Modelling Gripes...What's Your's?

I think one of my biggest gripes is cans of spray paint that don't say if they are laquer, acrylic, enamal, or whatever. This always seemed like important information to me, yet so many cans, hobby or otherwise, make no mention of it. Happens with brush paint sometimes, too.

QUOTE: Originally posted by mfsob I look at it this way (color me cynical, I know) - for what I spend to build and detail one of my 1/700 ships, that's the price of maybe two dates. How many hours of engagement and entertainment will I get out of that model? Dozens, quite possibly hundreds. How many hours of engagement and entertainment will I get out of those two dates? Four. At the most.

Dude! Sooo true!

If ya'll think it is expensive now just wait when they add the price of the oil that has jumped up and up.What gets me is that they will bring out one kit and make a different version of that kit.That version has just a few minor changes in which can be scratch built.Then when they bring this same kit out with its minor changes the price gos up.Digger

Yeah Zaphod, some forum members are very strict with accuracy and very rigid with techniques.

Unfortunately some members get a bit carried away with the criticisms of models.

I get tired of the accuracy nazis who tell me the product of my hard work is rubbish because I didn't do x, y, or z. We are artists and this is our medium.

i have a really big gripe
my gripe is i live in the uk(and if thats not bad enough)
i buy FSM every month and i want to know why we cant enter the comp each month if the mag is avalible then why not the comp

QUOTE: Originally posted by jtilley Most of the above Gripes strike familiar chords. I think my biggest Modeling Gripe of all, though, is: people who try to tell me there's one RIGHT way to build a model.

Well, that is correct; there IS only one correct way to build a model... and that is to build it to your own standards, and to have fun doing it.

RM

You mean there isn't???

Most of the above Gripes strike familiar chords. I think my biggest Modeling Gripe of all, though, is: people who try to tell me there's one RIGHT way to build a model.

My modeling gripes? Well, they center around online retailers and their "customer service" (or lack thereof).

It really ticks me off when I spend more than $100 on an order and receive broken/damaged kits, and supposedly “new” kits with missing parts.

It also irritates me when I order something, pay promptly, and have to send five e-mails to get confirmation that something has shipped. In some cases, I get no reply at all.

In extreme cases, I get exasperated and am forced to call. In many of these instances I have found the listed phone number is either incorrect, linked to a fax machine, or busy from 9 to 5… some retailers now purposefully hide their phone information, or refuse to provide it altogether.

I’ll be honest; I am getting really fed up with this new “trend” in online sales. It is pervasive on eBay, and now the Internet “Big Boys” seem to have picked up this bad habit.

RM

QUOTE: Originally posted by tigerman Should also add......... can't finish anything!

Same here, that is why I find the price so staggering sometimes.

I love the build too much and not the "peace"

Modeling block and the lack of time. Should also add......... can't finish anything!

Gripe: Getting a brand new kit (still shrink wrapped) from an Internet hobby store only to find a sprue missing

Good thing it was only the clear parts...I was going to scratch build them anyway.

money,money,money
I'd say that's my biggest gripe. Models nowaday just cost too much for a decent kit, there does not seem to be a middle ground, especially when it comes to armour.
AM, well don't even get me started on that. Ridiculously expensive stuff, especially the figure sets, considering some of the quality of figure sets of mass producers out there.
Geekiness factor...I guess I've been lucky enough to not have any of my gfs consider me a dork for doing what I do.

I keep hearing that stuff works well, so maybe I will give it a try. A lot of my problem was solved when I stopped brushing on white. Now I just pull anything to be painted white and spray it. That cuts down on the number of coats and gives a better finish to boot.

Have you tried Floquil Reefer White? 3 coats max.

I'm with bgrigg on the size of paint jars. For ordinary brushing they're fine. But some airbrush jobs suck up a lot of paint. Especially when you have an airbrush that blows paint like a firehose anyway. Imagine my chagrin when I used metalizer on the exhaust of my RF-4 and shot out the entire bottle on a few square inches.
That and the continued lack of a flat white that covers in less than eighteen coats.

He splurged on a bus ticket??!! It was only a trip from Ohio to Florida. That's only about a thousand miles. Would've been better to let her hitch hike. Then he could buy another of those outrageously expensive models with the after market parts from that guy in Italy.

I'm reminded of a conversation I had years ago with a friend who'd scratchbuilt a 1/48-scale model of a steam locomotive. His employer transferred him from Ohio to Florida. I asked him how he was going to move that extremely fragile model. His response was, "It's going to ride on the car seat beside me. I bought my wife a bus ticket."

Falcon-you just need to get your priorities right-dump the kids. ;-)

My biggest gripe of all would be that I don't have enough time to build. Between working, helping the kids with homework and the kids' sports. I really don't have time.

Spending weeks and weeks detailing the cockpit, close it up in the fuselage, only to find something has popped free, making it impossible to get to it to reinstall.

Fair play :) fair play....they pushed us hard and as for Shane Ward,,,,ohh what a test he had, No1 or 2 in the world for sure :)

Anyway lets just leave this one now, we have said our peices and finnished with a joke,,,,bit like cricket,,,hard game and a beer....will do for me

AJ

Leave the Ashes out of this....

We didn't deserve to win anyway.

And what's with 1/3 or 1/2 oz paint jars? I want 1 full oz!

If you don't agree with my view (or anyone elses), that's fine. However rubbishing people's comments is really not the way to go about disagreeing.

My last gripe....people who search the forum looking for comments to disagree with

If I don't agree I say so, sorry , but because its called a forum, a place to discuss things and express views I can only apologies for the sarcasm.

The propagation of , (and I quote myself here in my first post "some of those comments" eg NOT the funny and light hearted ones) of some ludicrous conspiracy theories and moaning about model companies not reducing their prices when their economy and the importing countries taxes rise, wages are up etc (japan ),

Not even understanding it seems that the Dollar in the US and Australia have both bombed and since Monogramme died (the Mil stuff) the US have to import all mainstream models from overseas...on ships that have to pay vast oil costs as so much is being sucked into China to power their astonishing growth rates. etc. ect...represented by massive companies with large offices in prime sunny real-estate employing dozens of reps on the road in imported cars paying high gas prices and demanding higher medical cover to cover the increasing costs etc etc.

Large companies moving at short notice to low wage countries then making massive profits, then moving again (Tiger economies now going to China causing untold poverty and suffering there and destabilizing the political climate which reduces investment further

and now

China stuffing it all up with cheep slave level labor and massive energy wastage and pollution which cost us more still....you know why models are so cheep from China...we all do, cheep labour, low costs, government support and import "difficulties" and little or no copy protection, (The main CORE of any market based economic system).

All this and the Global Warming problem, and how much have recent weather sytems cost, it ALL has to be paid for chaps, and you do that thru higher taxes etc etc.


So, reasons explained and as they seemed so bl##dy obvious and there seem to be so many of them to me, that I got a little sarcastic for which I apologized so please step off my back now and pick up a news paper please..

Please also remember the word [some], MOST of the posts have been very very funny and make me LOL,



GlenB
As for your last comment GlenB, just do a search and look thru my post record, not many moans there my (ashes-less) cobber, not still upset with the cricket test results are you :), hey mate, I thought it was us Brits who were the windging poms :)

AJ

Hey Clumsy

Fill your gap and then use a cotton bud dipped in nail polish (with acetone)remover to smooth over the join and get rid of excess putty. Sometimes you can
get away with no sanding at all!!

Hey Clumsy-every time I putty I tell myself to be careful and not to overfill gaps-yet I do it again and end up sanding, rescribing and swearing.

Wow, this went off-topic quick. Hey you two, go play bloody knuckles in the back room so you don't disturb the adult conversation, Mmmkay?

I also agree with the sanding gripe. Maybe I wouldn't have to sand so much if I fixed my gapfilling and puttying skills, or lack thereof! LOL