When I was not quite a teenager a man came to our house to wallpaper the room and he either got ill, or something happened to him, because he left behind his trellis table. This immediately became my table and for a couple of years I happily made my Airfix models on it. I wasn’t into planes and tanks I preferred minutely painting their historical figures until my uncle bought me a 54mm horseman. I then made all their historical cavalry, my favourite being the Bengal lancer because I enjoyed painting a face that wasn’t pink.
Airfix got into financial trouble in the 1980s and these figures are no longer sold but I noticed some complete kits for sale on e-bay anywhere from £20 to £40 each. Made models well done are £10 each and more for collections. As I kept the boxes and the instructions my small collection which my mother loves, is worth far more than I ever paid for them.
But to me they were always cheating because I thought what I should have been able to do is make them from wood and have far more moveable parts on them than I was able to create. Though I never got to make Napoleon or finish Caesar.
Darn.