Ok I know that some will respond with variations on 'well no one is forcing you' and 'do what feels right for you', but I find it hard some times to muck in on some threads because I feel a bit lost.
Over at Track 48 (great place), I have been reading the thread on Sherman tracks (and how to make sure they sit flat properly), and it's just hard to see myself truly being that worried.
True, if they are wrong, then they are wrong. But, how far is too far?
I was reading through the thread on how to make the fix, and I can't seem to get past wanting to yell, 'are you guys really that crazy?'.
98% of the people that will end up in a position to see my Tamiya Shermans won't know it is a Sherman, and likely will be lucky to get passed knowing it is American because it is American green (I doubt most would know the real name of the colour). So the need to get the track utterly and perfectly flat in the run, such that I will fiddle with shims to get that last microscopic shift in location, SEEMS INSANE.
What can I say.
I personally think spending potentially twice the out of the box price on a kit (when you factor in the cost of aftermarket add ons), is potentially a bit loopy in some cases. But if the person likes that little extra tweak, I suppose it is no biggie.
Granted, I consider paying 40ish for a Tamiya tank ok, but paying 80-90 ish on it as a result of buying extra tid bits that only get bought from being fussy, just means I don't have TWO Tamiya tanks kits instead.
My idea of a good idea on aftermarket items, is to get variant parts for kits that simply don't exist to begin with. Case in point, currently eyeballing a Brummbar item to allow me to make a Brummbar from a Tamiya PzIV base kit. And in that way, I can give the fugly 1/35th scale Tamiya Brummbar the boot.
But I have been reading a lot of comments in recent time, and it's not easy to want to share, when I consider how most of my stuff is out of the box, did my best effort, did the painting as well as possible, but simply didn't mind that the kit has some issues some have dug up thanks to a magnifying glass and as micrometer.
Ultimately my goal is finish the kit, then photograph it under nice conditions (some sort of diorama setting of a generic sort) such that a person needs to ask 'is that real?'.
No one is going to really notice the tracks on the Tamiya 48th scale Shermans are a hair raised up incorrectly in almost all viewing conditions. And the time devoted to these levels of absurd attention likely are just ensuring your stash never gets done or expanded much eh guys.
I could almost make a case, that some of us in the hobby are in need of help :)