My attitude to rivet counting - a personal voyage

[stravinsky444@hotmail.ca 18]

In North America weathering is definitely in favour. The Spanish School will also definitely trounce everything else.

  What drives me up the wall is that out ouf forty models only one or two will have the tail planes lined up to the wings... Some kits will fight this, or will have uneven wing thickness taper, and must be worked with to compensate, but usually never are... This including from top end magazine published name brand modellers... Individual blade props are also nearly always wonky, though less so with the “masters”. You would think getting the basic main surfaces straight would be easier, but apparently no...

[Che Guava 2,263]

56 minutes ago, stravinsky444@hotmail.ca said:

What drives me up the wall is that out ouf forty models only one or two will have the tail planes lined up to the wings...

Jings......lining tails up to the square or matching dihedral is an imperative - making twin engine nacelles rotated to match, similarly making sure the visible radial cylinders are the right way up (!), wonky biplane struts (though I admit to sometimes giving up on that one, that doesn't stop it annoying me for ever) all other squaring/lining up/ parallel checks surpass ALL other considerations. I didn't even know I was obsessed! Maybe I need psychiatric help.

[Col. 1,700]

On 18/10/2020 at 10:10, Lost Cosmonauts said:

I was really fortunate to get it for a token amount and be able to take it to a local custom frame builder for the mods. Otherwise I’d have been looking at north of £750 to get anything like it

Coaching triathletes I consistently despair over people buying top end bits and things like carbon bottle cages to save a gram or two rather than just putting the work in and maintaining things in good running nick

It's the same situation as in the time-trial and road racing scene around here. Say a product will save a few watts, back that with some impressive but entirely fictitious yuck-speak full of inappropriate technical terms, slap a stupid price tag on it. Sold! To a whole heap of people who would be better just pedalling a bit harder once in a while, getting a bit more sleep, and stop eating junk so much. Best not get me started on badly maintained bikes and equipment. You've spent HOW much on a bike and can't be bothered washing it!?! 

2 hours ago, stravinsky444@hotmail.ca said:

In North America weathering is definitely in favour. The Spanish School will also definitely trounce everything else.

  What drives me up the wall is that out ouf forty models only one or two will have the tail planes lined up to the wings... Some kits will fight this, or will have uneven wing thickness taper, and must be worked with to compensate, but usually never are... This including from top end magazine published name brand modellers... Individual blade props are also nearly always wonky, though less so with the “masters”. You would think getting the basic main surfaces straight would be easier, but apparently no...

That is noticeable. There's a Facebook group based in the US I've come into contact with where everything needs to be weathered to the point where it looks to have spent a couple years sitting in Williamson's scrapyard or the fire dump. Regardless of how appropriate or otherwise that finish is. There was a Dallachy-based Beaufighter everyone was getting in a froth over that just looked wrong; armed with both rockets and a torpedo as well as wing guns, weathered in a completely inappropriate style. Whoever did it clearly didn't bother researching the subject but it was ticking all the boxes for the audience so they were playing to the crowd well. Each to their own I suppose but not for me personally. Then there's the trend which @stravinsky444@hotmail.ca mentioned where the very latest kits, paints, finishes, and such like are the only ones worth mentioning because obviously it's 'new and improved' therefore must be better than every item or technique which went before it  Why use a couple coats of Future when you can buy five different and expensive model-specific products to do the same thing.

[Che Guava 2,263]

2 minutes ago, Col. said:

when you can buy five different and expensive model-specific products to do the same thing.

I suppose me mixing my own PC10 from a couple of tins of Humbrol enamel to a recipe I worked out over 40 years ago wouldn't go down well then?

[Col. 1,700]

7 minutes ago, Che Guava said:

I suppose me mixing my own PC10 from a couple of tins of Humbrol enamel to a recipe I worked out over 40 years ago wouldn't go down well then?

Fairly sure that would cause a few to choke on their 3D printers resin and MIG weathering washes

[Mad Steve 5,112]

14 minutes ago, Col. said:

Why use a couple coats of Future when you can buy five different and expensive model-specific products to do the same thing.

Im of the school that Floor Polish belongs on the Floor, not a model 😁

[Col. 1,700]

1 minute ago, Mad Steve said:

Im of the school that Floor Polish belongs on the Floor, not a model 😁

I can respect that because I've never seen you criticise anyone else for thinking otherwise.

[Che Guava 2,263]

5 minutes ago, Mad Steve said:

Im of the school that Floor Polish belongs on the Floor

Jings - I've only just caught up with putting seat harnesses in my models, now I've got to polish the floor in them too?!!! 

[Huntsman’s Close 38]

I can only echo dozens of others before: if you built it, and if you like it, then it’s served it’s purpose and it’s a ‘good model’.

Personally, I am everywhere on the scale. I can fuss over tiny ‘never to be seen again’ interior details and I can paint it all black and shut the canopy.  I can just assemble a 1970s kit as it is or I can deconstruct it so it ends up being mostly plasticard  and Milliput.  It depends what I want out of it at the time.

There is one particular subject niche that I know a lot about: probably as much as anyone for some quite good reasons.  If I see someone make a model in that niche then I am always pleased to see it, am delighted to offer advice IF solicited but will otherwise try to hold my tongue unless someone is offering some dodgy ‘expertise’.

I build for my pleasure alone.  I don’t worry about perfection all the time because my skills won’t deliver it!

[Jessie_C 4,381]

55 minutes ago, Mad Steve said:

Im of the school that Floor Polish belongs on the Floor, not a model 😁

Ha! You're clearly wrong. Future is a model finish that some misguided people use on floors.

[Mad Steve 5,112]

Hahaaaa. Good answer 😁