Excavating the stash

Along with all my other objectives for the layout in a box project, I’ve decided that I’m going to try not to buy too much in the way of materials of detailing parts for it. This is partly in the interests of economy but mostly to justify to myself the size of my cache of “bits”.

Like most modellers, leaving a show with my wallet full and bag empty doesn’t seem natural. Luckily I’m not a big fan of RTR stuff, preferring packets of bits and pieces found on scruffy and/or packed stands of goodies. A lot of these are parts for model buildings such as sheet materials and details. Over the years I’ve filled a couple of shoe boxes with this sort of thing and so hoped to raid these to supply the bits for the models I need to build.

This collecting isn’t avarice, on the contrary, it’s sensible planning. You can’t buy 4mm scale industrial windows in the evening or on a Sunday. In fact a good part of the cache is made up of various types on window. I know the clever modeller can make them for him/her self but I’m a bit lazy sometimes and prefer pre-made. Not just for convenience but because someone has worked out the sizes for me saving a load of research.

Anyway, the other night I dug out the boxes and randomly threw anything that looked like it might even be slightly useful into a big pile. A bigger pile than I’d expected actually but then my threshold for inclusion was pretty low. The build a building from individual bricks kits look interesting but I can’t face spending that long on an individual structure. Maybe I can do something ruined with them though. There are three different huts in there too and I know only one can make the cut.

[Pretentious bit] This is a bit like an artist preparing a palette. Unless he has a very clear vision of the finished piece, he squirts a little bit of every colour around the edge to give him the scope to do what seems right at the time. You can’t imagine Van Gough thinking, “Sod it, I forgot to squeeze out some yellow so I’ll do these flowers in red.” Can you ?