The size and scope of scale model building

Well . . . I guess we’re nerds after all hunh!

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Definitely! :laughing:

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Only you are stopping yourself from doing that today. My ac on a stick to get painted fly better then Maverick and my guns get a butter butter jam and/or boom action.

Building models is just one expression of a general interest in airplanes and history, and I tend to do something about what I am interested in.

Hence, I do not have to tell anyone,people just know as I have a job related to aviation, I visit airshows, I have historical and technical books on aviation, and make model airplanes that are on display in my house. (and everybody more or less knows NOT to ask a question like: “what model is this?” as it inevitably leads to an hour long explanation on the historical significance of the aircraft, up to the shortcomings of the kit, and the way I managed to make those shortcomings worse while building it. :smile:

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I refer to it as Military Modeling,and will show pictures of my builds on my phone or the diffrent forums.Better yet I show some of your more impressive works.

Also,I explain that kits contain up 1000 pieces and explain its more like art

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I managed to do just that… Some of her handy work

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I didn’t talk about it much (I generally don’t talk much about anything personal with others) but took a couple of builds and set them on my desk at work. Ended up gifting several models to coworkers because of the positive comments and found several fellow modelers. We have talked about it a lot and even pushed for approval to set up a therapy group to deal with stress and PTSD using modeling. My wife and kids do talk about it a lot for me which makes up for me being quiet.

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If a veteran’s group, talk with Jon Emery at Models for Troops, he can help. Even if not, he might be able to help in other ways.

HTH

Cajun, I ran across a retired Navy officer in Las Vegas at a BBQ joint. His wife was playing with my daughter who was 2. Got to talking to him about his service (was wearing a Navy commerative ballcap), he pulls out a laminated picture of the Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri and points to a young naval officer standing behind Nimitz at the table, Turns out it was him, he was a staff officer for Nimitz from 42-45 in the Pacific. We talked for at least an hour before my daughter got bored, his wife was rolling her eyes apologizing for using up our time. She quickly told her that if I could I would have sstayed for hours listening to his stories. All my love of the USN in WW2, my time grwoing up in a LHS which helped lead to my degree in history e emphasis on military history just bubbled up. Best cold BBQ meal of my life btw, probably ate two bits and hung on his every word.

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This is a great topic! The OP wrote an extremely articulate introduction to this topic, and I could not have said it even close to as well. I used to ‘build models’ when I was a child, can’t recall when I started doing so, why I did, or my first model, but I do recall models as my number one hobby back then (I’m 62 now). I know I gave up on the hobby when I was in my second year of high school. I know that for a fact, as it was tied to a very significant episode in my life. I recall seeing FineScale Modeler on the magazine racks throughout my adulthood, and every so often, I would pick one up and look at it. I didn’t actually get back into it until late 2009, though, and even then, I think I had to push through the concept that this was/is a kid’s hobby/diversion. It is so far away from that, especially these days. Very few young people are interested in this hobby, as it is hard to compete against the flashy graphics, loud sounds and adrenaline one gets from video games. Especially with a passive, slow moving hobby that ours is. However, for me, I’ve written before that if I had to choose only one hobby of several that I have, this one would be it. There is a definite visceral appeal in looking at and holding a 3 dimensional representation of larger things that one loves. I have always loved airplanes, and interest in tanks was a follow-on. Maybe part of this is what drove me to be an engineer.

The artistry aspect of the hobby, to me, is in the painting and weathering. Sometimes I find myself thinking that I’m not doing all that much, because anyone can buy the same kits I have and put them together just as well, if not better, than me. So I convince myself that the individual aspect of this great hobby is what we do with it after assembly. Nonetheless, I do it because I love it, I can’t tell you that it is any one aspect of it that is particularly appealing. I think it is all of it, in the aggregate. But, like the OP, I have learned a lot of things beyond the simple aspect of ‘building’. It takes a lot to do it well. Plus, I’ve learned a lot about the subjects I build, things I hadn’t known about the subject before. If for no other reason, that’s a good rationale for this hobby. And the best reason of all…most of the time, I’d rather be doing this than many, many other things I could be doing…

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Bravo! Well stated and introspective expose’. Thanks to the KitMaker network for their diligent effort to provide an avenue for each of us to explore the art of model building and a public forum comprised of like minded enthusiasts from around the globe.

Cajun

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Excellent topic . I too have told a handful of employees about my hobby. It’s always gun enthusiasts for some reason lol, most of my colleagues know I was in the military and always ask questions about that but only a very few know about my hobby. I’ve showed them on my phone some of my work and they’re amazed. About a month ago I painted a Navy Seal for my wife’s coworker’s son who just graduated SEAL training and she brought it in to work to give it to him. The whole office was amazed ( according to my wife) because they had never seen anything like that. My wife told me to send a picture of the box the fig came in to show the piece in its unpainted form. They were shocked. People don’t know what this hobby really is. That’s the magic for me : taking a piece of plastic and making it come to life. That’s art in my book even though I never thought of it that way. My parents and other family members have long known what I do and love it when I show them my latest creation. My boys never got into it although I did it with them when they were young and actually took them to the shoes here on Long Island. They’re long since into video games lol.

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Being a railroad employee, just hinting that you’re into model railroading is something you will never live down lol. That’s why I kept it to myself. I still take photos of equipment passing by from time to time, safety permitting of course. “Oh this guys a buff “ is a phrased I’ve heard a million times ! And I loved model railroading for many years ; even starting a 4x8 table layout which now holds about 25 boxes of models lol About 10-12 years ago I decided to give up model railroading because I simply couldn’t afford both hobbies.

Seeing you on this forum means you made the right decision. :wink:

Thanks glad to be here, yes. Armor is my first passion followed closely by figs

My intro to the hobby was model cars when I was six years old…it had drastic repercussions…I grew up and moved from model cars to real ones…so when the hobby topics came up back in the day, I lead with my most mainstream hobby…cars and avoided the other hobbies.

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The other geeky stuff like wargaming, history, the 30+ year 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Campaign and model building were only revealed after I really got to know someone. Armor displaced all of the other model building due to the link to history and wargaming.

I learned all of that was a waste of time to cut through the chase with a brief restoration story about Arctic White my 400,000+ mile daily driver 91 RS Camaro. The fickle judgemental types & gold diggers filtered themselves out like magic :slight_smile:

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Now I’m way more open and don’t care what superficial folks think of my hobbies.

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I’m realizeing that most guys are like myself, it’s a shame we’re insecure about what we enjoy doing. I did the muscle car thing when I was younger, a buddy turned me on to MOPAR and I came across a '69 Charger but an ice storm dropped a huge tree limb on it so I had to let it go. I can’t tell if that’s a T/A or a Stealth you’ve got there, either way they’re OOP and totally appreciably collectible. Okay I see the Firebird badge now, way cool, never sell it that’s money in the bank! :sunglasses:

Cajun

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. . . in fact, thinking back, it was that same buddy that came by the house one day and I was building a '70 AAR Cuda (for him I’ll add, he was a Cuda freak), but he made me feel small for it. I guess that’s what really made me withdraw and keep model building to myself. :thinking:

Cajun

I’ve done enough high speed he man stuff to feel secure with revealing my nerd side to new friends as we get to know one another. My wife loves to announce this hobby to pretty much any new folks we meet, and tease me about it while doing so. But she sure has taken some pride in showing off my hobby room to folks visiting our new home.

And I think this sums up pretty accurately how we modelers can be seen…

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