“Under the cellophane wrapper, the parts!”: The Secret History of Kitbashing*

Dodge AT-AT Kit-bash

From chapter 13 of Lew Voltz’s Gluestick Traces, the definitive history of model railroading’s punk era*:

The term ‘kitbash’ first appeared in print in the 1967 book, The Society of Spectacular Models, by French Groucho Marxist theorist, Polystyrene philosopher, and model railroading expressionist Guy Dekit. In the book Dekit argued that capitalist production of polystyrene model kits that began in the 1950s and skyrocketed in popularity throughout the 1960s was a debasement of the centuries old folk art of making miniatures of beloved, iconic, and worshipful objects of personal interest. Dekit considered the once creative activity was being steamrollered by a mass-market simulacra of true model making.

The book was the culmination of many years work by Dekit and a number of other plastic radicals who formed the group Polystyrenist International in 1959 (the same year the first edition of The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroading Terms was published), whose purpose was to critique, divert, and subvert the tidal wave of polystyrene-based model construction. 

Dekit developed a détournement, which he referred to as ‘bashing’, whereby the components of several commercial polystyrene models were used to construct miniatures that held no resemblance to the objects that could be constructed by following official instruction sheets. Bashing was often an act of performance, undertaken in a party like atmosphere (aka a ‘bash’, or using the term of the time, Le Bash), and commonly began with a shout of, “Under the cellophane wrapper, the parts!” The bashing of polystyrene components became so strongly associated with Dekit that the activity was colloquially known as ‘bashing de kit’, which quickly became today’s plain, old 'kitbashing'.

But for every radical intervention is an associated mainstream recuperation, and kitbashing’s started with none other than Dekit’s closest colleague and PI co-founder, Au Courant. 

In the mid-1970s Courant broke with the PI and formed Craft Light And Magic (CLAM**) for the purpose of building kitbashed miniatures for the movie War in the Stars. The movie was a monumental success, but not necessarily for Courant, who lost control of CLAM through some complicated legal maneuvering by his investors. Fed up with movies, and ostracized by his old PI colleagues, he took a job offer from an American model railroading magazine and left France forever.

Courant went on to global acclaim with his innovative kitbashing techniques and educational programs; however, he and Dekit were never to speak again. That didn’t stop Dekit from commenting on Courant and his work in just about every interview he ever gave. It was clear Dekit had mixed feelings for Courant, who Dekit would often flippantly refer to as The Dark Lord of Kitbashing. 

On the one hand Dekit’s comments towards Courant could be spiteful and derogatory***, but were just as often admiring and praiseful***. He admired Courant’s ability to help show a powerful way forward to restore creativity and authenticity to the ancient art in the face of overwhelming kitization, but frequently condemned Courant’s success as simply a way for the companies to further increase sales of their plastic kits, thereby continuing to help degrade the art.

Dekit and Courant never reconciled.

Hot Rod Falcon Kit-bash

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*It should go without saying that this ‘history’ is completely fictional, and has no relation to any person, place, or thing either living or dead.

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**Urban legend has it that within CLAM an entire CLAM-based insider speak developed that included such terms as: CLAMity, meaning a kitbash that had gone seriously wrong; CLAMbaked, meaning a CLAM employee was exhibiting symptoms of breathing too much plastic solvent; CLAMedup, meaning someone had signed a non-disclosure agreement with CLAM; and so on.

***When Dekit was being spiteful and derogatory towards Courant he’d refer to CLAM as Courant’s Lazy American Modellers, and when he was admiring and praiseful CLAM became Courant’s Legendary American Modellers. It’s not known what Dekit was thinking when he said these things as Courant and CLAM had parted ways several years prior to Courant’s great success.