It's just plastic after all!

I took a rare couple of days off from work the other week. I built a Mega Blocks Call of Duty "Desert Tank" (actually an M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle). It's a knock of brand of Legos. It was quite a substantial build.

This isn't my tank, but a photo I found online to share.

Don ;

 You have to promise not to laugh . I have for years wanted LEGO'S version of the Taj Mahal ! 

I actually have been in the real structure ! Now when I say instructions are messed up , I am not kidding .

 It builds into an impressive pile of LEGOS if you can get around some issues with those pesky Boo-Boos in the instructions . 

 I built the Trumpeter " Alabama " , and they had you build the upper - works , then turn the ship over to put the bottom on .

 If that wouldn't be a big oops ! for a Newbie I don't know what would be .

I'm amazed how fast model manufacturing has progressed in the last couple of decades. While there are still circa 1960s kits on the store shelves like Monogram's 1/35 scale M48A2, it was not leaps behind kits made in the late 1980s like Lindberg's 1/35 scale T-55. Both of these kits are still available in stores today.

Compare it to similar kits designed in the last couple of years, like Dragon's M48A3 and Miniart's T-54 series, such superb model kits.

I've been building scale models since the wood area, when a kit was a sheet of plans and blocks of wood you carved to shape.  I've been doing plastic for about seventy years now.  The progress in the kit state of the art is amazing.  The first plastic kits had a seat as the only cockpit detail, a not too convincing relieved area on nose simulating cylinders for air cooled engines, and the parts count was somwhere around a dozen to two dozen parts.  Lots of flash, soft detail.

I have appreciated each advance in kits- more internal detail, more individual parts, then resin detail, then photo etch.  I believe resin detail parts in kits will go away, as new molding technology gives fine detail as well as resin.

Instructions in some kits is the main thing I see needing improvement.  Even though multiple pages are common now, rather than a single sheet like old kits, they still lack a reasonable assembly order. I do believe mfgs believe most buyers never paint kits, else how to you explain assembly order that prevents painting cockpits, landing gear bays, etc.  Instructions should still guide builders when to paint what.

   If my confidence was higher I'm sure I would trend down that path too LT. Heck I have an Italeri Western Star that I am converting into a Pacific NorthWest logging truck,( company name Duwkphart Logging), the kit tires are all steering tread pattern I want a more agressive lug for the drives. So after a couple years of kneading the knoodle,( brain fellas brain LOL), I have a plan. Now I just need to find the material I know I have and pit the rubber to the road.

      Same scenerio with my Scud missle complex, ( Trumpeter), in Armenian digital camo. Yessir I have a plan.

    I do love this hobby!

Jrock83

I'm with you armornut on not wasting time on blemishes that won't be seen.

I "HAVE " wasted my time by adding interior's to railcar's ..... that don't have window's !

I will be the "only person on this planet" that know's there's an interior in it.... I have done the same to building's , like putting scale food on a kitchen counter, or a complete bathroom.... with no way to see ANY OF IT !

I have also been known to make 1/25 scale beer can's .... crush them .... and put them under the seat's of 1/25 scale pick-up's . 

Running brake line's from the Master cylinder, to the brake drum's .... and only seeing the line's at the cylinder.....cant see the rest .... unless you turn the car over....

My point ????     Yea..... it's only plastic, .... so why do "We" obsess over it?

Because it Get's the creative "jucie's "flowing. The thought of making a V-8 ..... WITH the piston's inside, is just me "Taking it to the next level" !

( Ok ...... I "may" have a problem .......... Therapy ????? )

THERAPY: build a scratchbuilt Viking ship ......  from a solid block of  plastic !

I'm with you armornut on not wasting time on blemishes that won't be seen. It just eats away time at all the good stuff like, masking, sanding, painting, etc.

    Just plastic, I agree. I have "built" every kit in my stash in my head. I love looking at the instructions to see how I can make as many sub-assemblies as I can to maximize ease of painting and hiding boo boos. Why smooth a knockout mark if it will never be seen.

    I also like that I can have a squadron of planes, or a division of tanks, and be able to look at thier lines from any angle I choose.

   Yeup just plastic

Totally agreed, plus it gives you a bunch of skills to learn and maintain while going from model to model. On the financial side of it you can't get more bang for your buck either, not even a movie and popcorn and drink lol. Hours divided by material costs and nothing comes close as far as a hobby or entertainment imo.

It's the best Jason. That's why I love this hobby. I'm a creater and artist (of sorts) as well as technically and mechanically inclined all in one. This hobby provides outlets for both hemispheres of my brain.

Perfect!