Thoughts on Modeling.

[DRG]

I just recently, six months maybe, returned to Modeling. Like many others I built models as a child of ten or eleven and returned at the age of sixty. I really don't remember much about those I built as a child with the 1940 Ford being the only one I'm sure of.

When I scan through the builds posted here and on other forums I see paint jobs to die for, interiors that make one wonder is it real or is it memorex. The detailing of engines and such simply amazes me.

The after market items available seem endless.

After many hours of frustration there are several things I have decided.

1- quit trying to build a model that is over the top.

2- concentrate, for now, on building basics.

3- try one new thing with each build.

4- slooooooooooooooow down, think, test fit and then test fit again.

Oh, one other thing. Build the models of cars and trucks I like. Not what's popular or what someone else is building.

Those are just my thoughts.

[The Creative Explorer]

One thing is important; You build for your own fun. That should be the main reason

I can't build by far as good as the top-modellers over here, but I keep learning. Remind; every model is a practice for the next one. Try new things, try to be challenged, but within reality.

Just do whatever you WANT to do, wether you exceed or not.

[Dave Ambrose]

Those are all very good thoughts. I find myself concentrating on #4 -- a lot.

It's important to enjoy both the building process and the finished product. Expanding one's skill envelope more deliberately helps keep the problem solving frustrations at a manageable level. One also has to accept that things are not always going to proceed as we would like. I seem to specialize in painting disasters.

I'm discovering that my personal key to having a pleasing model is a good body. For me, that means good prep, priming, and paint. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm closing in on a set of practices that work for me. I'm hoping that gets to be routine by the end of 2011.

I can't recall a better time to be building model cars. We have better glues, paints, and fillers than we did as kids. Plus, I'm much better at not cutting myself these days. We also have much better access to tools.

Our primary goal is to have fun building it, and have something we enjoy looking at afterward.

With regard to your last point about subjects, I've decided to do something I've never done. I'm mostly building to the theme nights for our model car club. My first foray into that little world was fun. I'm still building things I like, but now I get to share the results with friends.

Which leads to my last point; see if there's a nice model car club in your area. All clubs seem a bit cliquish at first, but the one here in San Diego is as nice a group of people as you could ever hope to meet.

[Jantrix]

  On 11/28/2010 at 4:11 PM, Donald Gardner said:

After many hours of frustration there are several things I have decided.

1- quit trying to build a model that is over the top.

2- concentrate, for now, on building basics.

3- try one new thing with each build.

4- slooooooooooooooow down, think, test fit and then test fit again.

Oh, one other thing. Build the models of cars and trucks I like. Not what's popular or what someone else is building.

I couldn't have said it better myself. This is great advice for any new builder.

[sobpinstriping]

I just realised the same thing the other day. I just got a kit I have been wanting since I started building again and I'm forcing my self to take my time to get things just where I want them instead of just getting it done.

For a while I was getting frustrated because my models were not coming out as good as I thought they should and almost stopped all together but I realised I should only be doing this for fun.

[DanielG]

It is a HOBBY, it is suppposed to be FUN! Enjoyment is what it is all about no matter your level of expertise. I have one build on the go which is just a test bed that I bring out now and again to try stuff out on, does not matter how or when or if it turns out. I used to be a painter (suppose I still am) and you can sit there and look at your latest work and needle it to death but there comes a time when you have to say 'It is done!' and move on to the next. A model build is the same, each one looks 'better' than the last. Even the 'top pros' had to start as a newbie sometime in the distant past!

Enjoy your hobby and if you want to 'improve' then compare your lastest build to the last one you did and not something done by someone else who may have twenty years more practise than you. (and there are also guys on here half my age that I cannot hold a candle to!)

[imatt88]

I build to relax.

I'm building outside of my comfort zone right now, I'm repainting a couple of HO train engine shells, and working on my first ever rustbucket/junker car..

It's new ground for me, I've spent most of my modeling life building aircraft so I'm a little skittish about taking chances, but I'll give it a shot

Cheers, Ian

[Clay]

I agree with everything said here. I think that you should do your best with your building, but I have since realized that sometimes not the best is good enough. It's a hobby that's suppose to be fun. Don't make it a chore. I build when I get a chance, if I don't get a chance, oh well.

[Dave Ambrose]

  On 11/28/2010 at 7:02 PM, imatt88 said:

It's new ground for me, I've spent most of my modeling life building aircraft so I'm a little skittish about taking chances, but I'll give it a shot

One thing I like about model cars; there's a LOT more leeway compared with things like aircraft and railroading. In an aircraft, if something's not according to the prototype, you get dinged. With most model cars, your results just have to be plausible and believable. If you're doing show cars, even those criteria don't necessarily apply.

I find it a more interesting experience since I can pick my own design elements.

If you still want to get your prototype jag goin' you can model specific cars and be as prototypically correct as you want.

Choices - what's not to like?

[DanielG]

Aircraft, I think that is where most of MY analism got developed.

[Guest Johnny]

  On 11/28/2010 at 7:18 PM, DanielG said:

Aircraft, I think that is where most of MY analism got developed.

That and ship building! The ships never seemed to be finished and I kept adding more and more detail spending way too many hours on a build! I found myself carring that over to model cars and that is when I gave them up for over a decade! Just plain got burned out!

[randx0]

Donald I think you have the beginnings of an enjoyable hobby. I would also recommend perhaps building a snap kit when trying out new finishing techniques be it interior or painting the body to bare metal foil to weathering. a snap together will keep you from thinking too much about engine detail and chassis components and has a very good likelyhood of being completed. I have tons of started projects which almost always are sidelined due to a problem that is above my pay grade. as a result they sit for awhile until my skill level rises . also go ahead and try out an over the top build that can be an ongoing project for you. one more thing I would recommend is reference material.

[Aaronw]

I really try to follow 2 and 3, focus on trying to build a decent quality model. I try and expand my skills a bit each time by practicing a skill I'm not fully comfortable with or trying something totally new. I have learned to appreciate a nice, just get it built model now and then. Nothing like actually finishing a model or to get out of a getting to much into the details funk.

  On 11/28/2010 at 7:14 PM, Dave Ambrose said:

One thing I like about model cars; there's a LOT more leeway compared with things like aircraft and railroading. In an aircraft, if something's not according to the prototype, you get dinged. With most model cars, your results just have to be plausible and believable. If you're doing show cars, even those criteria don't necessarily apply.

I find it a more interesting experience since I can pick my own design elements.

If you still want to get your prototype jag goin' you can model specific cars and be as prototypically correct as you want.

Choices - what's not to like?

That is what I'm finding nice with WW1 and the interwar period aircraft. There are still rivit counters out there, but not a ton of irrefutable proof to support them, a scrap of 90 year old fabric, a poor quality B&W photo, perhaps some documentation of questionable heritage (lots of fakes out there). As a result most WW1 builders I've run into seem to be pretty mellow and accept a large degree of this is what research suggests combined with a good dose of so what if it isn't completely accurate, it looks good. Interwar has much of the same, but is an even smaller group.

Car builders as a group though do have to be one of the most casual when it comes to "accuracy". Not that there is no attempt at accuracy, simply that cars do have a lot of variation. You can build a "factory stock" car with a custom paint job and rims, because a real person could take their 100% stock Yugo to a body shop, get a candy grape paint job, huge hood scoop and 19" rims put on it (why is another issue entirely ).

[MikeMc]

We must be twin sons of different mothers...my thoughts exactly...I build for ME

[niteowl7710]

I think that the biggest difference between automotive and other types of modeling is the individuality of it all. Anything owned by the Government (Planes, Armor, Ships) by it's own definition isn't going to allow for a lot of personalization and customization. I think one of the biggest steps outside of "it's the Government, so it's all identical" was the nose-art on WWII Bombers. But even that's has finite amount, as there were only x amount of them. But in automobila (here I include motorcycles and that ilk) a vehicle is a reflection of the owner. There are just so many styles and ideas of what you can build, that you never really run out of ideas. Hot Rod or Street Rod? Custom or Pro-Touring? DONK, So-Cal Lowrider or "Bagged" Lowrider? All out drag car or weekend bracket sleeper?

In the past 15 minutes there have been 167 active users of this forum. If I flew you all to an ocean side warehouse for a paid vacation, chocked full of every aftermarket part and the world's largest parts box and made you all build the exact same kit, in a week I would expect 167 different, individualized builds of that same kit. (Please don't bombard me with a thousand I can't finish it in a week, it's a paid vacation, no kids or wife, just ease up on the bull sessions and umbrella drinks and you'll be fine) :)

I know a popular mantra around here is "I build for ME", and I understand where that idea comes from...but I prefer to look at it as "I build TO me". I think that if your participating in this board, or any of the others you at some point want the if not validation, the "atta-boys" that come when you finish something. I build a certain way, and in certain styles and that's all there is to it. I'm not going to start building a style just because it's the current "thing" in the 1:1 or modeling world. No comment of "you should have built it x-way instead" is ever going to make me cave to that style either.

The builds here that get my attention are the ones I can look at and go "Man I wouldn't have done that, but WOW!" That person is building their style and their way, but it still made me stop and stare slack-jawed at some part (or all) of their work. So I strive for that...I mean I don't build for me, as I want someone beyond my wife and 8 year old daughter to think I did a good build, but I build TO me, because that's how I do things, and I want you to like it anyway. It should be noted that it doesn't mean I don't try new things, or grow my skills, but rather that those improvements add to my way of building. The FUN way!

[brett]

  On 11/28/2010 at 6:48 PM, DanielG said:

It is a HOBBY, it is suppposed to be FUN! Enjoyment is what it is all about no matter your level of expertise.

Enjoy your hobby and if you want to 'improve' then compare your lastest build to the last one you did and not something done by someone else who may have twenty years more practise than you. (and there are also guys on here half my age that I cannot hold a candle to!)

This is one of the wisest things I've read on a modeling forum anywhere and agree wholeheartedly.

By the way Donald ,I think you are improving with each build, it can be hard to see yourself as we, I think expect too much of ourselves while trying to keep up with the Jones's

[imatt88]

Dan,

I hear ya brother, I feel your pain