MODEL STUDENT

Among my birthday presents this year was a lavishly illustrated tome entitled Aurora Model Kits by Thomas Graham.

It’s an interesting read cover to cover, but of course its principal fascination for me is its chronicle of that company’s many monster and horror kits, including the notorious “Monster Scenes”—models of torture chambers and mad scientist equipment—excoriated by editorial writers of the early ‘70s.

The book got my juices flowing for the happy days when I would ineptly and impatiently ruin these kits myself on a regular basis. I found a reissue kit online of the Monster Scenes snap-together “Giant Insect” (originally released only in Canada) and ordered it...

...thinking that I could share this experience with The Kid. So one slow Sunday not long ago we dug into it, and I quickly remembered how frustrating the hobby of model-building can be when you have poor motor skills and organizational habits.

In the case of the Giant Insect, I broke the poor creature’s transparent wings loose from the plastic frame before checking their letters to see in what order they ought to be attached to the body. I assumed, very wrongly as it turned out, that this made no difference. This added considerable time, and coarse language, to the project. In the end, however...

Monster-of-the-Week: ...we managed to get the big dragonfly-earwig hybrid together.

He’s now standing guard on my dresser. Even assuming he’s actual size, he would still constitute a Giant Insect.