Modeling as Therapy

This follows from the discussion about wives. Actually, my wife is great. We have a craft room where the family can work on individual hobbies. My wife has never made any comments about the closet full of kits, except when it came to packing them for a move ("You packed them better than you packed my mother's china...").

My wife never complains about my hobby or its expense for one reason - she knows that modeling serves a very important role in keeping my sanity. Whether I am building the model, planning the next one, or just admiring my newest purchase in the box, the psychological benefits are undeniable. There are times when I keep myself from blowing a headgasket at work because I know when the day is done I can go home, take a beer out of the fridge, and get to work at the bench. The money I spend on the hobby is little enough to keep me sane, happy, and productive on the job.

So, here is my list of the psychological benefits of modeling. What is your list?

1. Hope. Buying a kit is an investment in the future. There is definitely a thrill of anticipation for the project that makes me look forward to the evenings and weekends I will spend on the project. When you buy a model you make a commitment to the future.

2. Artistic expression. When I finish a kit I have something that is more or less pleasing to my eye. That's more than I could say if I took up painting. I'm a lousy artist. Maybe the purists would exclude models from "true art", but there isn't much doubt in my mind that it's art when I see what is on the contest tables at the shows.

3. Technical expression. I bought a minilathe to machine parts for models. Rebuilding the lathe and learning to use it has provided benefits in other areas as well. Learning about PE, resin casting, glues, paints, etc makes me more innovative in the lab where I work, and in turn I can apply lab techniques to modeling. The diversification of my skills is rewarding.

4. Bad Weather. My least favorite time of year is that dreary time of year between the end of winter and the start of spring. There is no better way to spend a dark, cold evening than working at the bench, listening to the rain pelt the window.

I will spend probably 40 hours on a model I buy for $20 (I'm slow). Considered as entertainment, modeling is one of life's cheaper diversions per hour, even when you add the price of details, decals, paints, etc. Considered as therapy, it has to be orders of magnitude cheaper than the alternatives.

Of course, there are psychological dangers as well - like the times when you are bending a PE HUD and it flies off the bench into never-never land... But that's probably worthy of a separate topic.