The Model to End All Models?

Well, I've got to find something to do with myself in between ruining filet mignon roasts and rebuilding montrealfood in the prison of my imagination.

But coming off Japan and being with Tai-chan (my son) has of course resurrected the Fawning Father in me, so bear with me for at least a few more posts while I sing his praises.

When I was a kid I used to be into building plastic models; usually airplanes, but a few rockets too. When I was at boarding school in England I didn't have any plastic models, so I literally made Gemini Seven capsules out of stiff paper, cellophane windows and lots of scotch tape. The teachers were extremely impressed. Between canings, they effusively voiced their enthusiasm for my model-building talents.

Apparently Tai-chan has inherited the building streak. A few years ago I bought a model of a Messerschmitt BF-109, intending to build it with the colors of the very squadron of Messerschmitts that used to try to shoot my father to pieces every time he went to bomb the fuck out of them in his B-24 (an exact replica of which I built), but like lots of things, it just got left on the shelf.

So imagine my surprise when I wake up one morning to find that Tai-chan has taken it OFF the shelf, and has MADE THE ENTIRE MODEL IN ONE NIGHT.

 

Okay, so it's not painted, there are no decals on it (the markings that come with the model) and it has stray glue here and there, but he built it all by himself just by following some complicated instructions which he can't read anyway, all in one night. I was flabbergasted.

But no one -- not even my own son, out-models ME.

My crowning glory so far has been the 1/72 Pan Am 707 I took six months to build, in honor of my father's service with Pan American, but I have now bought an extremely expensive Trumpeter Messerschmitt, the manufacturer of which I have never heard, but apparently it's the Rolls Royce of modelling companies. I mean, this little bastard actually has rubber tires. I kid you not.

But I'm going to be sneaky. I'll build it with all the expertise and detail I can muster, but then when Tai-chan comes in July (about which time I'll just about be finishing it up) I'll just tell him "Hey, look at the Messerschmitt you built! See? I painted it!"

He'll freak.

Wish me luck.