I agree with you whole heartedly. The art of scratch building is a lost art. I still hone my edge by trying to repair some kits. for instance I purchased a kit off Ebay and there were several parts missing. No sence in crying about it. I just got out my trusty EverGreen products and went to. Then there is the new m 114. It came out without an interior. Again out comes Everygreen and I go to work. Son of a gun here come a new kit(same company) this time with the interior ,My timeing is bad. Now I can check my work. Keep looking and you will find something.Remember this is our hobby. Ellectronics can’t replace.
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Gino ? you have the position why dont you straighten the lad out if this is a constant thing? I commented but I didn’t know he was/is a troller.
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So, from going thru this entire thread, again, I’ve come to one conclusion; It’s all about “sniffin paint and gluin them fingers together”, and having fun while we do it, scratch, or not. It’s a matter of imagination, artistic license, interpretation, and no boundaries, right?
This is the beauty of the “Sport” of modelling, anyone can play, ya just gotta have fun! If ya can’t do that, pack it up, get outta here! But stick around, we’ll draw ya back in!
Seems we’ve seen this kinda flap before, have we not?
So, can I repeat myself? Click Bait?
Remember, some people are lonely,…
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you do have a point.
I remember this same act over on Modelerssocialclub a few years ago.
Mike’s already made the point – if you think this is a nothing thread what the - are you doing here? The obvious option would be to walk away but you didn’t - neither did I. Nothing shuts down a nothing thread like silence i.e. yours, if that’s what you really think it is.
64 responses & counting proves it’s touched a raw nerve for some & worth discussion for others. Whitney said his piece and thus gave you the opportunity to vent divergent opinions, a chance you didn’t otherwise have – and if you didn’t think it was worth venting you wouldn’t have bothered, right?
So whether you agree with him or not, give him some credit for raising the subject – otherwise just walk away, as is your right. Check it out, most responders have played the ball, not the man.
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If I may, I think part of the “problem” as Whitney sees it is that for any modeler with a modicum of skill it’s relatively easy to produce a good looking finished product. Much of the AM stuff is kind of a short cut that allows the building of a kit without the kind of skills that had to be mastered in the past, i.e. turned metal barrels that require no skill in removing a seam or proper sanding to maintain a round cross section. Of course a different skillset is necessary to master the AM products. One of the consequences of the plethora of AM available is that it has spawned some modelers who think that just because they have put a certain amount of AM into a kit that it should automatically be a winner at a show. Can’t tell you how many times I have been approached as a judge on this issue. It usually starts by the person complaining saying something along the lines of I used this AM barrel, this much PE, this much resin, etc., etc. My usual response is that the use of these products still has to meet a certain level of mastery and do not in and of themselves automatically make a build better.
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You are certainly not the only one, but I’m also certain you are in a distinct if not very small minority, at least the general hobby bit.
OK, I’m confused. You pine for the days of scratchbuilding and you are bothered that these days people don’t think OOB kits and parts are good enough. If they thought the available kits were fine, there would not be any need to scratchbuild conversions or details now, would there?
Perhaps people are happy with releases as they come out of the box?
I scratchbuild details continuously as part of my modeling. I have no desire to spend MONTHS and MONTHS scratchbuilding an entire model. In fact, I have a generally unfavorable view of scratchbuilt models: Most of them are just not great models. It does not take a long or detailed examination to find asymmetries, mis-spacings, out-of-square pieces, rounded corners, excessive simplifications, and so on that make it clear you are looking at a model. There are some that are great, but they are few and far between. I don’t, however, care one way or the other about people who like to scratchbuild because it doesn’t affect me.
I guess that leads into my biggest questions to you: How does any of this affect how you enjoy your hobby? What difference does it make to you if people build OOB, scratchbuild, use detail and correction parts, or mix all of it? Why get annoyed by it?
KL
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“The ‘Gish Gallop’ is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm their opponent by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments. During a Gish Gallop, a debater confronts an opponent with a rapid series of many specious arguments, half-truths, misrepresentations, and outright lies in a short space of time, which makes it impossible for the opponent to refute all of them within the format of a formal debate. Each point raised by the Gish galloper takes considerably more time to refute or fact-check than it did to state in the first place, which is known online as Brandolini’s law. The technique wastes an opponent’s time and may cast doubt on the opponent’s debating ability for an audience unfamiliar with the technique, especially if no independent fact-checking is involved or if the audience has limited knowledge of the topics.” - edited from Wikipedia.
For a more detailed examination of logical fallacies, please view the following;
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/search
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@paska wins the internet today with that post! we learn something every day……
This isn’t the first ‘mic drop’ type post from the OP. Perhaps the OP is a Psychology Professor…. throws out an inflammatory statement…. then picks up his paper and scribe and observes.
That would make us the lab rats 
. Gold stars i’m sure will be awarded to all of us for taking the bait 
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We could start another 50+ post thread on contests and the above philosophy of some modelers. I agree 100% with your statement.
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For me it’s kinda self explanatory …
Scratch building is making something out of whole cloth that is not available in kit form .
If you need an object that doesn’t exist … try making it .
I love the plethora of new kits , new aftermarket , cad , whatever .
I started modeling in the late 1950’s with my father and I’ve been amazed at the direction of the hobby since then .
When you have little options you complain about the scarcity .
When you have almost unlimited options you complain about the choices you have to make …
It’s human nature to complain about everything , forgetting the times you had almost nothing …
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I think the single biggest reason for any reduction in scratch building has simply been the fabulous extension of the range of freely available, good quality kits. Let’s face it, most scratch building was done to create a desired model that wasn’t available commercially in the modeller’s chosen scale. I remember a series of articles in “Airfix Magazine” back in the early 1970 about modelling the 8th Army in North Africa. Virtually every vehicle had to be scratch built, including tanks, because they just weren’t available any other way, in any scale. Who at the time would ever dream that the inter-war Vickers tanks, A9, A13 WHY, would ever be modelled by a commercial firm? Yet today they are. We also have an expanding range of British soft-skins and light armour, such as the Daimler armoured car and K2 ambulance (at one time only available in the Airfix 1/76 RAF Emergency Set or as a very expensive resin item). British vehicles in particular during the 1970s were few and far between. Nowadays, kit-bashes are mainly done to create a minor variant, not currently available. Then they were routine. I myself have never completed a scratch-built project. I started a Panzer IV many years ago, before the advent of the Tamiya kits. It’s still in the loft. I scaled it up from the Airfix kit and some plans from Hilary Doyle, but was defeated when it came to the wheels, suspension and tracks. I still see some incredible scratch-building skills on this forum, but nowadays it tends to be mainly in the production of buildings and scenery. In this sense, the wheel has turned full circle, because this is how scratch building began, creating convincing line side buildings for model railways and for architects models.
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Being myself 67 years old -and hopefully still counting for a long more time - what I see here is that you are experiencing the “golden age” syndrome.
Not only the hobby is not dying, it’s experiencing an exponential growth and development both in models and materials availability.
Brick and mortar shops disappeared, yes, as happened to most of the physical retailing activity, we might like it or not but it’s how commerce is going. On the other hand, we can find now a bunch of online shops carrying hundreds if not thousands of kits, AM stuff, paints and so on, and receive our purchase at our door.
Scratchbuilding? Nobody prohibits you to keep doing whatever you want to the extent you want.
I’m very happy with the current state of our hobby.
The availability of materials doesn’t mean that a modeller can shake and bake any kit and get a great model from it.
Perhaps what your nostalgia mainly misses are the low expectations and complexity we had back in the 70’s and 80’s when anyone could be happy with the Tamiya T-62…
To me, these are great times to be a modeller
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Egg-zactly.
KL
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As Rosanna Rosanna-Danna’s Father used to say on SNL:
You all just need to “SETTLE DOWN NOW”!
This has been a good discussion. Let’s leave it at that and move on.
Anyone else care to restart a “Scratch Built & Conversions” thread like the old one in the archives?
I know I do.
Angel? Tim? Gino? Mech? Mike G.? ~ Anybody???
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That’s pretty deep, Tim. 
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Anybody else getting inundated by these somewhat gross Saks ads for the thongs here on Armorama???
$116 FOR A THONG???
Why, I could almost buy a a complete Dragon Wagon or Famo Recovery set for that kind of money! Sorry dear, I love you, but NO!
and that is why she doesn’t like my models or my trains. (or me all that much either!)
c’est la vie!
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Me too, Mike!
Please start the thread (again) and I will immediately post my ongoing scratch build,
Cheers,
Angel
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You need to watch a bunch of YouTube videos showing
trucks, trains, vehicle repairs (South Main Auto
or Rainman Ray's Repairs - YouTube)
to reset your Google-ads algorithms.
Cute kittens and dogs, animal rescues and the Ukraine war will also work.
Archimedes said: Noli turbare circulos meos! (famous last words)
and the modern equivalent is: Don’t upset my YouTube algorithms
Resetting the algorithms takes hours of tedious work but it is the only way
to avoid getting ads for thongs and other lingerie.
$116 for a thong is certainly a “No effing way, honey” price
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