Collection Illness

One of my worst weaknesses as a model-builder is my inability to stick to a single overall sort of collection. And a good symptom of that underlying illness is my habit of dreaming up mini-collections within larger collections. For example, the other day I was combating nausea by trying to recite (silently, of course) all of the major versions of the MiG-21 jet fighter and the distinguishing features thereof. This is actually pretty difficult, especially for Russian equipment. The Americans make things easy by using sequential letters. If you know the alphabet and know the least bit about, say, the F-105 Thunderchief, you know that the major versions are the F-105A, B, C, D, E and F. But the Russians? They don't use model letters in that way, or at least didn't, so with the MiG-21 you had versions like the F, PF, PFMA, MF, SMT and so forth.

Anyway, back to my point. I conceived in that moment of woozy nausea the idea of building a collection of MiG-21s, from the early MiG-21F up to the last MiG-21bis. And from that came other ideas, like "Hey, the Messerschmitt 109 exists in a whole bunch of versions too; why not build one of every one of them?" And having opened that floodgate, why not every version of the much-maligned and better-than-you-think-it-was P-40? And then, oh hell, why not Delta boosters, and Sherman tanks, and Fletcher-class destroyers?

Enough.

At least when the nausea lets up I'm lucid enough to realize this for the insanity that it is, and my scribbled MiG-21 collection notes slip into the trash can. But the collector can never be fully excised and he's still in there, cackling maniacally and waiting for the OEZ MiG-21 to be reissued...