Not to stir the sh*tter but many were killed that day at Tianamen Square.
The way I heard it explained was marriage was just another form of prostitution.
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No disrespect intended toward anyone killed or harmed that day at Tianamen Square.
I will bow out of the thread to reduce the risk of another AK Condemnation thread replay.
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Me too. No negative waves sent in your direction.
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I’ve just realised that to take the superb “Irish Tank Man” diorama
https://forums.kitmaker.net/uploads/default/original/3X/e/c/ecf5201c54ac1de05ec7f8775ddd2eccb2866bd1.jpeg
from great modelling to high art is to replace the standing figure with a humanoid symbol of capitalist consumerism. The Ronald MacDonald Clown is out as he has been done to death (sometimes very graphically) by the Chapman brothers; I would suggest Colonel Sanders as he’s playing “chicken” with a tank…
Cheers,
M
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Ah… They mock that which they don’t understand… LOL! 
I do get it. Really, I do… 
Actually, I would submit that when Wade built his Panzer gray Jagdpanther, he had some mental image of what he wanted it to look like. He selected the subject and created the finish based on the aesthetic appeal of the subject and his own imagination of how he could capture and enhance that aesthetic in his own, personal piece of work.
(Perhaps he was inspired by all the Panzer gray German tanks drawn in some “graphic novel” that most many of us thought of as “reference” works when we were in grade school… Our imaginations and emotions ran strong as we turned those static images into visons of action in our minds. Who wouldn’t want to capture that image in 3D, to be able to experience it from every direction and angle, while sucking up the aesthetic like a dry sponge?)
I also suspect that he shared that work with other folks who he wanted to be as enthused and engaged in the aesthetics of the subject as Wade was when he selected it and created it. Wade had a personal message about his own aesthetic vision and he wanted to share that message with others to show them his own, personal vision in the hope that they would have a like-minded connection with the subject and experience.
Now, was his skill and craft as highly polished and practiced as it is today? Probably not. Yet, he still had his own personal aesthetic vision that he was trying to create in order to capture it for himself and to share with others.
Rough and somewhat crude that it may have been, it was still a product of imagination and emotion and not just a simple copy of something. After all, a painting of a sunset is a copy of that sunset, but despite this, it is also still more than just that.
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JagdPanther is a 1976 build due to this source of curiosity, interest and inspiration. It’s the oldest model on my display shelf.
My vision was mimicking the box art.
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Art teachers like to say that art is anything that is presented as such. That explains how the previously referenced soup can made it into the art gallery. If we went back a few hundred years (or not even that far) these art teachers would have been tarred and feathered in the town square.
An earlier and more reasonable definition of art would have included a few basic requirements, like requiring the artist to actually put some effort into the work (this alone would eliminate the soup can and a good chunk of so called modern art). In classical times, art was concerned with truth and beauty. Today, not so much.
I position my work as art and feel that all scale modelers should not hesitate to do so. Definitions aside, you’ll feel much better about your work (and get better results) if you approach each project as a work of art in the making.
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Sorry but I disagree. Imdo not get any warm feelings from seeing my build as an art project. On the contrary, I prefer to see myself as a craftsman, doing reliable and repeatable work.
Artist and Art have ambad taste for me. Reason see above
In early 1988 or so, I felt a well done diorama could achieve being “art” after seeing Shepherd Paine’s books.
Likewise with wanta-be art like diorama’s, I have a bias against what I call “AH’s style” of painting.
If it falls into “AH style” it’s not art - it’s architectural drawing or drafting.
“AH’s style” being anything where the non-living buildings and vehicles look better than the trees and people. Likewise obvious struggle with painting the human figure specifically face. Of course the nonliving stuff doesn’t have to look good just better than the living stuff.
Here’s a diorama that’s an example inadvertent “AH style” that wished it was artistic.
Did you know Freddy Kruger had a twin brother?
The only shred that’s possibly not crap in the whole diorama is this guy who looks like he’s sick of all of it. Sick of the war. Sick of the diorama. Sick of looking for airplanes.
He just wants a German equivalent of a Pabast Blue Ribbon.
So definitely not an artist here.
My aspirations are to try to build a decent looking model nothing more.
Kudos to those who can elevate the hobby into to the land of artistry.
With that said there is absolutely 
no doubt this diorama is High Art.
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” by Ken Arnold
The reaction 
when the diorama hit the display table at the local IPMS contest no question art of the highest order. People stopped, talked and thought. It had that edge often sought and seldom found with diorama.
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To me, a lot of this recent discussion sounds like a scale modeling variation of the debate over whether some work is “illustration” and not “art” thereby making its creator an illustrator and not an artist.
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Styrene Illustrators
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Now’s the question - are you a modeler or an assembler?
Surely we can be both? After all, many “great artists” of recent fame have essentially just assembled ordinary materials (unmade beds, sharks in formaldehyde, piles of bricks) - the “art” was in convincing the world that it was art!
I assemble kits, but then I go all “art” on them to make them mini portraits of the real thing…
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Scale models are 3d art . Some better and some to a lesser degree. It is just a different media . Paint by numbers is
Considered art . Clay is done as art. Paint pour is considered art.
As for assemblers that falls to the realm of puzzles.
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Kit assembler, puzzle picker, paint monkey & styrene illustrator here.
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Apparently art can be digital and sell for millions so if something that’s not actually physically present other than in computer code. Why wouldn’t construct a model of what ever genre you happen to enjoy working in. After all art is based on ones perception of what they are seeing. Everyone is a critic but the way I look at it if someone is being to critical or unduly harsh in their criticism just give them a firm attitude adjustment and thank them for their input and file it under the appropriate heading under the general area of file 13!!!
As long as your happy and whom ever your main judge is happy then who cares about others opinions. My judge is mainly my wife for the last 24 years and more recently my 5 year old daughter has become a very critical judge of my work and my sons.
Remember opinions are much like some body parts everyone has one, just not all are necessarily appreciated when shared with others. Kinda like mother would say if you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything!!!
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Kit assembler, puzzle picker, paint monkey & styrene illustrator here.
And plastic surgeon… 
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Proud un repentant card carrying member of the miniature military industrial complex.
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Is that why you’re banned from the zoo? 
I prefer painting things that don’t move…
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