Hi Tom,
Good discussion. I think it is all a matter of scale. For reasons probably lost in the mist of time the car world primarily comes these days in 1/24 scale, or for some, in 1/12. There are older kits in a range of 1/16, 1/18, 1/20, 1/25 etc but the first two scales I think dominate now. I think with manufacturers you mention, esp. MiniArt are driven by their military range in 1/35 so they make civilian vehicles in that scale as well.
From that I guess a lot of modelers like consistency in their build collections, I tend to do that with planes 1/32 and boats 1/350. With cars I have built both 1/24 and 1/12, the Miniart bus being an exception because it just looked cool. And if Tamiya would make that Traction Avant in 1/24 I would buy in a flash but wouldnāt bother with a 1/35 version.
Unfortunately the only 1:24th Traction Avant I know of is from Heller, which I suspect puts it at the oppisite end of the spectrum from Tamiya with regards to engineering and fit. For myself I rarely by bigger than 1:24th.
I suppose youāre familiar with this:
but Iād really like to see someone do an extreme custom job on this:
Thatās the great thing about ICM, they often do the same subject in 1:24th as well as 1:35th.
Great discussion guys. Donāt forget that there is a big car kit scene in 1/32, which is often converted to slot car purposes, and thatās awfully close to 1/35!
Progress report on āHeart of the Beastā (for what itās worth).
Well I donāt know what to say, apart from reiterating my question - what do we need to do to get things moving here?
Itās been over 3 weeks since the last post, and the only āprogressā to report is that Michael has had to strip his paint job back to bare plastic/metal.
We are 4 months in now, 2 months to go, and below is the current state of play.
AussieReg (Damian) - Ferrari 250 GT California - Revell kit in 1/24 - COMPLETED
Joel_W (Joel) - 2020 Ford Mustang GT4 - Tamiya kit in 1/24 with IndyCal decals - COMPLETED
Cosimodo (Michael) - Ferrari F1 (Monza 1967 Chris Amon) - MFH kit in 1/12 - Engine painted, assembled and detailed. Basic chassis (cockpit engine and exhausts) assembled. Body primed and painted, then unpainted and unprimed
Rick1956 (Rick) - Porsche 904 - Monogram kit in 1/25 - Engine modifications, assembly started
D,
I just followed your link and I was absolutely amazed. The Truck GB puts the cars GB to shame. Way more signees. and way more builds. Maybe Jim should change the name of this forum to TRUCKMODELER.
AussieReg (Damian) - Ferrari 250 GT California - Revell kit in 1/24 - COMPLETED
Joel_W (Joel) - 2020 Ford Mustang GT4 - Tamiya kit in 1/24 with IndyCal decals - COMPLETED
Cosimodo (Michael) - Ferrari F1 (Monza 1967 Chris Amon) - MFH kit in 1/12 - COMPLETED
Rick1956 (Rick) - Porsche 904 - Monogram kit in 1/25 - Engine modifications, assembly started
Well, since Dās last post above that the up coming GB is looking rather thin to say the least, itās now 2 weeks till the end of the present campaign and the start of the new one.
At this junction it doesnāt look like thereās going to be any more entries to cross the finish line within the time frame left. This has been more then disappointing as weāve gone backwards not forwards, and the main reasons I can see for the digression has been the move to the new forums, the GBs no longer being within the AutoModeler site, and no ribbons or method to have them. Badges wonāt work as I believe theyāre only temporary under our Avatars.
With the new GB scheduled to start on Oct 1st, thereās so little interest in it as i can only see just two members actually ready to sign up for it. Honestly, I donāt see any value in starting a 6 month GB with such poor interest from the forum members.
Whether or not D does decide to move ahead with the GB, Iām not planning on joining as Iāve done with every GB for the last several years.
Apologies for my lack of attendance lately folks, real life issues have taken up way too much time.
Joel is correct, the grand total of 3 completed builds for HOTB is very disappointing and the lowest we have seen for quite a while. I know that the new site is vastly different to the old, and having the Group Builds in a separate dedicated forum requires navigation away from the main AutoModeler forum, but this is how the system works now so we all need to work within it. The positives in the usability of the new site far outweigh the negatives.
I will continue the Group Build program as it stands and once the Union Jack/Tricolore GB starts I will draw the lucky member to decide on the next subject from the list at the top of this thread. BTW I am always open for more suggestions on that score!
I plan to follow Joelās lead and run a dedicated Build Log thread here in the main forum as well as posting updates in the GB thread. Hopefully the increase in traffic will encourage some more participants.
@Joel_W
Quote - āIf we have all sorts of car interests in one forum, then including bikes and trucks sure does make a lot of sense to me. Weāre not Armorama or Aeroscale. We donāt have the membership for all these forums. We need to consolidate so we can grow and become more active.ā
Below is a screenshot of my home screen settings, so I get all of the AutoModeler threads in one list including any News, Reviews and Features from the main page.
As always, I really appreciate and welcome any ideas with regards to possible improvements we can suggest to Jim around increasing the traffic and participation here.
D,
Yes, I use that page as well, but Iām willing to bet that the vast majority of members have their forum of choice as their home page when the log on. Also, when I receive a notification and click on it, it goes directly to itās location, so I donāt see the above page.
Itās a step in the right direction, but we need to take every option open to us to build up the general site.
I do stand corrected badges awarded to oneās profile remain. All we really need is to created a single badge that we can change the name and date to reflect a completed campaign.
BTW, How do I remove some of the badges that are really no longer relevant and kind of silly.
Iāve seen that page, you can even clean it up by clicking on āall tagsā and select āto tagsā, it will turn off the | Trucks | Motorcycles| Cars | Painting & Finishing | line and give you 1 or 2 extra topics.
But that doesnāt fit with my interests, my modeling interests are all over the place, planes, armor, cars, ships and even some railroad stuff. I tend to select interesting campaigns and then match whatever I might have in the stash. I donāt want to have to click back and forth between different Categories, so I end up on the āScale Modeling Forumsā page and get an overview on what might interest me. IF I select the āLatestā box, it turns off the categories on the left side of the page and just lists posts. But at 100% that only gives 9 topics above the āfoldā. I still miss stuff, I went chasing down a rabbit hole the other day and found a couple of interesting campaigns, one was too far along to enlist.
Maybe a few graphics changes are in order. 1) Use 2 or 3 lines per post instead of 4. 2) Nearly 40% of the page is overhead, remove the overhead ads, put them over in the white space on the left and right margins.
Joel, I agree that the text box being code focused and not WYSIWYG having the two columns is a bit cumbersome. I have found that if you grab the 2 white lies in the blue bar, you can raise or lower it to see more of your comment as you type it.
Oh and I still want my old wave back.
We have passed the start date now, but a slight technical hitch in that I donāt seem to be able to create a new Group Build category for this one. I will keep you all updated here as to the progress on that.
You can either start and update your build progress entirely in the existing thread, or alternatively start a dedicated thread within this category of the Campaigns and Group Builds Forum.
I canāt wait to see some of these classic autoās come to life here.
