Model Train

When you get to my age it becomes increasingly difficult for relatives to know what to buy you for birthdays. The usual candidates are books, music and in my case puzzles. This year I decided to ask for something different from my son, a ROKR model steam express which has 308 separate parts and is made from plywood with interlocking wooden joints (no glue needed !!) . I thought that, if I can do 1000 pieces jigsaws, this should be a doddle. What I did not account for is my diminishing fine motor control and the flimsiness of many of the parts. Often the joints are very tight and the thin parts such as the piston engines very easily breakable. At several points over the past three weeks I have got so frustrated that I was going to give up but a little ingenuity for the broken parts and super glue I managed to arrive at the final destination. I was not a kit modeller in my youth so this was quite a unique challenge for me. I hope you think it was worth a blip in the background are the plywood sheets from which you have to remove the parts. The instructions are pictorial similar to IKEA self assembly furniture but some what more complex. Even the thought of removing some of the flimsiest parts from the sheets is somewhat daunting as you are sure there will break before you even get to the stage of assembly.