Everything I know about life I learned from model aeroplanes
The Tao of Airfix
Although model aeroplanes don’t teach us much about biology, we get occasional insights and tenuous connections. The Renwal Visible Man is obviously not a model aeroplane, but it’s plastic, and it’s a model kit. It was intended to be educational – about human (internal) anatomy. But it actually teaches us more about unrealistic visions, frustration and disappointment. Which may be more useful.
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“Cousin Robert and the Starfighter” has nothing to do with Robert Calvert – or any other member of Hawkwind. Nothing so complicated, because life was simpler when I was a child. And it was about ten years too early.
Before I actually got into building Airfix kits myself, my older cousin Robert built one for me. An Airfix Lockheed F-104G Starfighter, or to be precise, a CF-104G in RCAF markings.
At the time, I didn’t appreciate this valuable lesson, which illustrated how simple and straightforward my life was. Then again, I was only 6 years old and hadn’t done much work on personal growth. So I just marvelled at the appearance of this miniature futuristic aeroplane. Which still looks quite futuristic today – retrofuturistic, perhaps.
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