Frustration? The models you can’t buy

Big trade shows are fascinating places, especially ones like the biennial air shows at Paris and Farnborough in the UK, which rotate on a year-on year-off basis. The air displays are among the best, but for many visitors (including me) the enormous trade halls are the really fascinating destinations to head for.

Wandering around inside is like a trip to a seemingly endless Aladdin’s Cave, where you can see 1001 technoid delights, from ejection-seat demos to mega-screen multimedia presentations.

And of course, there are models. Only these are not offerings from Airfix, Academy or Tamiya. Instead, they are mostly limited-run or one-off miniatures, built to show off the latest wares from manufacturers, or even more temptingly, blue-sky future projects.

You might not be able to buy them from a model store, but they can usually be photographed, and with luck you can make such a project the subject of a kit-bashing exercise. Try it and see!