Modelling Pet Peeves

Bright silver paint as a weathering technique in general, but specifically when it is spattered on rubber road wheels.

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

way out of scale. Jerry 47

I don't mind seeing it,if it's well done.but many seem to use it as a substitute for basic skills. Superglue,tweezers and magnifying glasses aren't my thing,and spending a month's salary on pieces for a 10 dollar model is insane.But then to botch it on top of that...

Which is why I use the fiddly aftermarket stuff, I've pretty much mastered the basics and need a challenge or I get bored. sometimes I do slam an OOB model just for giggles, but that's a break from the AMS and paying commissions or research. If you were at Region II, remember the

1/350 Type XXI U-baot? I started the model after dinner one Friday night......2AM Saturday morning saw it being glued to the wood base and it took OOB ship at the regional. The sole concession to AMS was a quick peek online for typical U-boat colors, other than that just glue, sand, pant, decal, wash, flatcoat, glue to base.

Antennae wire that's 1/4" - 1/3" inch in diameter?!?!

I'll concede it's not sewer pipe (a purposeful exaggeration), but we're now in the realm of tow cable. You made my point quite nicely. Thanks.

Art

Real antenna cable can be that thick!!!! Tow cable on the other hand tends to be well over an inch in diameter.

As for ships' rails, you need a real set of plans that show the details of construction, pipe rails on USN BB's ran from 2" to 3.5" diameter depending on placement. Cable or chain "rails" were usually over 1/2" diameter (in 1/350 that would be about 0.00143"); a 0.005" PE rail scales to 1.75" so if it represents a pipe rail, it's underscale and if a cable/chain "rail" overscale.....either way it's a happy medium that gives the impression of rail. Don't even start on rigging, stays were wire rope in the 1.5-2" range, signal halyards 1/2" rope, cargo blocks on things like Liberty ships could often be bigger than a man.

"Joe Jefferson" wrote

I disagree. If you look at your old IPMS mags, Airfix mags, Scale Models, Military Modeler, and what not, the detail work just looks clunky. I dare say that even the models in Shep Paine's Monogram dioramas or his early '80s books look thick and rough to today's eye. You could argue that using the same materials today a skilled modeler might still get spectacular results, but there's no way that the scratched detailing of 1974 or 1984 matches the best resin or PE of 2004. No way.

KL

Not *quite* true. Since for each and every piece of resin we see today... some artisan had to scratchbuild a master for it, using in most cases styrene...so this "scratchbuilding" *does* match the resin, detail-wise. We can be assured that 20 years ago, that the skills were not of a lower level, so there is every reason to believe, that the better attempts of scratchbuilding such details *then*; were just as good as the resin pieces *today*.

in the hallway of the main building at mit, there are a dozen or so ship models. age from 100-30 years old. all were entirely scratch built and several outshine pe stuff and modern kits hands down. there's a 1930's bananna boat that could only be the real ship after a shrink ray. when i see it, i expect guys to come out on deck and stare back.

I guess I just assumed that the better resin casting outfits were making good use of the readily available CAD/CAM and CNC technology that everyone else (beyond the scale model realm) has been using to turn out short runs of professional grade parts.

Do it by hand? Not since I discovered the mirror code on the FANUC control years ago. ;-)

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

Keep in mind most of these businesses are very small cottage industries, working out of basement or garage. Few would have the ability to buy a CNC machining center. Many of these guys are not into CAD, either.

I guess the use of such high-tech tools is possible, but unlikely. A few years ago, while "hanging out" at one of the leading resin miniature company's shop, in California....I was shown some castings that *were* mastered in this manner. The then-owner of the company, was also a "big-wig" at one of the major Hollywood special effects shops there. Even so, it was an extreme rarity for even them to utilize such tools. So, for the average cottage industry resin caster...it would certainly never happen.

Coming out of 20 years in the machining industry I guess I'm jaded towards seeing CAD and CNCs as a necessity rather than a luxury. No, the bench top wizards earning a living producing parts as an extension of their modeling interests will probably not be embracing capital investment as a means to their ends. Eventually though, someone probably will. My guess is the real movement towards this would be from an Asian or Eastern European source where access to the CAD/CAM technology is good and a thirsty entrepreneurial attitude is in equally good supply.

All that business aside, back to the original point about the quality of the parts made by hand as opposed to those made by CAD/CAM -- there are simply things you can produce on a CNC that are hard to match with other methods of manufacture. After all it's the very technology they're using to make the

1:1 parts. If I was tasked with reproducing modern aftermarket car rims in 1/25th scale, I'm pretty damn sure I'd want to CNC machine them. Those brick walls like that are going to loom larger and larger as the 1:1 parts get more complex and the end users more demanding and more critical.

It's the nature of the beast.

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

Considering the cost of such goodies, I suspect there are very few "Cottage Industry" outfits that could even dream of going that route. I've priced Autocad 9in it's various forms and just ended up buying a new pencil sharpener.

Bill Shuey

Bill, They are forcing us into it! I've been using colored pencils for quantity takeoffs and color coding drawings for years, but try getting "good" colored pencils in todays supplychain, they don't make 'em any more. There is only so much that you can do with a high-liter :-)

Rick MFE

That would explain why when my "new" boss decided to go exclusively to AutoCAD a bunch of years ago and ordered all of the drafting equipment thrown out, there were actual fistfights over who was going to get what. Colored leads for the mechanical pencils went as fas as the Leroy pen tips. Trouble is I've pretty much used up my Pelikan ink and it's getting hard to find replacements.

-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger

"Greg Heilers" wrote

Scratchbuilding today is better, I agree.

Nope. I think you are having euphoric recall. Almost all the stuff from 20 years ago is rough by today's standards. Have you looked closely at some of that stuff recently, to the level of scrutiny of any IPMS judge today? Yeah, one or two guys were super duper - So what? They were hardly "common" as the original poster claimed. Heck, I've seen some stuff at recent IPMS nats and regionals that was scratched, and frankly, it looked it. Maybe I just have an eye tuned to straight lines and smooth curves because I'm an engineer, and I know that machines make other machines and the lines appear perfectly straight and perfectly smooth and perfectly perpendicular in any scale someone chooses to model. The normal scratchbuilding job isn't. I don't know what process goes on in pattern making, but frequently the flaws are better hidden which makes them look better.

Don't worry - I don't judge at shows.

KL