hack or rivet-counter which are you

Hack. I build for the fun of it and mostly OOB. As long as it looks good to me I'm happy.

MortarMagnet wrote:

I would say I'm 70% hack.  It's not worth it if it isn't fun, but it's not entirely fun with out the challenge of making it "real."  If there's a .04mm discrepency in bogey spacing,  that's too much work to fix for marginal improvement.  None of my friends bust out their calipers before saying nice work.  My wife can't even tell what the hell I built so it doesn't really matter to me.  If I feel good about it, it is good.

That about is where I am too...more of a rivet hacker .  The only diffence is to me a bogey is flying around trying to get on my tail and vice versa so "bogey spacing" is constantly changing

DURR wrote:

do you build for pleasure what ever way it comes out oh well (hack) or do you build for  people to admire and cut and chop and add for perfection (rivet-counter)

I count the rivets that matter to me.
So I guess I must be a hack rivet counter.

I guess I'm firmly in the minority being both a hack and a rivet counter. The degree to which I fall toward either end of the spectrum depends on my mood, the current kit on the bench, and my goals.

I am equally adept at building some kits straight OTB while others will have PE, resin, scratch-building, or modifications added to the build to improve their accuracy. In BOTH cases I'm building for "pleasure" and certainly don't see the later builds as being any less enjoyable than the OTB kits. I not big on competitions and usually (at least to date) no one - other than a few members of a forum or two - will probably ever see my completed builds.

I guess I fall in the "hack" catagory, though I like to add details that I think actually add to the kit.  I'd love to be able to have the patience to wire the engines or add brake and hydraulic lines to my builds, but I'd rather work harder on the finish and any weathering that I may add. 

I don't worry about the rivets, and they don't worry about me, and we all get along.

I live for other people's compliments thanks to my disparaging parents and screwed-up childhood!! =P

Really I build to hone my skill to beat my own expectations even though sometimes I can be a lil overly critical, so I'd say I am in the middle of the two ends as well.

As a scratch-builder of entirely fictitious subjects, is there any conceivable way I could be a rivet counter?

Perish the thought!



Krzysztof Mathews-  Hack, and proud of it!

Well, given the fact that I can't count ....

-dave

MortarMagnet wrote:

I don't think anyone want to admit that they are a rivet-counter!

Actually, I'd love to be a rivet counter. I greatly admire their perseverance and dedication, and look to their works for inspiration.
Unfortunately, I'm just too damn lazy to be one. I have a very low "yup, that's good enough" threshold!

I think this qualifies as a rivet-counter and proud of it. One of the most impresive builds that I have ever seen.

http://s102164210.onlinehome.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=74433&st=0

-dave

I think rivet-counter is a person that has to have a model that is 100% correct.  I have seen articles in FSM where someone complains the bolt heads are too big so they shave all of them off and replace them.  It seems like almost everything is replaced because of some very small error. 

For me, I do not like to look down an intake and see wide open spaces, so I will close off the intake, or wait for AM intake trunks to come out.  Does that make me a rivet-counter?  I don't think so.  It only means I try to produce a model that at least looks like the real thing.  If the shape of the radome is off by 1/64 of an inch or the panels are not 100% correct, I don't care.  Who will know anyhow?   A gross error that is obvious, that is a different story.  I will try to correct it or buy AM parts for it. 

I was at a model show recently where two aircraft were displayed, one built almost OOTB and the other had all the resin/PE replacement parts to correct errors.  The two aircraft setting side by side, I'll bet 99% of the people cound not tell the difference.  I had to look very close to find the improvements and I still could not see how the AM parts inproved the kit.  The OOTB kit was just as impressive as the other.  Here you have one model builder that spent say $150 and produced a very fine looking model, where the other spent $325 and looked just as good as the other. 

I'd have to say I'm more of a hack with a dash of rivet-counter. Sometimes I just build to suit myself-occaisionally  I'll outift it as accurately as possible. I become more of a rivet-counter when I go to shows and competitions and pick up the resin and books and know which kit I wanna spend that amount of time on.