Modeling for fun?

[ssculptor]

"My goodness, how I sometimes miss that blissful ignorance. What fun I had." was a comment on a recent post by a modeler describing his modeling youth.

Yes, that last statement is just my point. What fun I had back then as I developed my skills and did not have to worry about making every little detail exactly as it was on the prototype.

However, that striving to include every last detail made me quit modeling several times.

It had become a compulsion which was foreign to my nature because I was trying to make models for the FUN of it.

I did not need any more challenges in my life. I was creating things in my machinery design  work. I was also making my sculpture which beyond enjoyable.

I liked having models of tanks and planes and ships but I did not need every detail to enjoy them.

 After many years I asked myself  why do I feel that I have to make exact scale models of airplanes. It was no longer any fun. IT WAS NO FUN!!! dammit so why was I forcing myself to do it that way? Then I remembered visiting a doctor of medicine who lived next door to my parents. He showed me the model airplanes he had constructed from wood. I said these were not scale models of existing airplanes and he said he had fun inventing his own airplanes. It was one of those moments of enlightenment for me, an epifany if you wish.

So from then on I have been making my models to please me, not anyone else. Not trying to be exactly 100 percent accurate with every detail.

This is my HOBBY, not my compulsion.

That is why I am no longer concerned about getting every detail in my models. That is why I sold all my expensive Tamiya, Trumpeter, etc., kits with 300 parts in each box. The Revell and Hasegawa and other slightly less accurate kits suit me fine. I do not bother with extended landing gear or interior details.
                    
I certainly do not have to worry about accurate paint schemes, I am an artist (have been one for over 50 years). I'll select the colors I like and paint the models the way I like them to be. Why? Because I am having fun.

I appreciate models that have great detail and I like seeing them at model meets. I have a collection of a number of these I built  in years gone by and others that have been built by other modelers. I like all the prepainted planes put out by 21st Century and I have a bunch of those. I even have some pretty solid wood models made in the Philippines, some of which are really good for a laugh. It is fun collecting them.

But I avoid doing anything for fun that I find is no fun to do.

I do not tell anyone else to build their models my way. My approach is my approach and I would not impose my outlook on others.  But I do advise some of you guys who are slogging through a 300 piece kit with an extra $200 worth of resin and etched parts and are finding the going really tough to ask yourself, if there was no one else making models, no peer group who expect models to have every detail surrounding you, would you really be laboriously assembling all these parts? Or would you be making a model just for the sheer fun of it?

Perhaps that is why we find some modelers dropping out and seeking a less demanding hobby. Maybe that is why we have so many partially built kits floating around, perhaps that is why some guys have many started models in their list that they say they will finish up sometime later.

On the other hand the modelers who are having fun striving for the utmost detail are doing fine these days. We now have lots of detail parts and decal sheets and paints and spray equipment available. You guys are in the Seventh Heaven. Enjoy. To those of you who really love building pure scale models and striving for the utmost in accuracy and detail and are really enjoying doing it I say Rock On! You are doing it the way you like and are enjoying every second of it. Even the difficult parts are satisfying because when you are done you have the satisfaction of completing a tedious bit of work.

Modeling is a wide ranging hobby and there are many ways of approaching it. All ways are correct because all people are different. For those who have doubts at times, if you are not really enjoying what you are doing, ask yourself, why am I doing all this? Don't expect an immediate answer, sleep on it. The answer will eventually come to you.             

 We are each given only one life. Many parts of it are strenuous and tedious, yes. So let us let ourselves have some fun in the activities that are for fun and relaxation.

Stephen
 

[Rainer Hoffmann]

To quote Captain Barbossa: "Agreeeeed!"

 

Cheers

Rainer

[Thomas Lund]

Whatever rocks your boat is the way to go.

 

I too had a period where I was not having fun, but I took a step back and decided to start having fun again. I can still be obsessive with technical and historical accuracy with my aircrafts, but then I spice it up by building other stuff, mostly panzers, without any care for obsession. By doing that I can get the best of both worlds

[Scotsman]

Hmmm.. Fun.. nope , can't remember experiencing that emotion while extracting a broken Scalpel blade from my thumb , or searching for a lost piece on  floor for 2 hours, or watching my airbrush spit a glob of paint in exactly the wrong place .. or removing a complete PE harness from my hand where its stuck for the 3rd time that night!

 

Fun .. no ... anger frustration , annoyance .. occasional contentment .. but fun .. no!

 

(Only joking - sort of!)

Edited January 23, 2014 by Scotsman

[ScottsGT]

I'm with you.  Sometimes for me it is just a personal drive to impress myself.  But at some point I just want to have fun and make a real close representation of what I am building.  I display my "as builts" in my cluttered office at work.  None of the A/V geeks I work with are going to point out to me that a decal is the wrong shade, or I'm missing a rivit here or there. 

Hell, they're more impressed with my Egg Plane I have sitting on top of my monitor more than the detailed F-4J or F-105 with respective 1st and 2nd place ribbons from a local show years ago!

Can't wait to see their reaction when I find a way to bring in (and display!) my 1/72 Saturn V I just finished.

[DoogsATX]

I agree to an extent. For me there's definitely a fine line where the fun quotient drops off fast. It's usually related to my level of knowledge about a subject and the ensuing perfectionist urge to make it just like the real thing. A good kit can usually overcome, but when kits become a constant uphill slog with that AMS-dar pinging the whole way (like my aborted 1/32 F-16), the result is a fun vacuum. 

[sluggo]

Well said Stephen.

 

This is the philosophy I have adopted on my return to modelling. So far I have yet to not enjoy building. I have decided that I'm going to take risks and experiment. I no longer feel the need to approach things from the "this is how it's done" perspective. 

 

My first two builds have been pretty successful in my mind. The current one is challenging me a bit because of decisions I made but I refuse to add anymore kits to the shelf of doom.

[98Wrangler]

Absolutely!

[Tony T]

My models are like museum exhibits: a bit too shiny and clean for most people's tastes, with just some dirty panel lines and subtle streaks. They are being made and finished the way I like them.

 

To my mind, a lot of modelling techniques like overly done pre-shading, hairspray chipping, mud dollops and a bizarre rust lust - which bear no relation to the real aircraft (as I remember them) - have been deemed essential to determine a minimum level of craftsmanship and are actually putting some people off rather than inspiring them.

 

Would be nice to see more 'average Joe' builds in the ready for inspection. I will do my bit in the not too distant future.

 

Tony

[spacewolf]

"So say we all"......Or, at least those of us who are in the same place. I've done, and will do again, the anal detail thing but right now I'm doing a model without all that and it's fun ! Haven't had this much fun with a model in ages. Might be a message in there somewhere ...

 

Happy Modeling whichever way you do it,

 

Vaughn

[mark31]

I now build only for fun.

I have tried to make some models for a contest but faild to win sommthing.

Now for me its if its looks good for me its good.

Not a lot of persons see my models in reel life(stil somthing difrent than pics on the forum)

 

Mark

[Magic Mike]

I agree 100% with you. I built from the time I was about six all the way up through my adult years, quitting here and there for a few years for other things. But always coming back. (I'm 46 now)

 

I always wanted to have that super-detailed model on my shelf, but lets face it, I'm not THAT modeler. I build pretty good models, have won a trophy at a show here and there, and people like them. But I'm not in the league of most here. And when someone goes on and on about how the line of a canopy is so screwed up that the company should just quilt putting out a product I generally am not able to see the issue. 

 

I try to put a little bit extra in my models, but I'm not going to go through the trouble of fixing some of this stuff. The looking for pictures of the plane I'm going to build and planning the build itself is the fun to me. 

 

I started dialysis two months ago. I have a 12 year old son who is getting interested in model building. I cant go out very often and play basketball or something with him due to health, but we can build together. I've decided to dig into my stash and build a bit. That is something we can do. He doesnt care abut accuracy or shape issues because he doesnt know the difference. He just builds because it is fun and he has something cool looking after. That's going to be my philosophy too from now on. 

 

MM 

[Jack]

Wise words Stephen, wise words, just my same sentiments, and still, i myself am a victim sometimes in that same rat race trying to "please" the peers, at least in my mind trying to realize it's MY hobby and not something for others to judge .

Thanks for your comment/statement.

 

Jack.

[Nick32]

I have way more fun sitting with my boys and helping them knock out a cheap Airfix kit. Dont get me wrong, i love building, i enjoyed my Tamiya P51 build immensly. But my current Helldiver build is NOT fun at all, which is why i have shelved it for the time being. 

 

Anyway, to me if it stops being fun and relaxing then i stop and do something else. The build rate is slow but i'm enjoying it. 

Nick 

[Silver Dollar]

Wow, this is a great thread.  I'm glad to see I'm not alone in my feelings.  I also quit modeling a couple of times and have had to shift philosophies to avoid quitting again.  I even printed up a set of "rules" for myself and posted it on my workshop wall so I could see it when I started to get "that oooooold feeling".  For anyone else that has the same troubles, feel free to print this out and use as you see fit.  

 

1. Build only for yourself and no one else, even for those on the forum.  

 

2. Build what YOU want and only what you want.  Build how YOU want and only how YOU want.

 

3. Build when you want and only when you want whether it be for hours or even just a few minutes.  Build on only those days only when you feel like it. There's never a time requirement.   The same thing goes for posting on the site.  Post only when you want to post.  Those who are following will wait patiently.  

 

4. There is never ever any requirement other than what you set for yourself.  If you have a requirement, feel free to ignore that requirement whenever YOU feel like it.  

 

5. There is never, ever any deadlines to meet, not even for a contest if it will cause you any anxiety or stress and take the fun out of the build.  

 

6. When, not if,  it stops being fun, put it down and go on to something else.  Fun is the reason to build.  

 

Now I know there are a lot of these points that overlap, but sometimes repetition and rephrasing of the same thing are necessary to drive a point home.  I hope somewhere, this helps someone better enjoy this great hobby.  

Edited January 23, 2014 by Silver Dollar