.  I’m pretty surprised about it actually.  Granted, the subject matter is very much so up my alley, but I was expecting my brain, conditioned to respond to the blinking lights and fast reaction times of video games, would consider the patient model-building hobby to be a snooze fest.

It’s not adrenaline packed, but it’s fun.  My painting skills are neophyte at best, but you’ll see one of the photos is a close-up of the cockpit and my attempt at some weathering/grime.  I think I’m missing a pretty crucial color.  I have light grey and dark grey but I’m thinking I need just regular grey.  So, I’ve concluded that the paint scheme of this particular 109 won’t be historically accurate, but in the realm of historical fiction.  I went back to the New Orleans hobby shop today to get the grey, but the guy steered me to the light grey, and then slid it across the table and said, “Merry Christmas.”  Top shelf guy.  Quiet and kind of creepy, but a really nice man.

Does anyone else do this, or did I just sign up for a project that literally only boys and old men do?