Etiquette on building style from newbie.

GLUE MAN

I am an old guy that has been bitten by the model aircraft bug.  I just looked at the picture gallery, and man, I have a long way to go.  I have a quick question.  I seem to prefer factory new looking aircraft over weathered aircraft, although they look fantastic.  Is the idea of new looking  frowned upon by the aircraft builders community?  I understand why it is done, but I figured the aircraft was new once in its life.  LOL.  Your input is greatly appreciated and in no way am I dissing the weathered look.  Just a matter of preference for me.  At this point, my builds are not worthy of the gallery.  Later down the road maybe.   Mike in Missouri.

Hey Mike, Welcome!  Frowned  upon!?  The only thing frowned upon is if you don't post pics of your factory fresh builds!   If it's what you like....then do it!  Nothing wrong at all with fresh off the assembly line aircraft.  Can't wait to see them!  Again, Welcome and feel free to ask questions, lots of great people here with tons of knowledge!  Oh, and "old guy"?  That's relative! 

Eagle90

We have a picture gallery on the Forum?...

Thanks Eagle 90.  HaHa.  I feel better.

What Eagle90 said.

Personally, I like the weathered look.  I also build to try and recreate a little history, as I focus on the historical aspect.  But that's just me.  I think there's a thread here titled Why Do you Build, or something like that.  Everyone has their own reasons and styles.  

So go ahead, build 'em new.

Welcome to the forums, if I didn't mention that in the past.

Welcome aboard, Mike! Glad to have you with us.

To echo what the others have said, the advantage of being the C-in-C of your own air force is that you can do them any way you want.

Seriously, doing a good off-the-line paint job is every bit as challenging as a weathered one. It just depends on what you're in the mood to do.

hi mike

probably get any number of different responses about what folks like to build and maybe why BUT that's what they like to build. Build what you like to build. some folks will build a 1/32 plane OOB and it looks great. others will double the price of the kit by buying every aftermarket (AM) item out there. some are obsessed with raised panel lines, others don't care.

one thing you will learn soon by watching is a ton of pe and AM can't overcome a poor build or poor paint job. the basics are still the basics. post your pics, get good constructive critisism and make the next build better,

i build modern warwheels including trucks (because i don't like indy tracks) and don't beat them up much some are just rather dirty and dusty. i also build rr stuff, and modern ships (because i hate pe aa guns). i don't build planes and have 50 in my stash.

i seem to be waxing philsopically tonight. maybe because it was 20F in the garage when i was priming my latest build.

I don't weather mine, because I'm not good at it, and I don't want to ruin any kits trying to learn.

And welcome to the Forum, Glue Man.

Welcome to the hobby and to the Forums. I am an "old guy" too. I've been building for 66 of my 72 years. I build what strikes my fancy at the time. Some I dirty up and some I leave clean. It all depends on the project. I've seen both types win awards at shows. Again it all depends on what appeals to the judge that day. Bottom line, it's your hobby. Build the way you like 'em. Sit back and have fun.

Jim

Welcome, Glue Man.

Build & finish however you want, your model, your skills, your hobby.

You will find this bunch to be reasonably friendly, so feel free to ask questions of others as to 'how did they do that?'  

You will find you will be learning a lot, & will often be itching to try what you learn.

Personally, I see a photo & try & replicate that

I try.... ahem...

Welcome to the forum

I can say all my builds start as factory fresh builds, I use weathering to hide my mistakes at times! Always usefull to learn it that way too

Phil

In my area I'd say about half of the aircraft builders do them factory clean, half weathered.  That is for military aircraft, anyway.  Weathering on civil aircraft builds is much less frequent- most civil aircraft modelers do them up pretty spiffy.

Part of the old armored cavalryman in me always wants to build my tanks to look as pristine as possible. We spent so much time washing, repairing, repainting and otherwise maintaining our tanks that I often can't bear to model them any other way.

I like my aircraft looking freah and new.Just some light weathering is all i do.On the othe hand,I feel armor looks strange to me weathered.But thats the hobby,nobody really frowns on what you do.we all build to our own satisfaction.

Go ahead and make 'em clean and shiny, Glue Man.    Some aircraft look faster and the lines cleaner when they're fresh.

Welcome to the forum - and it's your hobby so build them as you like.

The only hard and fast rule - is to enjoy!

Seems like we all agree on this one.  Usually, I will experiment with weathering on a cheap kit, but for something like the beautiful and expensive 1/32 Tamiya mustangs, they look so good I would never dirty mine up. Plus, I'm not really good at weathering, so I would never attempt it on something like that.

I got so good at weathering that I now find it dang near impossible to do a nice shiny show room finish !

I envy those who can !

Build stuff for you and the way YOU want it !

Leave the criticism  and " rivet " counting  to someone else and just have fun.

besides......... Watching someone throw a kaniption fit is almost worth building a crappy kit.......

Just to watch that vein in their forehead pop !! 

HaHaHa.  Good answer man.

I will say this :

 You build them as you like .It's a hobby .If someone doesn't like my model of a BEECH-STAGGERWING cause it is spiffy well , to bad ! After all it's MY plane .So go for the style of building you like and don't worry , we all have a favorite way of building them .OH ! Welcome to our bunch of model nuts !  Tanker-builder

Thanks for the warm reception guys.

Welcome aboard! Make 'em as clean or as weathered as YOU like. I like my weathered war weary birds as much as my clean sheltered peacetime builds. I know what Rob means about motor pool condition vs. field condition on armor builds.

with modern armor for example my M60A2 heading for the wash rack after 3 weeks in the field looked different than the same tank3 hours later loading on the flatcar to go home.and somtimes errors will cause you to reevaluate the  final look. just do what you like to dobut don't be afraid to try something new. i know you look at an almost finished model and say "i could try this but i put all this timr and i don't want to screw it up." that is why God made inexpensive models or, in my case today, allowed mistakes happen so i could try a new technique.

Ditto the above remarks about building how you want!

I started off building everything factory fresh, didn't even know weathering existed.

Over time as parts would fall off, get broken, get lost and my repair attempts made the model looking ever worse I discovered I could cover the defect with some type of battle damage, weathering etc.

Welcome aboard Glue Man. As the others have said, finish them as you like. I like to weather mine, but that's mainly because I build dio's. So having a nice clean factory fresh plane on a dusty or muddy airfield on the Eastern Front might not look right.

And CMK mentioned that he builds without weathering. But his builds are still great and always a pleasure to see, and that's just one example.

Aw, shucks!    Thanks, Bish.