Good points all around.
Part of my decision regarding kit selection is subject availability. An example being the panzer 38t. Italeri and Maquette are the only manufacturers of this kit that i know of. (SOL makes a 1/16 version but for the sake of generality...) The Italeri kit is less than optimum and Maquette...well....... regardless of the problems associated with these kits and the obvious misuse of industrial manufacturing processes, they are the only game in town so to speak. Unless I want to scratchbuild then it is all a moot point. But if I want to build this vehicle, then I am limited to what is available for a platform. Given this, I now have to draw upon my skills as a modeler to complete an acceptable (my version of acceptable) result of my efforts. From this basic unit, I can create any variant of this vehicle. And am limited only by my capabilities.
We all know that the processes involved pretty much do not allow for mfr's. to really get into doing minute variant differences. The market just won't bear it. (Think of how many variants of the B17 there are. The mfg. process to market this many will tie up an inordinate amount of capital as well as the associated costs of marketing kits. The market just doesn't warrant it) So we are relegated to accepting what is available to us and making duw with what we have. This is the part that really appeals to me. It allows personal freedom to expand on something that I didn't have to scratchbuild as well as challenge and develop my skills to overcome those challenges presented. It's what makes us better modelers. And when we see what others, guys like Steve Zaloga, Mig Jimenez, our own Shermanfreak, Dwight and others do with those same kits, we can see there is no reason to be frustrated or that the challenge is within our means to meet. Sure it may not be immediate, but isn't it our collective goal to get better? To improve our skill level and to give ourselves something to do during our evenings?
Look at the profiles of some of those model builders. Sure some are engineers, but they aren't using highly technical pieces of equipment, they did not attend industrial fabrication school, they are not injection molding their conversions and in alot of cases they are using the tools they have on hand. X-acto knives, the occasional roto tool, maybe some resin they have cast on their own, files putty some sheet styrene and those most important facet of their endeavors, that far exceed any technical expertise they may have, the willingness and drive to "try" and "do". (Geez, now I sound like my dad.......)
![Smile [:)]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile.gif)
If you look at some of the models built by prisoners in the 18thc. & early 19thc. on prison ships, you will see some highly sophisticated models even by todays standards, built with a knife, soup bones and scraps of wood. I shutter to think that we who are the children of the industrial age and the progenitors of the technological age reach a stumbling block and shut down because the two halves of 3/4 of an inch of styrene do not line up perfectly.
![Wink [;)]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile_wink.gif)
Don't get me wrong. I will whine like a bad puppy if I run into some problems and gnash my teeth with the best, but I'll also set it aside and rethink what I need to do to fix it and look for solutions. Once done, then it becomes less of a hassle the next time I come across similar problems. The other beauty of it is, with more confidence and experience, I can now build what ever I like, so long as I have at least a basic platform to start with. Less than that, and we are talking scratchbuilding which is a different subject.
If all else fails, write the mfr. a letter and don't purchase their product. Though I imagine with the quality of kits going up companies like Revell will have to keep up to stay competative. The benefit here is to us the consumer.
Mike