How many times have you started a project only to find that you either need more information or that your skills aren't up to the challenge? What about going the other way - intending to do a kit out of box, and then getting carried away by superdetailing it? Well, this is a tale of the latter.

For years I have wanted to get the Matchbox/Revell 1/72 Flower class corvette. When I finally got it I jumped right in and began construction to see what it looked like together. I justified this because I intend it for radio control. However once I had most of the subassemblies built and painted (and in many cases fixed to the decks), I then decided that I wanted to add the non-slip deck treads to the forward gun platform. .. this turned out well, so I then rebuilt the aft 2pdr bandstand. Hmmm, I may be onto something here.

The next major decision was to remove the spurious planking on the main decks and replace that with real wood, but in the locations it was supposed to go. Okay. . now I was on a roll. After this, various other ideas came to mind: scratchbuilt hedgehog; minesweeping winch, davits and floats; 4" gun and shield; dan buoys and davits; 27' whaler; a new bridge etc. etc.

At about this time the decision was made to make a major conversion to a short fo'c'sle (this is still pending), as well as into a RCN corvette rather than the long fo'c'sle RN option the kit provides. By now this has become a major undertaking, perhaps the 'kit' that I will set all other by. The interesting part about all this is that the basic kit is just that a VERY basic Flower class corvette, with exceptionally chunky detail. Oh, sure it can be built OOB – and as my earlier build of it will attest – be an okay model, in my case the fun is coming from rebuilding the various details into the best that I know they can be. Originally it was going to be a long fo'c'sle Flower, but at each stage of research I found that something I intended to include wasn't used at the time I wished to depict with my model, therefore I could either correct it, delete it or use it anyway. For a week or two I chose the third option, but then it started to gnaw away at me, if I did that it would bother me knowing it was wrong, and/or that I could do better. Especially as I may never make another one of these kits again ( although I do have a second one coming - so I hope to do that as well).

I am now approaching it as a series of smaller models that will one day be joined together on a large diorama. this way I can spend a week or two building the minesweeping winch and take satisfaction in it, and not feel I have to rush to get the whole thing built. In the end, modeling is all about the enjoyment one gets from doing it. And I am definitely getting enjoyment from this one.

One more thing .... If Michael Benolkin can show his helper .. so can I. ...