What about Building Models?
I have been asked that a few times. My answer. Well, Oil Painting is expensive and I don't do people. So is Acrylic and Watercolors. Woodworking takes up to much space and is messier. Pottery isn't my Bag. ad Infinitum.
Models give me the chance to try my excess creativity and if I fail I've only spent under a fifty dollar plateau! Really, they're fun. How so? Well, let me count the ways. There are to many to count. I get to do my take on a model car that maybe I couldn't afford on a real one. I get to own a whole airport full of planes. Hey, lookit that, I also have a whole harbor full of ships and boats!
Just think all your money spent chasing a little white ball around and what do you have to show for it? I have shelves and shelves of miniature pieces of History for you to look at. Can you display all your Golf balls You've played with in sixty years? I bet you don't have room for all the citations you have won for your Home Built furniture do ya?
Nope! That's just being Negative. Ya see, I used to play Golf. Got too expensive! Couldn't afford fuel for my boat anymore. Sooo, I now concentrate on Models. They are fun, fulfilling and just plain fascinating. How many times can you buy a box at IKEA , shake well and have your dining room set fall out almost assembled? Yes, that was a dig.
There are model companies out there that are that exacting in what they mold. So it's enjoyable putting the product together and seeing how I can personalize it to my way of seeing it! Now that said, do you enjoy Music? Good, I do too, especially when I am building and on a roll. The Music either inspires or calms me to a point I am relaxed enough to try say P.E..
There is a level we all achieve. How many times have I gone way above my skills while listening to say, the Ride of the Valkyries, and totally, irrevocably beat my own best job, Again? Models are a challenge, or can be. It is in how you look at them and your skill sets. There many my age who just don't bother. Why? Well, many didn't either have shop or pursue a career building, restoring and creating things.
Not everyone is able to do this for one reason or another, Either not interested or their hobbies require say, Guns, Arrows or Fishing Poles etc. I fish, I hunt. Only when I really want to. Modeling doesn't require cancelling my sessions because it's been raining to long or it's near freezing. I stay nice and cozy, under good light, creating, painting and assembling to my heart's content. And I am still close to those I love!
Someone asked me why I don't compete. Why, I am certainly not afraid of being beaten in a contest, that's for sure. If I am, so what? The reason I don't is simple. To many of the venues nowadays have devolved into Popularity and Political contests. That's what I have seen and experienced. For the newer modelers that can be devastating, so I don't bother. I talk to them on line. I get to see their absolute worst and best.
Some are more comfortable around this thing I am typing on. I still can't get my $%%^ together over Photos and Photo Hosting Sites. But, I have fun. Just being able to sit around and share ideas, methods and B&^^sh*t with like minded individuals to me, is the Cat's Meow! So in Closing I gotta say, What About That? Oh, One more thing, I don't have to share my Whiskey, So There! LOL.LOl.