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Dr. Cranky


Classicgas

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17 hours ago, Oldschool4x4 said:

Last seen here on Oct 22 2016.  I think he came, made a big splash, then drowned... But yes, he is still active on you tube.

Drowned. How crass.

Cranky left a few years ago due to some personal issues that he had to sort through, that kept him from working in the hobby. During that time there were a couple of these threads wondering about his absence, and there were some unkind comments calling him an attention hound or a show off. Perhaps he saw them and decided not to come back here at all.

It's a real shame because he is a real passionate guy and a tremendous artist. Lots of us learned a lot from him. Others just had to tear him down.

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4 hours ago, Classicgas said:

Sad. He and Mr. Obsessive are a couple of the most talented people here.

Why thanks Lee! :D

Not too prolific lately............just moved to a new house and I'm now beginning to start work on the '55 Ford Victoria (again). I got the model room arranged the way I want it and hopefully by next weekend or so I can post some progress pics.

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Virgil Suarez (aka Dr Cranky) wrote a superb book named Rats, Rods 'n' Rust that had fabulous layouts done by the late Harry Pristovnik.

Not heard much about him lately. He prepared a couple of other books I believe to feature other modeller's work. A number of years ago he messaged me on this forum about my scratch built Bugatti Type 59 that featured in MCM. Unfortunately (don't ask why) I failed to check my messages for about a couple of years and did not pick up his invitation, and by then it was too late obviously!  I sent him a personal email with profuse apologies for having not replied and since then have sent him another email when his friend and colleague Harry P passed away. Virgil did not reply to either, so I guess that maybe he might still be rightly annoyed at me for my unintentional bad manners.

Virgil is certainly a larger than life character judging by his book, and installs a sense of fun into his approach whilst still getting all the right information across in a very readable format. I saw some of Bill Geary (Mr Obsessive's) superb models featured in the book where Virgil devotes sections towards the back of the book to individual modellers and their work. a really good book to het a hold of!

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On 11/1/2019 at 9:01 AM, Jantrix said:

there were some unkind comments calling him an attention hound or a show off.

To be fair, his self-aggrandizing tone at times was not exactly endearing, and his not-so-subtle indirect promotion of his products and YouTube channel also rubbed some people the wrong way. I've always felt there's a fine line (maybe more of an unwritten rule?) between business and pleasure on a website such as this, and when someone's personal projects become more and more like advertisements for things they are selling elsewhere, it makes people question the true intent of the person doing it. Can the two be mutually exclusive? Yes, they can, but when you straddle the line, it's sometimes hard to know which side someone is truly standing on.

Virgil is a very talented builder, no question, and has the ability to be in front of a camera, which, not everyone does. He definitely has a positive influence on the entire model building community, for lack of a better term, but that doesn't mean his style and presentation is everyone's cup of tea. 

There are many extremely talented builders in this hobby, some with big egos who enjoy the attention of seeing their name mentioned, and others who take pride in their work without any desire for attention or recognition. We all have to decide where on that spectrum is the type of builder who appeals to us, and what range we're willing to tolerate.

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  • 1 month later...
On 11/5/2019 at 9:06 AM, Bugatti Fan said:

(snip) I sent him a personal email with profuse apologies for having not replied and since then have sent him another email when his friend and colleague Harry P passed away. Virgil did not reply to either, so I guess that maybe he might still be rightly annoyed at me for my unintentional bad manners.

 

I doubt it was personal. I emailed him once with a question, and never heard back.

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10 minutes ago, John Pol said:

Never care for Doctor Cranky this is a hobby not something to make money off of that is my opion

The entire resin, photoetch, decal, and 3D printing aftermarket industry vehemently disagrees with you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Most of us would call what we do, art. Doc Cranky's work was certainly good enough to qualify. Would deny an artist the right to make money from his work?

Edited by Jantrix
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Making money off the hobby is exactly what Round2, REVELL, Tamiya, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Rustoleum, Duplicolor, and others are doing. Modelhaus did it, and most of us are sad that they are gone. I don't hold it against Dr. Cranky for trying to make a dime from helping guys like me turn out better models.

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Always liked Dr. Cranky and the work he put out. I felt honoured when he and Harry asked me to be in their international house of plastic book. Cranky was one of the first names I wondered what happened to when I became active on the forum again a month or two ago. Glad to hear he's still up and running, even if it's only on YouTube and not on here.

Our hobby is scarce enough - we don't need to let egos and issues get in the way and make it worse. Embrace all, unless they specifically hurt you, that's what I say. 

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As my Great Granny used to say, it takes all kinds to make the world go round and it you lose even one it will slow it to a stop in time!

Took until I was grown and out in the real world to understand what she meant!

I'm no artist nor a show quality builder but I sure do enjoy this hobby and even if I don't care for another builders style I still enjoy seeing their work and respect them for their accomplishments and what they bring to the hobby!

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I was 13-years in radio and television where I got high marks from management for being able to work with big egos in a big ego business. Behind their eccentricities are valuable ideas and if you give eccentric people the room to be big and odd, then you get some profitable products that we all get to benefit from.

Of course, you also get some very bad ideas with pushy demands, but that's just part of the landscape and as long as you give them the room to be themselves, everyone is happy... sometimes annoyed, but happy. Personally, I just really like alternative thinkers. They energize me because I'm too conservative to inspire myself. I don't have to agree with them, I just have to understand them.

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Let's slow down for a minute. Does anyone have reliable information on what Dr. Cranky is doing and why? I've seen precious little thus far. Yet people feel perfectly free to speculate in a disparaging manner. It takes a huge effort to write a book and get it ready for publication. I've seen it. Ratz, Rodz, and Rust is a very nice book for about the same price as a kit. If you like rusty things, you should get a copy. 

It also takes a lot of effort to put together even a few minutes of video. The rule of thumb is an hour of raw video for a few minutes of finished video. OK, he's getting money from Youtube, and his book. Those are honest efforts. The Youtube channel alone probably consumes a fat chunk of his free time. That he's not on here is neither surprising or insidious. 

So, going forward, don't speculate. It doesn't make the world better for anyone. 

And yes, I cleaned up the thread. If your post here is gone, consider it a warning. 

 

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Guess that means I got my first warning !

For what? saying Harry helped him with his book?

That's not hearsay or gossip, it's based on Harry asking me to contribute to the book on two separate occasions.

As you can guess,, I said no both times.

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On 1/17/2020 at 9:17 PM, Can-Con said:

Guess that means I got my first warning !

For what? saying Harry helped him with his book?

That's not hearsay or gossip, it's based on Harry asking me to contribute to the book on two separate occasions.

As you can guess,, I said no both times.

In point of fact, you said that Harry wrote his book for him. Perhaps you misspoke?
 

That’s very different than saying Harry helped him. Harry did the layout. That’s his profession. He also copy edits well. It’s a very unusual combination in one person. That fact that he did both of those on that book shouldn’t be a surprise. Neither one constitutes writing the book. 

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10 minutes ago, Dave Ambrose said:

In point of fact, you said that Harry wrote his book for him. Perhaps you misspoke?
 

That’s very different than saying Harry helped him. Harry did the layout. That’s his profession. He also copy edits well. It’s a very unusual combination in one person. That fact that he did both of those on that book shouldn’t be a surprise. Neither one constitutes writing the book. 

,, and also soliciting content. 

Quite possibly,  i thought I said that Harry wasn't around anymore to help him with it,  I wouldn't come right out and say Harry wrote it FOR him because I don't think that. I think it was a collaboration between the two with Harry being more silent about his contribution.  Perhaps you misread?

I don't remember exactly how I worded it now, it's been deleted.

 

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