a Question of Accuracy

How important is accuracy in your modeling?


Let me give you some context:

The other day i was scrolling through one of the many groups i am a part of on FB and ran across a post that i really thought was a bit out of line.


Someone actually come out and started a thread with what looked to be a blanket statement to everyone. He stated that while he loved to look at everyone's work, the builders needed to do more research (as a whole) as the color choices were not satisfactory to his liking for various builds that were posted.


The resulting backlash from this comment ( the last time i looked ) had hit over 50 replies from people telling him how they felt about that statement.


So that's where the question came in... on one hand, if you are trying to recreate a kit with historically accuracy, then i will say, do your research on all aspects of the build to come as close as possible to the original product.


That being said...a lot of us builders, build for fun. Its not about historical accuracy. Its about completing a kit and challenging ourselves to make each one better than the last. Either by technical ability or visual appearance.


When i built the Bradley in the pic above, i have no clue if the colors are right or not. i literally did no research at all on it aside from seeing a few pics of different tanks i liked on a couple groups i am in. From there i picked colors that looked right to me. I was having such a good time building the kit. it didn't bother me if the colors were historically accurate. i literally couldn't have cared less.


I can tell you from experience, i have a caliper on my hobby desk that i don't even keep a battery in. When i am altering vehicles ( top chops, sections, channeling ) i don't do things by measurements. I do it by 'what look's right' .. always have. now i may use the caliper to scribe a matching line from one side of a kit to another, but i cant tell you the last time i looked at the numbers on it because they are not that important to me.


The same goes for painting, in real life things are painted a certain way. Cant tell you how many times i have built up a car kit and simply hit the underside of the hood and trunk ( sometimes even the inside of the roof) with flat black to draw attention away from it. Now on a real vehicle, the trunk and hood would be body color with bracing, sound insulation on the hood or with a headliner on the interior) Many times i am not that worried about it. To me the exterior is where the eye focuses most of the time, its what brings your eye in to look again.


Engine detailing is another place where the rivet counters like to get their 2 cents in. I can count on one hand, the number of times i have painted a block the original factory color ( that's a lot of years of building ) or the amount of times i have added 30awg wire for spark plug wires and had someone chime in 'they look too big', funny enough, in my eyes, they look perfect for a 10mm race wire. Other times i paint things a different color just to add contrast and visual interest under the hood.






We have to remember , Unless you purchased the kit you are viewing, unless you are paying the builder you are commenting about. You have 0 say in how it gets built. I realize that there are times people ask for advice, which i encourage, but to flat out come out and tell someone this or that is 'wrong' when its not your build is not OK.


As builders we have to be happy and find our place that we are most comfortable. I know some builders that are at their happiest when recreating factory stock kits, complete with the correct color codes and details galore, there are others who have found their niche doing super detailed race cars with custom built cages and awesome engines. Not everyone is on the same level. There is nothing wrong with being on your own level and wanting to move up. There is something seriously wrong with expecting someone else's level to be different than what it is. We all build differently. That's the beauty of this hobby, you bought it, you build it...any way you see fit.


So now i will change the question i originally asked....


What kind of builder are you?


cya soon...