AFV Club. I don't get it

I had an epiphany at about 2:30 am. Got up to test it out, and it worked. Now back with the rest of the front runners.

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Do tell :pray:

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Just a part of an interior that had been giving me problems. Nothing special. But the solution hit me at the worst time. Never got back to sleep.

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A man’s gotta do what man’s gotta do …
:grin:

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Subconscious just doesn’t take a day off.

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Uhh, yeah - the “What is wrong with this??? something…how can I make it work??..(insert plenty of time wasted when sleeping would clearly be a better idea)…and then - BAM! I know how to do/fix it!” I’m glad to know that there are a few of us cursed by this attribute. :smile:

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It may be the sub-conscious, or just the conscious taking its time. Or it may just be about being horizontal, the little grey cells adjusting to altered gravity. Whatever, I recall my Dad – who was exceptionally intelligent – bemoaning the fact (in his mind) that he was a slow thinker. He’d get to the correct answer, but in double the time it took others who he rated as being less, equal and more intelligent than he. It’s all about Time, and how quickly we can clear our minds of the incessant mental background noise to focus on the problem in question.

I’ve inherited Dad’s mental speed – classic example being cryptic crossword clues. Spend 15 minutes getting nowhere with a difficult clue. Come back next day and the answer’s right there in 5 seconds.

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Fair enough.

Another truth, I believe, is that no matter how much we might talk about and share our own journeys with others, in the end we all have to walk those paths for ourselves and make the final decisions about what new direction to take at each crossroad on our own.

Even when we all seem to agree on some “common” vision of our goal, one that looms on the far distant horizon, I think that commonality is also largely illusory, and that seemingly shared vision is really more like a mirage.

We all seek “perfection” in our work (while most of us also recognize that “perfection” is unobtainable), but what’s also true is that each of us has his own vision of what “perfection” actually is. So, maybe we all agree that we are building towards “perfection,” and we discuss our journeys towards building that “perfect” model, but in the end, we are also all really talking about different goals, different ideas of “perfection.”

It should be no surprise or wonder that the actual paths we take are also different.

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You must be a Buddhist. They believe there are many paths to salvation.:grin:

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I learned to use side cutters instead of scalpel blades to remove parts from sprues.
That was my salvation from a thousand nicks and cuts,
now I almost never need to use these …

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We do all strive for perfection, although it is unattainable. No one sets out to build a crappy model. All finished models have faults, it’s just the number and severity of those faults that make a model Best of Show or a hot mess. Skill level and constant decisions are involved; I have 3 different viscosities of Tamiya glue and which one I choose for a part application can make or break the model. And I am going to make this decision 1000 times on this one model. Best practices are involved, but what is best for me might not be best for someone who has no access to Zoukei - Mura Pro Zetsu nippers. Removing every connection point, mold seam, and ejector pin mark is necessary for building the perfect model, but may be beyond a modeler’s skill and comprehension. As experience and competence increases, quality increases. But one modeler’s thought processes may lead him to a completely different approach than another to the same problem. As Mike says, the paths we take are different but all lead to a single, hypothetical, unachievable goal - perfection. And as Rob said - it is all about Zen, it’s the journey, not the destination. When you are building and painting, you are modeling. When you have finished, you are no longer modeling, until you start a new journey.

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I didn’t know there was any other way to assemble a model.
Geez, live and learn I suppose
:thinking: :grin:

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I’ve seen remains of connection points, mold seams left as features, and perfectly dry brushed ejector pin marks!

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Jeezus; do we really need to intellectualise the hobby to this degree?

Can we not get back to say, the “best way to polish 1/72 cockpit transparencies”, or “how to make puttees in 1/35”?

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I kinda liked the “proper shade of panzer gray” era. It was all so simple then.

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I’ll tell you what proper pisses me off about this hobby, the anally retentive.

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Ah, but one man’s anal retention is another man’s attention to detail(!)

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FYP

Cheers,

M

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I find that reading old modelling handbooks puts things into perspective quite well :slight_smile:

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Start a thread for each. I’m sure folks will find each one fascinating.

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