Model forum veterans, let me bend your ear.

Modeling as an art form seems to bring out a different standard of behavior in people. I like art in general and enjoy visiting art museums.

When I go to an art museum I like looking at a painting and letting it transport me to what is depicted. For example if I'm looking at a western painting I let it transport me back in time to the old west scene that's being depicted. It gets my imagination going and I start to think about the sights, sounds, and smells of that era. If I'm looking at a piece of impressionistic art I try to get a feel of what the artist is conveying. So on and so forth. I don't scrutinize a painting looking for faults. In the hundreds of times I've been in art museums I can't recall ever seeing someone do that either. I've had many great conversations with fellow art viewers about the piece we wereboth looking at.

At model shows and contests I noticed that people tend to look for faults, inaccuracies. When I see a model of a Tiger tank I let it transport me back to WW2. I thnk about what it must have been like to live, fight, and die in a machine like that. When I mention how great it is to a fellow attendee more often than not (I'd say 8 time out of 10 in my own experience) they start to point out all the things that are wrong or inaccurate about it.

To me that's kind of a bummer. Perhaps I'm missing the whole point of modeling. The reason I model is because I love history, especially WW2. For me modeling is a vehicle for me to bring that history to life. I'm German American. I was born in Hanau Germany and spent the first 18 years of my life in Bruchkobel. Went to German schools and was raised German. I immigrated here when I was 18. My mother is German and my father is American. Modeling is a way for me to connect to my families history. My grandfather on my fathers side was in the USCG during WW2. He drove landing craft at Omaha beach in Normandy and at Iwo Jima. His brother Jack was in the Marines and fought in the Phillipines before being taken prisoner and dying in a POW camp at the hands of the Japanese. His sister Mary built B-24 bombers as a Rosie the Riveter. My Grandma was in the Nurses Corps and served in Honolulu. On my mothers side my Opa was in the Wehrmacht and he manned a machine gun nest on Omaha beach on D-Day! My grandparents fought against each other in one of the great battles of WW2. It was wonderful when we had a family reunion, the stories they'd tell each other. My Opa fought for the Third Reich all the way to the Hurtgen forest before becming wounded and finishing out the war in a hospital in Dresden. Which is where he met my Oma, she worked in a factory in Dresden during WW2. I have 3 great uncles on my mothers side, my Opa's brothers. Karl was also in the Wehrmacht, he fought on the Eastern front and was captured when the 6th Army Group surrendered at Stalingrad. He didn't return home from the war until 1957. He didn't even know the war was over until 1955. Friedrich was in the Totenkopf SS and worked in concentration camps. Werner was Gestapo and after the war we didn't hear from him until his death in 1987. When a lawyer in Argentina sent his diary and personal effects to us in Bruchkobel. My Oma's parents, brother, and 2 sisters were killed in the fire bombing of Dresden. She was the sole survivor of her family.

So for me modeling is a way to connect to the past, my past. The way I see modeling is as an art form that keeps history alive, that allows us to connect with the past. Perhaps that's wrong and the guys that strive for absolute accuracy are right. Personally speaking I'm happy being wrong. When I look at a model B-17 I remember my Oma telling me how she hated hearing the sound of their engines. How as a young terrified woman she clutched her pet dog and ran for the air raid shelter. How she used to feel the vibrations and judge how close the bombs were dropping to her house. Other modelers look at a B-17 model and nitpick the paint scheme, the details, or whatever.

When I see a model of a landing craft I think of my grandfather, a bosuns mate piloting the craft towards a hostile beach. The craft filled with scared young Americans. The responsibility he carried as a young man. The guilt he still feels to this day for the men he delivered to their deaths. Or my Opa, peering through the slit at hundreds of landing craft heading for his position. How he told his gun crew that the war was lost and they should burn up this ammunition and get out of there. If the markings aren't 100% accurate, if there's a rivet missing, or if there's a run in the paint it doesn't bother me. The model did what I wanted it to do, it took me back in time. Gave me something tangible to hold that helps me understand what it was like. I've heard the stories, now I can conect them to something real. I find that rewarding in a visceral way. It brings me closer to understanding why. I can hold it in my hand and hold it at eye level,looking at it from the bow to see what my Opa saw. I can turn it around and look at it from the stern to see what my grandpa saw. It fulfills that need I have to try and connect with WW2. Without that terrible war I wouldn't be here. My brother and sister wouldn't be here. It shaped this generation of my family. Any understanding I have of it fills a void within me.

I think it comes down to what does modeling mean to you? What motivates you to model?

I hope the above makes some sense.

we all are guilty of being neg. at one time or other

i know i have been more than neg sometimes.  many times

i do understand your view but....

at the same time as with all things in life good comes with the bad

stick with us 

all things good/bad will pass and the world  (or the forum) will be better

You made some valid observations.

As modelers, we should be up to the task of problem solving, rather than complaining.  When I think how my grandfather built countless Strombecker kits, and what was actually supplied in the box, I'm amazed any builder can complain about any plastic kit! I mean, can they do better? Do they realize what it takes to bring a kit to market? I think not. But it's always easier to bash than for one to actually try to engineer a solution to their problem.

I've been here around five years, and I've seen things steadily go downhill in the attitude department. There are some hotheads who come here with their short fuses, just looking for a brawl. Who needs that? I suspect some don't actually enjoy this hobby as much as they claim to!

So, yes, I understand your point.

HK I think I can understand your heart on this. I too dislike the hobbys detractors and constant flow of negative bashing.

There is nothing wrong with giving comments as to a kits pros and cons. But many of those comments you are referring to do go well beyond the limit of usefulness. These detailed comments should be directed in writing toward the manufacturer, whereas only a cursorary comment should appear here.

Many of those who routinely comment negatively do so on other forums too. The problem lies in that these parties use various aliases on other forums so it sounds as if more people are talking down a kit than actually is. Also remember that only a fraction of those who enjoy this hobby and the offerings it provides (even those terrible kits being comment so negatively about) are not "hooked up" and involved in any way with the Internet. The still read print on paper! Manufacturers respond to demand...as long as their is a demand for their products they will continue to produce and sell them. There is a market for everything at each level of quality and pricepoint.

It unfortunately is the negative vocal minority that gets heard loudly and far too often...one has to have thick skin and sometimes an even thicker skull to ignore these comments. My guess is many make the statements they make are to provoke a reaction.  it has nothing to do with the subject at hand more than a way to spark attention. They sit back and get off at those who feed them.

I can remember the bashing the Dragon Mustang got...I built two! Why, because they were good kits...not great but good. Given the pricepoint they were a bargain...even the comments about the poor quality of the 21C kits has been rebuffed somewhat...after a few real modelers built them and showed the others what real potential they have. I can remember purchasing models back in the day that were a whole lot less, for more money. Looking back they were "less than stellar" but they were the only show in town. Just as some of the kits of today are considered, yet that doesn't stop modelers from purchasing and building them...note I said modelers not assemblers. If you want a model of that certain subject, you'll probably purchase what's available regardless, even if you could do better with a bar of soap and a knife.  We might not build it, but it will grace our stash.

There are food snobs, coffee snobs, wine snobs, single malt snobs and yes model kits snobs...let them complain while the rest of us buy and build what they turn their noses away from. Even such bare basic models as the old Aurora airliners if rereleased would receive criticism as to how "bad" they are, yet they would fly off the store shelves because of the subject and scale they represent.

We all must ask ourselves: Am I a scale modeling snob / elitist? Are there model kits beneath my "standards" of acceptability? One mans trash is another mans treasure. For those who bought and bashed a model kit and refuse to build it...send it to me...I'll find it a good home.