My New Modelling Philosophy
(Or, "What I Didn't do on my Summer Vacation")
Well, this is a long one,
but it's been a long time coming, and it probably should
have a warning attached to it: "Caution:
may contain traces of venom, spite, personal details and/or
sheer undiluted cynicism. Not to be read under the influence
of depressants, anti-depressants, resin dust, styrene
cement fumes, or country and western music."
Actually, I don't believe anything should be done
under the influence of country and western music, but
that's just my opinion. I'm amazed the entire population
of Nashville hasn't offed itself long ago due to excessive
exposure to songs about pick-up trucks, dogs and infidelity.
Especially those dogs that drive pick-up trucks to their
mistresses. But that's a whole other rant.
So, I seem to have come out of a really long dry spell
when I just couldn't be bothered building models. In fact,
I was starting to think I was done with the hobby. Finito.
Kaput. Looked at my ridiculously huge collection of kits,
books, magazines, decals, detail sets, paints, tools,
etc., etc., and wondered whether I shouldn't just start
selling it all off. I shudder to think of the thousands
of dollars/pounds I have invested in this collection that,
let's face it, I'd have to live to be around 800 years
old to actually build. And for what? To have a bunch of
toy tanks and airplanes sitting on my shelves gathering
dust and repelling women - not that I ever have any of
that rare species over, but if I did I can only imagine
the reaction. "Oooh, gosh, look at those. Did you
make those? Gee, look at the time. I've gotta go. I'll
call you...."
Call it a crisis of faith if you like. At first I figured
it was because the wife left and I was pretty damn depressed
about that. But life goes on and eventually, after what
seemed like an eternity, the depression went away and
life started to feel somewhat normal again. But the desire
to sit down and stick bits of plastic together just didn't
return. Occasionally I'd force myself to pick up a model
that was nearly complete and try and finish it, but I
just couldn't get into it and I figured that forcing myself
to do something kind of defeated the purpose of a supposedly
relaxing diversion from life's woes. I tried starting
a new kit with the intention of a quick & easy out-of-the-box
build to get me back into it. My workbench is now littered
with the hulks of quick & easy kits that never got
past step 3 of the instructions. Maybe a completely different
subject would get me out of the doldrums. Couldn't think
of a different subject I really wanted to do. To sum up,
in 8 months I did less than 2 hours of modelling.
You have to understand, I've built models since I was
a kid. Through thick and thin, when life seemed particularly
shitty or when it was all going swimmingly, I built models.
It was fun. It was something I could do to amuse myself.
It was a temporary diversion from reality. So I had to
ask myself, why was this low point any different? Granted,
it was probably the lowest point I've ever been through
(first time with an ex-wife), but still, I'd had bad times
before and models were always my diversion. So why did
it seem like I'd never build one again this time? Why
was I so cynical and completely uninterested with the
whole thing? It took me a while but I think I discovered
the reason. And you may not like it.
Aaaagghh... make it stop!
Why had the fun gone? Hobby
saturation. The magazines, the club meetings, the shows,
the constant deluge of new and often unneccesary aftermarket
products, and yes, the internet (and no, the irony of
that last one is not lost on me!). This hobby has become
a monster. It's become bigger than the sum of its parts,
blown way out of proportion to what it's all about and
so full of all-knowing "experts" that I just
couldn't stomach it anymore. I stopped visiting the discussion
boards on ARC and Hyperscale a long time ago because the
armchair experts turned me off. These people seem to think
that building models makes them part of some elite brotherhood
that puts them on par with the great and powerful. Like
the guy who posted the teary-eyed message on the ARC discussion
board about the F-14 that had gone in somewhere. I'm sorry,
but just because you stick plastic models of F-14s together
doesn't give you any kind of comradeship with the people
that fly and maintain them. Yes, it's tragic when people
die, but if you think they'd bat an eye because of a rumour
that an F-14 modeller had died from glue fumes, you'd
be sadly mistaken. Get a life people. It's a hobby. You
build plastic airplanes. Thanks to the efforts and sacrifices
of the people who actually are - or were - in our
armed forces, the closest you'll ever come to a real combat
situation is a drunken brawl outside your local 7-11.
So I've stopped going to club meetings and I've stopped
buying model magazines, unless there's something particularly
interesting and useful in them. Let's face it, most of
the mags these days are nothing more than monthly catalogues
of all the new products out there. And oh, the new products....
Looking through my back issues of Scale Aviation Modeller
from late 1999 to the present the listings of new stuff
that came out every month is mind boggling. Picking a
copy up at random, the February 2001 issue lists 33 new
or reissued kits, 40 photo etched sets, 10 resin detail/conversion/correction
sets, 11 paint masks, 53 decal sheets (giving you a total
of 157 specific aircraft to model plus generic sheets
of national insignia, stencils and lozenge camouflage).
And I didn't bother to count the upcoming kit releases.
Nor am I mentioning the numerous ads from companies listing
yet more products and upcoming releases. That's just one
month and one magazine - and there's been 18 months worth
of new products since then, and who knows how many months
worth previous to it. The mind reels.
Don't get me wrong. We've never had it so good since the
cottage manufacturers arrived on the scene. The stuff
that's coming out of the Czech Republic in particular
is amazing; far beyond what I could hope to scratchbuild
and very reasonably priced. But I can't help thinking
that it's all going out of control. Everybody and their
dog is putting out aftermarket add-ons and decals and
a large proportion of it is really unneccesary. Do I really
need to lash out more money than what I paid for the base
kit on a resin correction set that frankly I could do
myself with a bit of putty and some filing and sanding?
Will anyone really notice if I don't correct an inaccuracy
that amounts to a few thousands of an inch here or there?
Well, actually there are some sad bastards that will notice,
but only because some even sadder bastard on the internet
told them to.
A case in point: I spent countless hours on my Hasegawa
Zero. I converted it to an A6M5c with the outboard
machine guns made from stainless steel tubing and the
perforated jackets taken from a Tom's Modelworks
etch set. These were meant for WW1 Lewis guns so had to
be cut down to size for the Zero. The underwing rocket
rails were scratchbuilt and the bulges and cartridge chutes
for the machine guns were added. I shoehorned in a complete
Eduard photo etched cockpit (repeatedly because
it didn't fit well and various parts kept springing out)
and wheel wells and removed the control surfaces so I
could reposition them. The decals were from Aeromaster
and the canopy is a Falcon vac-form. And you know
what? It looks no better or worse on the shelf and I'm
no more or less proud of it than the Finnish
M.S. 406 that I built straight out of the box with
the kit decals.
And do we really need yet another 10+ sets of decals for
Luftwaffe aircraft or F-16s or F-15s or F-14s or Mustangs,
or, or...? There are other subjects out there, and there
are companies that are giving them the attention they
deserve - let's give those companies the attention and
the exposure they deserve for tackling subjects that are
outside of the constant stream of 109s and 190s. Is it
just me, or is anyone else sick to death of seeing swastikas
and pointy-nosed jets? It seems particularly ironic that
with the phenomenal selection we have available today,
I keep seeing the same subjects over and over again.
All the resin in the world won't
help you if you can't build
Man, am I sick of hearing
that word, "accuracy". Accuracy is everything
it would seem. A few millimeters out here, the wrong shape
there and a kit is slammed for its inaccuracies. Where
did this all-consuming fanaticism for scale accuracy come
from? I have no idea, but I wish it would go back there.
The eternal quest for the perfect model. Perfection is
directly proportional to the amount of resin and photo
etched brass you can cram in a model regardless of the
fact that you haven't mastered basic seam filling, your
stabilizers aren't on straight and you can't paint to
save your life. So you spent hours correcting the kits
deficiencies and detailing it with every aftermarket accessory
you could lay your hands on, but you painted it with a
roller and used Betty Crocker frosting to fill the seams.
Congratulations - you have a detailed, accurate... toy.
But it's not a scale representation of an actual full
size object. Basic building and painting techniques pale
in importance next to the gods of accuracy and detail.
My Hurricane may be well built and finished, but heaven
help me if it isn't painted the "correct" colour,
or hasn't been finished with the latest Aeromasturbator
decals. Oh, and while I'm on the subject, if I have to
endure one more article on a 1/48th scale Bf-109, Fw-190
or P-51 Mustang, I'm gonna take up needlepoint.
Don't even get me started on some of the latest finishing
trends that everyone seems compelled to inflict on their
models. Pre-shaded panel lines? I have seen very few
models finished with this technique that haven't looked
completely toylike and overdone. And black washes stuck
in every recess available. To quote from an email I got
from a like-minded individual regarding my
Scale Colour rant: "In my opinion, far
too much emphasis is placed on panel lines these days".
Absolutely. I've seen some really ambitious and beautifully
built projects on the net that, in my opinion, were ruined
by surrealistic panel lines and weathering that would
bog a tank down, let alone an aircraft.
So this is my new modelling philosophy: I'm turning this
back into a solitary hobby, like it was when I enjoyed
it. I'm going to build models the way I want to
build them and I don't care if they're a couple of millimeters
out here or there, they don't have pre-shaded panel lines
or the colour isn't "scale", or if I haven't
spent 10 times the price of the kit on aftermarket accessories
and decals. If I want to go to town on a kit, correct
its faults and detail it until my eyes fail then I will.
If I just want to get it done and can live with the result,
then so be it. If a kit has such a glaring inaccuracy
that it doesn't even resemble the full size prototype,
then yes, I will correct it if I can. But if, like the
Academy
Spitfire, it looks like it is supposed to, then I'm
not going to lose any sleep over any faults - real, imagined
or rumoured.
I don't want to go to anymore shows or meetings because,
to be frank, some of the people that attend them look
like they only ever venture out in public for hobby shows
and meetings, and only then for the sole purpose of imparting
their devine knowledge of accuracy and scale colour. And
if I may be brutally honest, a few of them need to spend
more time bathing and less time on internet discussion
groups debating the wheel well colour of an aircraft that
was scrapped thirty years before they were born. Yes,
that sounds awful and snobbish, but there it is. And I
don't want to buy monthly lists of products I can't afford
and don't need. Lists that are briefly punctuated by actual
modelling articles (what the magazine is supposed to be
about, I'm told) that all too often feature the handiwork
of a modeller who, once again, hasn't even grasped the
basic concepts of building and finishing before attempting
to move straight on to "advanced resin and photo
etched applications".
And I'm really tired of seeing letters from readers who
are convinced the hobby is in its death throes because
kids today aren't building models, kit prices have gone
through the stratosphere and IPMS isn't attracting new
members. Ironically, this is one of the factors that convinced
me not to renew my IPMS UK membership. That and the fact
that the magazine they put out contains more about the
politics of the society itself than anything else, including
actually building models. A bit like having a lantern
to warn you of a stack of bricks, and the sole purpose
of the stack of bricks is to hold up the lantern, if you
see what I mean. News flash: Certain types have been saying
the same thing ever since this hobby started to take on
a life of its own - about the time it started being called
"the hobby". Pick up a magazine from the early
seventies and you'll read the same thing: the hobby is
dying. Bollocks. It was bollocks then, and it remains
so today. "The hobby", as it is so reverently
called, is alive and well. It survived the oil crisis,
it survived the video game revolution, and it holds its
own against football fever here in the UK. Prices have
grown out of all proportion and belief and we all bitch
about it, but somebody must be paying those prices because
the stuff keeps coming out and the prices keep going up.
The days of the 98 cent kit and the 10 cent bottle of
paint are long gone. Get over it.
I'm not saying I don't want to correspond with my fellow
geeks anymore (yeah, sorry guys and gals - we are geeks
in a geek world, but hey, that's not a bad thing). I enjoy
a good old natter about modelling with anyone who'll listen
or can read an email as much as the next guy. But I do
want to remove myself from the gargantuan monster that
has grown out of a simple relaxing pastime as much as
possible. And this may only be a temporary solution, but
it's working for me right now. I'm building again, and
more importantly, I'm enjoying it again. Isn't that what
it's all about?
Oh, one more thing. I really hate articles that
end with "Happy Modelling". Grrrrrrr.... ;-)
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