I prefer building. I enjoy using PE, scratch building, various materials and so on. I appreciate the final, painted and weathered results, but not the process that much. It’s funny, I have the patience to install lots of small, tedious parts, but not the same patience when it comes to carefully masking it off, adding layers of coats, reassembly and so on. Once the painting task is done, I like weathering.
Nick
55% builder, 45% painter. I bog down on both and hate aspects of both, but I enjoy doing both. I also do aircraft and cars so paint is often the important part of those kits, whereas armor is in the extra details you can toss on it.
It depends on the kit for me, but generally I’m a builder.
Does anyone else share my biggest problem. I am a starter but bog down at the finish line.
I was thinking about this just the other day. I am definitely more of a builder, only due to the fact I work out the back in my shed.
I can build in all weather conditions and love the customisation but cannot paint in the extreme heat or dusty conditions for fear of having to re do the painting. I need the perfect conditions so my progress always slows at the painting stage, especially during the harsh Australian summer.
Builder first, then somewhere there - painter.
When I am building, I love the building… and when I am painting I love the painting…
Can’t chose, sorry
EDIT: after reading about a Sherman track of I guess 1000 parts… I have to change my opinion, I prefer painting (all steps, including wheatering) to building something like that…
More of a builder, I guess. Although I like painting as well. The part I don’t like is the weathering. It’s the last step and the easiest to screw up, in my opinion.
Building and painting for hours and days just to screw all up with overdone wheathering.
Ideally, I would have to say painter, presuming a few things…that ‘painting’ includes all aspects of post-building activities, such as weathering. I say ideally, because I’d say definitely painting IF I was good at it, which I’m not.
Im a Builder.
1000 parts + link tracks, give me a week.
Paint them? give me 2 years.
Mostly a builder on this side of the pond. I like to airbrush, and sometimes have fun with some weathering stuff. The problem these days IMO, is the GINORMOUS list of dirt, mud, rain streaks, rust, worn metal, chipping, yadda, yadda, yadda, that has literally exploded from the likes of Mig, AK, Vallejo, etc. When the finished model is presented to a casual viewer, they say…“oh, it’s a tank…” We are spending untold thousands of dollars, pounds, euros, whatever, to try and make a “dead-on” replica of a vehicle in theater. In the end it doesn’t matter. That tank will sit on a shelf, collect dust, and be forgotten…BUT…did you have fun getting there…? That’s the whole point isn’t it…? Otherwise why do the hobby…? If it LOOKS like a tank, is GREEN like a tank…well…guess what…?
@unclepine Laurie, that’s a golden point.
I wonder if Mig, AK, Vallejo, etc with their GINORMOUS list of dirt, mud, rain streaks, rust, worn metal, chipping, etc considered that the USSR viewed 14 hours as the operational combat life expentancy of a T-34 tank?
I’m betting that “14 hour” number isn’t what their weathering approach is based around:)
The 14 hours life expectancy in combat of a T-34 was what USSR based their manufacturing and quality around during WW2.
Arguably the USSR did the best balancing act of quality vs manufacturing cost vs life expectancy of all the major powers in World War Two.
Of course that sort rains all over the parade of selling ten plus products for weathering a model tank. I understand it’s really Artistic License with what those master modelers do to models in many cases. It looks nice and is eye catching for sure. I admire them in many cases.
However, many of those effects can be done with ground up pastel chaulk, cigarette lighter fluid, oil washes etc and other low cost solutions - the modeler just has to give up the convenience of buying a ready made product that works well.
The other question is after spending say 100 hours building the model does the modeler really spend many more hours burying the vehicle under all of those effects?
I’m a old 
, dinosaur thats still all about the oil washes, drybrushing (yes I said the dirty dry brushing word) and pastel chalk.
Wade, dry brushing is not a forgotten art - it is still a tool that I use frequently, and I am glad yiou said wash, not filter. 
@petbat Peter did you say filters?
Here’s my favorite filter.
Good for 1 year or 15,000 miles before it needs changed with synthetic oil 
You are so right when you talk about the new weathering products out there. I still take an old school approach to weathering with washes and dry brushing still as my finishing sequence followed by pigments, I’ve just changed the products I use . Up to this point I resisted , but recently I bought AK enamel washes and dust and dirt effects and tried them out on my M1 Panther, and I was impressed. It all came down to ease of use for me- right out of the bottle; convenience . I still have my oils for dry brushing.
Filters and washes aren’t the same thing when used as intended.
A filter (called a glaze in art) is applied over the whole surface and kept from pooling around raised details. It can unify multicolor camouflage, enrich a solid base color and add depth and volume to that solid color so it doesn’t look flat and lifeless.
A wash is meant to pool around details, making them stand out or ‘pop’ as many modelers say.
Whether the modeler is using a pre-made product or making their own, the technique remains the same. They both have their place, just like drybrushing.
Good explanation of the filter technique. You are right the technique is the same just a different product.
I hate to sound like a broken record(if you even know what t hat is… ), but again, my whole argument is that after all the myriad of “stuff” we put on our models, the end result is still the same…or should be…a kit I built my self FOR myself because I LIKE to do it…not ti impress the crap outa someone. If you plan on entering a contest wehere you KNOW he competition is stiff, well, you better get serious. If you are like a lot of us, we just want a nice lookin scaled down version of a pce of machinery that “boys” love to look at and build…precious few of us can make a living at building models, but we can pride ourselves on a job well done…and I don’t give a rat’s arse if I didn’t put the “correct” number of rivets on the transmission housing of a M4A3E8AFVMkII…As the original post asked…building…? or painting…? They can BOTH be fun and with time and patience we cam ALL get pretty good at it. For that reason alone we started up MMB, Manitoba Model Builders, focusing on workshops to address ALL the basics, not so basic, and eventually advanced skills you can learn to help you Build or Paint…anyway you want. We have only 2 rules in the in-house club(HobbySense)…!. It’s my model, and I’ll build it any way I want. 2. If you don’t like what you see on my finished model…refer to rule #1…
Yes I agree Laurie; I always build for myself that’s the main thing but I love weathering and trying to get it as realistic as possible for me, not someone else. It’s great satisfaction when I’m looking at it or take a picture of it and it comes out the way I had envisioned. I do enter competitions as much as possible and yeah the competition is steep.
@Armorfarm Ken,
Thank you. Looks like we are as they used to day separated by a common language.
I’ve learned a fancy new artistic term today!
Back in my day, we called a wash to highlight details a pinpoint wash or pin wash. Usually
A wash was applied overall to the model unify and accent.
Looks like the semantics of corn 
vs maize
I think I’m more a builder than a painter, that said, it seems to be the actual weatheting stage that slows me down the most, and I do love how the model comes alive as the painting and weathering progress.
