Tips and helpful suggestions

[Geek44]

I reckon it's both Tom...thanks for the link.

[Whiterook]

That is pretty cool....thanks for the link mate! I admire folks that go out of there way to put interiors in their kits, and this makes me want to try somthing similar. I think it looks so cool when the hatches are open.

[Geek44]

I agree Em. I like the fact that Dragon include at least partial interiors...what's visible through open hatches. They also seal the area above the tracks...a place that Tamiya leave gaping. Daylight inside a tank is a pretty bad look and I'm not the type (usually) to go to the trouble of closing it up with plastic card. I remember reading a review of Tamiya's new (at the time) JSIII kit. The reviewer commented on the gaps between upper and lower hulls above the tracks. He closed it up with pieces of plastic sheet. He was even wise enough to supply drawings (plans) for the parts he made. I thought that was bloody good reviewing.

[Whiterook]

Geeeeeeez...I'm not near, even remotely, that kind of devotion to "getting it right"! I think it was PM that mentioned that, modeling is a "representation" of the kit being modeled...not necessarily an exact duplicate of the real thing. You'd think I would have remembered who said it, as it stuck with me, but alas I do not mates. Anyway, I see your point about daylight shining through, because I think that would bother me too; but I have limits to how far I'll go for fixes and accuracy, I guess.

[Geek44]

I have my limits too. That's not to say I won't tackle longer projects, but my attention to the same kit starts to wane after a while...I get itchy for something different. The 'fix' I described was pretty quick though and if I were to model that particular vehicle (it's not out of the question...I like soviet armour too) I might be tempted tp use his templates. But it brings up an issue I may have mentioned before.
I pretty much stopped buying magazines around six months ago. I DID buy april's FineScale because it had an article about weathering natural metal finishes on aircraft...a pretty 'esoteric' subject. The 1/72 P-47 on the cover is just beautiful...I thought it was the 'Vintage' 1/24 kit when I saw it. The articles all started to sound the same...like sports commenators. Cliche after hackneyed phrase. I decided that if I read the words 'to add depth' again I was going to kill somebody (probably myself ). Tiger after Panther after Tiger after Panther. I was getting bored. I like to see models of a high standard in the magazines and I usually do but it's my suspicion that many of the modellers who build for the magazines fill their articles with 'make-work' and even deliberately complicate their builds. I remember reading an article where somebody was building an early war German tank...he thought it was neccessary to add pink to his Panzer Grey for some pointless reason. To my mind, what this does is to make beginner and intermediate modellers feel less adequate and able to produce a good model. That's bad. In my mind, there's no danger of modellers becoming 'extinct' given the mond boggling array of stuff available these days, but it's important to me to see kids put down their games consoles and maybe get into something that doesn't yield 'instant' gratification. The magazines don't help much I don't think. Some of the British aviation model mags are better in this regard. The standard of the models shown isn't quite as high sometimes (outright lousy in some cases) but I still bought them. They had the info I wanted and the less experienced modeller could hold his finished kit up against the pics in the mag and think...'Hey, my model looks pretty good compared to this'. It's about inclusion rather than 'alchemising' and 'esotericising' (yeah...I made those words up) people out of the hobby.

[MAGNA]

Those are excellent points Geek and WR. Replacement tracks, PE and the like are great for that favourite type you want to stand out but is it necessary to go to the expense and time fro everything you build ? Probably not. Part of the fun for me sometimes is to make a little something to go here or there rather than buy it.

I do admire Kunihito's dedication to realism as he cuts and solders brass but again Shep Paine and others have done some unbelievable work over the years without access to all this stuff - it still looks just as good and to me a lot of that is in the same class as the old masters and their paintings.

Each to their own I suppose.

[Geek44]

Yeah mate...sometimes less is more. And you hit the nail on the head. 'Each to their own'.

[Whiterook]

Good point on realism, Mag...started me to thinking (always a bad thing!)...just how often do you need ultimate realism? Yes, sometimes it's a great goal, but does each piece need that kind of build? For some, yes...and that's cool. For me...no.

On my Gotha for instance...I did research before starting, and on one review of the kit, the gentleman mentioned that the bombs were "rather soft"; I finally figured out that his high brow verbiage pointed to the fact that the fins on the bombs are rather sparse. IT'S 1/72, FOR CHR***SAKES!!!! Come on lads, who the hell will see 'em? They're on the bottim of the bird, stuffed on an oversized rack....in 1/72! And this man built new fins in brass! WHY?

I guess it's a choose your battles sort of thing, but insanity bears a card with some folks, too!

The other thing your point brought me to thinking was, I think it more important to hit the realism mark when you're either dealing with a diorama, or the subject is extremely near and dear to your heart. Otherwise, as the say in the biz, "It's close enough for Government work!". We don't really say that, but I always thought it was funny as hell!

[McCoy]

I like realism a lot but then the subjects is of a great interest to me but I'm not an Rivetcounter even if I like realism. In my mind that's goin' over the hill. Let's have fun instead.

I've recently bought an M3 Grant n' there's been a lot of critique of that kit as the boogies is a tad to high n' that the boogies on the M7 Priest is corrected. But hey, I like the Grant n' I couldn't care less 'bout just more than a millimeter in the 1:35 scale when there's finaly a great kit out of the Grant. I build for the fun of it n' in the end all that matters is that I've had a jolly good time in the progress.

[Whiterook]

Excellent sir...a great way to look at it. I'd really love to see that Grant...please post a thread on it (unless it's a future Build entry here at the Zone).