THE ULTIMATE DO-OVER

The game was called stickball, and the famous line was from the Billie Crystal movie “City Slickers” where vacationing baby boomers discussed various aspects of aging. A vestige of the 1950s, stickball was a local neighborhood game played with a Spaulding pink rubber ball hit with a bat made from a broomstick. The strike zone was drawn in chalk on a brick wall and, like baseball, upon getting a hit the batter had to round three bases and try to make it home. If first base happened to be the front fender of Dad’s ’53 Buick, however, and he was just leaving to go to the hardware store as you hit a single, you could exercise the option of a do-over because the first time didn’t count. Believe it or not, thanks to re-issued versions of our favorite childhood kits today, the do-over concept now happily applies to modeling as well.

Ever had the experience of building a model at the dining room table as a kid, botching any number of critical assembly steps, and then having to look at that ship, plane, or car every day wishing you could build it over again? Back in the dark ages before filling and sanding, I clearly remember thinking to myself while gazing at the direction sheet of a Monogram F-105 or TWA Connie showing the pen-and-ink drawing of a hand with a small paintbrush in it, “who is that guy?”. You mean he’s actually going to paint the tiny pinstripe windshield frames (walkway stripes, yellow propeller tips, faces of crew figures, et al.) all by himself and get everything right the first time?!!! How come MY windshield frames don’t look like that guy’s?

Years later while building the new Revell “History Makers” kits, I discovered that as an adult I did indeed possess better control and precision with which to assemble, paint, and detail any number of models. Having modern tools and equipment didn’t hurt either, but it was one giant leap for modelkind to see the finished products built to the same level of expertise as those factory build-ups in the boxtop photos. White stripes on the Snark missile? Bring ‘em on! It became a new challenge to see just how far we could go, and in the purest sense of the phrase, it was the first real do-over our generation of model builders ever got. After all, collecting vintage kits was brand new back in the 1980s, and who among us would trash a hallowed collectible Revell American Airlines Electra just to build the original kit once again? After all, something that rare was selling for around $25 back then!

Fast forward to the turn of the Century (this one), and we faced yet another dilemma. Even if we’d found any of those original kits at the local model swap meet and wanted to build them once again just for fun, those now-forty-year-old decal sheets would hit the bowl of water and literally disintegrate right before our eyes. Thankfully, many excellent after-market decals became available for both military and airline modelers, but if originality was what you wanted, those weren’t the answer either. Today, thanks to the marketing gurus of the few “legacy” model manufacturers left in the world, there are now many re-issues of great kits we couldn’t wait to get our hands on as kids. Guilt-free model building abounds and the results are far superior to those first feeble attempts at applying metallic silver to the bottom of an airliner model with Pactra spray enamel.

For me personally, the do-over concept was best illustrated this past year by a good friend, and if you were one of the seven readers of my former publication, Wings & Airpower Magazine, you’ll recognize the name of this gentleman who authored several of our articles on modeling. You’re also probably well acquainted with his fantastic aviation artwork, for he was the world’s only line-qualified airline pilot to have his stellar aviation artwork published by a world-class organization such as the Greenwich Workshop. This talented former Air Force and American Airlines pilot is none other than my friend Craig Kodera who has shared the devout love of vintage models and modeling with me for the past thirty years.

While my era of modeling began with the Lindberg Line, Aurora Famous Fighters, and Revell “Pre-S” kits, Craig’s centered more on the “Famous Artist Series” and that other British Invasion - early Airfix kits. Our respective ages literally book-end the golden age of modeling in the 1950s and 1960s, and although I’m somewhat retired from model building, Craig still maintains a production line in his workshop that rivals all those famous back rooms where factory build-ups were churned out by the score, built by apron-clad middle-aged women with names like Shirley or Edith. Keeping the faith alive with models for Birthdays and Christmas, Craig’s handiwork now graces the shelves in my study, but his latest effort is one for the books, a Revell of Germany 50th Anniversary re-issue.

The P & O luxury liner HMS Oriana pictured above is a pristine example of model building art. Built as the ship looked when it first entered service in 1961, this model conjures up warm memories of my having built the original kit in motorized form. It was one of the best kits I’d ever had, and lo and behold, it worked beautifully. Complete with BB shot ballast and battery-powered electric motor, this ship model sailed elegantly at almost scale speed. Carefully setting the rudder before lowering the model into the water guaranteed a stately turn across the yacht pond and sailing it was a sight to behold – one of those magical moments a young modeler never forgets. But it’s the REST of the story that bears mention here. Craig not only built a model first issued in 1961, but he used my original direction sheet to do it, as the miniaturized multi-language directions supplied in the re-issued kit left a little to be desired. Detailed to IPMS caliber, this Oriana now represents the epitome of the do-over concept. In stickball parlance, it would definitely be considered a home run.