Major modeling decisions

[Taiidantomcat]

Any big decisions that you made in your "modeling careers"? sticking to one scale or certain builds? The day you decided to just throw the book out and invent your own? curious to see the choices and turns we have all made.

[The Rat]

I have no hesitation in saying that the biggest decision I ever made in modeling was when I found this site. I decided right then to chuck the idea that I was ever going to be a master modeler, and from now on it would be FUN! Converted to the Dark Side, joined the madness, and I'll never go back.

Not to say that we don't have master modelers on here, some of you are a lot better than what I see on the 'mainstream' sites, but here I don't have to worry about attaining those standards, you can just go with imagination and creativity and know that you're accepted. It's home. 

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Joining this wonderful site - at DtKS's insistance - one of the best things I ever did, modelling-wise.

Buying my first 1:48 scale kit (a Monogram F-100D, when I was 17 (thirty years ago !!)). Couldn't believe the detail you got/get in that scale and it doesn't take-up that much room.

And recently, deciding to sell-off all my surplus stash. Strangely once I took that decision, I felt quite 'liberated', odd sensation 

Ian

[Radish]

I found selling off the stash to be liberating too.

I've never really followed any self-imposed rules re modelling....just not that sort of guy. I "luch" all over the place, but am very willing to learn, experiment, copy, emulate whatever.

Rat had it right....have FUN

[thedarkmaster]

for me it was deciding that all those after market sets where just pants.......I model for me and thats it.

I like the scales i like and thats it and i like the things i like.

Working at modelzone has been the biggest influence recently on me, i thought it would stop the modelling but no it's made me worse according to Mrs Darkmaster         

but when i found what if it made my life so much happier not having to explain my ideas, for as one work mate has said my imagination is not so much wild as feral   

[nev]

My moment of clarity came when I built this Crusader a few years ago


I realised several things

1)  I really enjoy building armour - much more than planes

2)  I'm much better at building armour than planes.  I will never ever be any more than a very average aircraft modeller, but I found myself to be half decent at building a tank, hopefully without a hint of arrogance.  Winning a 2nd at the Coventry show with that Crusader also gave me a real confidence boost.

Since then I've not built as much armour as I'd have liked, mainly because I am much more interested in aviation as a subject, but I've certainly bought more for the stash!  MAJOR Sherman project starts in the next few days though...

[NARSES2]

Mine was the acceptance I would never be anything other then a "middling" modeller, which just made me relax a lot more and enjoy it, and sometimes I suprise myself and find I've raised the bar just a little. 

Second most important was joing the UK SIG. Suddenly found a great crowd of like minded people who are not only fun to be around but inspire and help your modelling as well 

[lenny100]

got to say also it was once i found this site and all the support you get no mater how high your standard is , that you must enjoy your self first last and every time and say its my model to the rest
and hopefully do my own PR9 someday

[The Wooksta!]

I think one of my major changes was ditching Luftwaffe '46 in '99 and switching to British & Commonwealth.  It gave me much more scope for whiffing and I'd got bogged down in Fw 190Ds and Me 262s.  In addition, I was simply sick of seeing endless projects translated into model form that would never reach the mock up stage whereas the ones I did want, the more likely ones, were simply ignored.

On top of that, continuing a scenario whereby one of the most evil regimes in history actually wins was becoming more and more distasteful.  I'm actually glad I made the switch, although part of me still wants to see an He 277 in Luftwaffe markings that I built.

[frank2056]

On top of that, continuing a scenario whereby one of the most evil regimes in history actually wins was becoming more and more distasteful. 

I love the Luft '46 designs, but having a room full of swastikas (and what the built designs would represent) is unappealing. A friend suggested "since they're whiffs anyway, why not make them US or Russian or UK whiffs?" A brilliant idea. I found this site not long after.

[kitnut617]

When I started my second collection (1986) I decided I would stick to 1/72 Military Aircraft, since then that changed to Canadian Military Aircraft first, then British and then USA.  I have very few German, even fewer Russian and next to no Japanese or Italian (one or maybe two of each) and the built and stash is almost 1000 .

Then like many other here, I found this place ----

[Gary]

I have not found my niche just yet. I got on a science fiction bend as that was what I was writing at the time. However a  local sci fi model club got way too weird for me. I switched to a military model club as I can't do cars and the problem for me is that I am a pacifist. I dislike things that go boom and hurt people, but I love aviation. It's a difficult balance for me. I never  ever put weapons on a model unless there is a real point I am trying to make. I am shifting around in scales  and such, even into armour and ships but nothing final.
One thing I did discover. Around these parts, in competition, size means everything. If you build a mediocre 1/32nd Mig 21, it will destroy a perfect super detailed 72d scale one. Sad but true.

[PR19_Kit]

I've had two 'change of life' modelling moments, maybe three.

1) Seeing the front cover of a copy of Aircraft Illustrated in 1972 that depicted an Aloha Airlines 737-200 with a wonderful colour scheme, and decided to model it, after having directed all my previous modelling efforts to 1/72 military stuff. I built the model, in 1/144, and made my own decals for it by hand painting a zillion small flowers onto pre-painted clear decal sheet (!) Amazingly it won the small class at the IPMS Nats that year and all of a sudden I was an airliner modeller!

2) Trying to build the Matchbox F-104 as a review kit, and realising that if you wanted an F-104 in 1/72 you wouldn't start there! So I converted it into my RAF F-104K, took it to the Farnborough PlastikFest that year and met Mike McEvoy, who also displayed a 'Spoof Model' there, as we called them back in those days. Once again, I was a Whiff Modeller all of a sudden.

3) The third was the moment of inspiration that produced the PR19. I was building a U-2, and an NF-14 Meteor at the same time, and my son-in-lwas was looking for a spare nose for an A-6, having broken the only one he had. We went up to The Loft to find one and came across the wrongly scaled (1/82) TF-33 engines that Dave Butress produced for his first stab at the RB-57F conversion. My son-in-law asked me what I was going to do with the under-size engines and all of a sudden I could see this long winged, TF-33 engined Meteor at around 100,000 ft.

The rest, as they say, is history. 

[Weaver]

1. Stopping modelling 20-odd years ago.

2. Starting modelling 2 years ago as a result of finding this site. I always used to do stuff like this, but it wasn't "respectable" and got endlessly criticised by other modellers and the club I used to go to.

3. Deciding to exclude various scales on the grounds of cost and/or size: I don't generally do bigger than 1/72nd, although a small 1/48th is in the offing....

Originally posted by The Wooksta!

On top of that, continuing a scenario whereby one of the most evil regimes in history actually wins was becoming more and more distasteful.

I know what you mean. When I did my Gloster Goblin rocket fighter in a postwar Nazi museum, it was a good idea, but it gave me a very queasy feeling. Some of the Luft '46 "fandom" seems to veer from the "what if" to the "if only" on occasion....

[ysi_maniac]

Quoting The Rat

I have no hesitation in saying that the biggest decision I ever made in modeling was when I found this site. I decided right then to chuck the idea that I was ever going to be a master modeler, and from now on it would be FUN! Converted to the Dark Side, joined the madness, and I'll never go back.

and NARSES2

Mine was the acceptance I would never be anything other then a "middling" modeller, which just made me relax a lot more and enjoy it, and sometimes I suprise myself and find I've raised the bar just a little.

I can subscribe 100% these statements.
In summary modeling is enjoyment and all you are a nice gang!