What do you think is most important?

[Greg Myers]

The nice thing about modelling is that you can do whatever you please. In real life â„¢ much of the stuff might be too expensive, too impractical, or downright illegal.

Or just plain won't work. A local judging around here was adamant about lower radiator hoses awhile back.

[Bernard Kron]

I think everyone pretty much has it right so far. I recently followed a discussion about contest judging on another forum, one whose members primarily pride craft, detail and authenticity above all else, often much to their frustration when seeing the. shall we say, "less disciplined" manifestations of the automotive modeler's art. One of the participants contrasted judging automotive models to judging armored vehicles and military aircraft. There is certainly a broader tradition of "imaginative" building in the automobile sector than in these other areas where he pointed out that there is a strong tradition of replica building. For this person it was sometimes frustrating to them to have to acknowledge brilliant model building that was far from technically or historically correct. But this broad range from replica to fantasy that is such an important aspect of the automobile modeling world is why I build cars as opposed to other things.

For myself I enjoy textures and finishes that scale correctly (like the discussion above about turned aluminum parts - wonderful "eye candy" pics BTW), get massive enjoyment out of a truly great factory stock build, and love all the incredible super detailed NASCAR and drag car builds featured in the magazines and shown here. But at the same time I'm a huge fan of imagination-based builds like those we have seen from CB, Chopper, Geezerman, Treehugger, Cranky and Peter Lombardo, among others.

For me it's a matter of how successfully the idea in the builder's head has translated to the model. I have my personal preferences but when a model is truly "hooked up", you've got me. From what's been written so far I think it's obvious that's what most builders strive for. The frustration, personal or otherwise, comes when, out of inability, fatigue, or laziness, we fail to achieve that successful translation from idea to finished build. That isn't "fun"...

Bottom line, if the idea requires technical authenticity and correctness to translate successfully then these elements must be striven for, but when they become an end in themselves the build is in danger of becoming sterile, formal and bland. On the other extreme, an automobile that has "radical" visual elements and building techniques which have been adopted merely to shock and amaze is in danger of becoming a confused heap of disparate "things" which fail to communicate any sort of vision the builder may have had.

Edited July 29, 2010 by gbk1