| Above you'll find the Sherlockian Muse, or at least my interpretation of her. If you are a Sherlockian modeler, you can't do without her. You can always trust her to alight on your shoulder and whisper in your ear at just the right moment. She whispers to other Holmes fans as well, and her inspiration has resulted in hundreds of stories and thousands of learned papers, which are the heartsblood of the Holmes societies. But she works in special ways with us modelers. We are her favorites. Let me explain. Let's say I'm in a flea market, or an antique & crafts fair, just wandering around. I pass a box of old McDonalds Happy Meal toys, and I pick one up off the top, a figure from one of the Disney movies. Immediately, the Muse whispers in my ear: "You know, you could cut off this part, file here and there, fill in that area with some fast-drying putty, and you'd have a nice figure of Holmes, disguised as the Italian priest in FINA. Not bad for fifty cents." Again, I'm in a K-Mart, on my way to the tool section, and I detour through the toy department. I'm passing a wall of Star Wars toys, when suddenly there is the familiar flutter of wings, and a tug at my collar. "See that Star Wars figure?" the Muse asks. "Wasn't he played by Peter Cushing? With a little work, you could produce Holmes in his latter days..." Now do you see? Holmes figures in pewter and whitemetal are beautiful, but they can be expensive at times. But if you're willing to put some time, effort, and skills to work, you can save yourself some money, and produce a model unlike any other. |