Heres a little something to knaw on!

these aftermarket details allow someone such as myself with little or no skill to put together a model with the accuracy and details that others with much more skill would scratchbuild. personally i think aftermarket details are a godsend and i do appreciate them. sometimes i feel like i cheat a little but as i am not building for competition just for my own satisfaction i guess it all works out in the end.

joe

Someone once said, "Build what you like, like what you build." Personally, getting all those little things that nobody ever sees, but YOU know their there, seems a little over the top for me. If you're going for judges with magnifying glasses, GREAT! I have a fried who has a single hair brush for putting in EYES for the pilot figures. I've stopped building 1/32's because there's always so much room to put stuff that nobody will ever see unless you have panels and canopies flopping all around. Try to tell someone about the tiny coper wires that you used to simulate engine wiriing! Then watch their eye glaze over. Me, I beleive in the KISS thingy; simple, but accurate.]

I love the resin & PE stuff.

I think that its a matter of what brings enjoyment into your build. If scratchbuilding parts is your thing, go for it. I know my limitations for creating parts, so I buy aftermarket items. Also, I do not believe in a "heirarchy" of modelling. A scratchbuilder is not a "better" modeller. Models out of the box are not "worse." Be it out of the box or completely scratchbuilt, a good-looking model is a good-looking model. I find that the more hats I try to wear at once, the worse they fit. I'll let a professional create my detail parts. Experience has taught me that they are more skilled at it than I.

Well said Pix. I do most kits OOB. Sometimes just for a relaxing build I use only the instruction sheet as my reference material. On others I want to really take up a few notches, I go for all the aftermarket stuff I can find. The skills I posses with scratch-building you could write on a pin head. So the AM guys really save my butt on models I want to give to someone such as a vet.

I at least buy aftermarket ejection seats for my kits, you just can't beat them. I have the 1/32 CAM cockpit sets for the Tornado and MIG-29 but they sit on the shelf along side the models waiting to be build someday? If Black Box comes out with an F-105G set I will jump on it but I plan on scratch building any needed cockpit details in the future.

Pixilater said it best for me.
Bruce

I think PE and Resin, is fun, and adds to the building skills "pallet". I think that it is about using all mediums available to you, to add what you wish. Besides, there's always a few out there correcting the Resin as well.....so even the AM parts aren't perfect, and there will always be something to add yourself.

All good points guys! - It's one of those things that will probably be debated forever - and in the end the only real answer is to remember why we all do it! Never impose limits on your abilities, though! Theres always room to learn and get better! Man do I know the glazed over eye look!

Take what you can get, and afford, because something can always be improved.

I hate to spend more money on aftermarket detail kits than the kit itself. I'll spend a few bucks for some seats, wheels or control surfaces and scratchbuild a lot of the detail myself. Too much, but that's my "thing". I think the hardest part of of a model is getting it filled and sanded without losing detail and getting a nice paint job layed down. Then getting the decals and sealer down without silvering or air bubbles. I've "wired" up several 1/48th radials and scratch built a set of "featherless" afterburner cans for an F-15 that I never finished. I still like my "cans" over some of the aftermarket. If you hate tedious scratchbuilding, PE and resin aftermarket kits are a godsend. Then if you have a favorite aircraft you might want to spend some serious bucks to build the ultimate kit. To each his own! Glad we have the "choices" we do "nowdays"! I remember the joy of the first Monogram P-51B and P-47D. Nice detail and no moving parts except the prop and wheels. "We have come a long way, baby!"

I'm right there with Pix on this one.

If you prefer not to use detailing kits there are plenty of aircraft types out there which do not have a popular following and therefore never seem to get any goodies produced for them Personally I rather like some of this detailing stuff, but I don't mind scratchbuilding the odd bits every now and then