Is it possible to take the kit too far?

SuppressionFire

...One day I hope to build a kit OOB for therapy.

Highly recommended! I recently got myself bogged down in a couple of projects that got bigger/more time-consuming than I had planned. (And then "real work" crept in too lol) A scratch-build that I had never tried before; and a heavily-modified - for me anyway! - P38 nightfighter, the Revell kit. A moth ago when I realized that I had completely stalled both, I cracked open a little "classic" Airfix kit of a subject I'd never built before, went to work on it for a couple weeks & had it finished off in a reasonable amount of time. It was kind of therapeutic knowing that I was able to finish it off in short order.

So, kit taken too far?? Only if you think you've taken it too far!

HisNHer Tanks,

Nobody really cares if you have a 'stash' guys. It's the truth. We'd be impressed if you had them all finished.

Agreed,

I find the more kits I own the harder it is to complete them! Its distracting to know there are fresh canvases molded in styrene when getting bogged down on a current project.

Ooooooccasionally I will find myself carefully filing and cleaning off mold seams from things like leaf springs on a 72nd scale vehicle.

That affliction to me is more personal satisfaction. Knowing I did everything possible to clear the 'clean build' phase of the build. On larger scales like 1/25 I ponder how to scratch build the springs instead of just cleaning up the kits offering. The fine line is to just do it vrs cleaning for a few hours only to scratch build anyway.

Learning from past time consuming decisions I weigh the options before commencing scratch building. 

1st Will the work be easily viewed & appreciated?

2nd How much better will the part actually be scratch built vrs OOB?

3rd Scratch building is my favorite aspect of model building so why not?

4th Will this deviation from OOB take to long & get shelved or completed?

Sometimes there are no easy answers. One day I hope to build a kit OOB for therapy.

Ooooooccasionally I will find myself carefully filing and cleaning off mold seams from things like leaf springs on a 72nd scale vehicle. Yes I know, making a model is a personal thing and a challenge. But eventually you need to realize why you are making the model.

It's so someone can look at it and go wow did you make that?

And of course that is your moment.

So if the mere idea of them picking it up and looking under it makes you cringe (mainly because they just picked up your friggin model.... why do idiots think we want them to pick up our damned models eh?), then it is possible a lot of the work being done, is portentially stupid.

In recent years I have learned to master the art of 'get real' when it has come to how far is too far.

I already know how good of a modeler I am. I also know I was a lot more enthusiastic 20 years ago when my eyes were a lot younger too :) I've been paid to make things in the past. I've even done this hobby professionally for a time.

Today though, it's about not dying with kits unfinished :)

Nobody really cares if you have a 'stash' guys. It's the truth. We'd be impressed if you had them all finished.

All modelers have what I have come to call "degree of stupidity" when building.  For example a person who builds OOB and does a stock paint job has a low DOS and somebody that does the aforementioned MIG build has a very high DOS.

I fall somewhere toward the high end of DOS and have discovered what I call "DOS creep" in that the DOS seems to go up with each model I build as I notice more and more details through my 10x Optivisor.  For the life of me I can't figure out how to stop it!  My hat's off to the people who have a certain point to where they take their builds and go no further but I am also blown away by the person who will spend thousands of hours and dollars to create their perfect opus.

Disclaimer:  I am NOT calling any body stupid but for lack of a better word "degree of stupidity" seems to work.  But most of all, beware "DOS creep"!

                                                                                        Pat. 

I don't know if there is a "too far" for me.  What I have done is try to do the next kit a little better than the last. I can look at my first model through my last and see the progression. I am not to the point where I am ready to put a $20 after market barrel on a $40 tank, but I also don't just take the barrel off the sprue and mount it to the turret right away either.

I guess I will know "too far" when I get there, but for now there is still much more I can improve on.

Joe

I too retract my comment and fully and humbley accept the apology offered as perfectly acceptable.

As for the original intent if this thread. My personal problem I have is when I spend a ton of time on one area then virtually ignore others. Right now, I have 24 1/48th scale B-17 engines on my bench, all of them are gonna get wired up, have the 2 piece metal ring added, AND have scratch built prop governors added, again, 24 of them. BUT....will I add brake lines to the landing legs? Maybe.

Glad this has had a happy resolution. I retract my admonishing comment.

I think "too far" is too subjective to really draw a line in the sand.

I mean, a few months ago there was MIG-something or other in FSM that was crazy-detailed. Hundreds of parts...IN THE WHEEL BAYS! Some elements shaved off and made to scale thickness with PUTTY! I couldn't even fathom how to do that. The build was stunning, but to an extent I do have to question the builder's sanity.

That said...I'm totally planning on drilling out the wing guns on my P-51 WIP and replacing them with slide-fit micro-tubing. Which is kind of silly, yeah, but will look oh-so awesome when all is said and done. I'm contemplating filling all the wing panels forward of the gun bays, too, but haven't made up my mind there. I read recently an observation that the wear and tear of mission hours, plus the various painting and stripping (as with invasion stripes and such) probably knocked a lot of that filler out, but I'm not an expert enough to believe or not believe it. 

Scott, your action underscores the substrate of the topic, we all get lost in the moment.

Now if everyone affected would just to a quick Edit in their posts (as there does not seem to be a way to do this en masse) and delete the image? Pax.

Chazzer

I was on my way out and I turned back and felt compelled to say how embarrassed, sorrowfully and stupid I feel. I consider myself to be a fairly sensitive guy as you can see from my thread history. I can't say enough how sorry I am. When I searched for the words that said "to each his own" this picture along with a few others popped up. I chose it thinking it was old and in German, not thinking it was what it was. Key word "not thinking". I am mortified! Once again I'm sorry. I can't seem to say it enough.

Scott

No problem Scott, gotta keep an eye on google sometimes, especially when it starts switching laguages on you!

Thanks. I edited it. It's gone.

Chazzer

I was on my way out and I turned back and felt compelled to say how embarrassed, sorrowfully and stupid I feel. I consider myself to be a fairly sensitive guy as you can see from my thread history. I can't say enough how sorry I am. When I searched for the words that said "to each his own" this picture along with a few others popped up. I chose it thinking it was old and in German, not thinking it was what it was. Key word "not thinking". I am mortified! Once again I'm sorry. I can't seem to say it enough.

Scott

I was on my way out and I turned back and felt compelled to say how embarrassed, sorrowfully and stupid I feel. I consider myself to be a fairly sensitive guy as you can see from my thread history. I can't say enough how sorry I am. When I searched for the words that said "to each his own" this picture along with a few others popped up. I chose it thinking it was old and in German, not thinking it was what it was. Key word "not thinking". I am mortified! Once again I'm sorry. I can't seem to say it enough.

Scott

Guys, I had NO idea. I'll get rid of it if I can. It was not to offend. I am so sorry. I just thought it said "to each his own" . It wasn't meant to be funny to begin with. It wasn't meant as humor. I thought it was clever. But now knowing what is is I am mortified! Please forgive me.

Using THAT image to convey these words "To each his own"" is indeed tasteless and not even remotely clever.

Makes me wonder at what the person routinely considers 'funny' and whether I would routinely like their concept of humour.

I photograph my projects really close. I will definitely notice things like out-of-scale thickness at that vantage point, and it will bug the heck outta me. I do what I can to keep it looking as real as possible, at that close range, to try to fool my own eye. If that means fiddling with tracks, using PE, or shaving a StuG fender down to card stock thickness, I find it worth it. The payoff is for me.

Post edited upon request.

I"m just a happy doog.

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redraider56

 

the doog:

 

Well, everyone has a "personal standard"

 

 

Thing with me is that I'm not sure what my personal standard is, and therefore whenever I try to do something extra I dont know if I'm doing too much or should stick to what I know.....it just keeps going round and round and I never get anything done

For me, it's a distraction, but more than that--it's a lucrative hobby that I make money from by selling articles. So I can't afford to have my standards be lax. No one is inspired by sloppy or unimpressive models. (Not saying yours are! )

I am an artistically-minded person, so I take great care to try to produce something "artful"--and in that regard, it doesn't really matter how long it takes. It's all about the end result being impressive.

the doog

Well, everyone has a "personal standard"

Thing with me is that I'm not sure what my personal standard is, and therefore whenever I try to do something extra I dont know if I'm doing too much or should stick to what I know.....it just keeps going round and round and I never get anything done

Although slogging it out in the trenches scratch building & toiling with AM goodies will add a considerable amount of time to a build. 2X - 4X longer than OOB is a good estimate.

Well, everyone has a "personal standard", but in my mind it's called :Taking pride in your work". YES, I would fiddle with a track to get it perfectly flat and straight.

I've gone through hell to fix some tracks, ad the end result was a model I was quite proud of. But that's my admitted personal standard, which may be different from yours.

It would be nice to read some more serious responses.

GONE!

things like after market treads are ok if the box ones r wrong     but... putting 'WORKING'  metal ones on for the sake that they move  well lets get on the floor and play with our model  and roll it around

I do like to add aftermarket stuff to my kits only where they need it. (See Tomcat nose). But I try not to go overboard with it.

Now there are kits that you can't get any aftermarket stuff for such as the Italeri MV-22 Osprey. Had to scratchbuild that stuff. It isn't perfect but it looks great to me.

I'm no rivet counter either. If it looks right then it's good enough for me.

Please see my thread “Bugs Bunny Moment”. I’m not going to cross-post it. The crux is “What am I doing?!?”.

Certainly.

HisNHer Tanks

...I could almost make a case, that some of us in the hobby are in need of help :)

maybe