What do scale modellers like?

Of course you do. There are piles of pages for the people who actually do the activity. It's the rest of us who are out in the cold. :-)

These pages aren't for you. They're for Aunt Janet who has a nephew who she loves but rarely sees because he lives on the other side of the country. His birthday is coming up. She knows he's into modelling. She's not. To where can she send him a gift certificate that has the things he needs? They're for your father-in-law who suspects that another "I Heart Model Airplanes" t-shirt might not be what you really want. They're for your spouse who is constantly getting asked by other people what you want. And so on.

They're also about inspiring people to appreciate their loved ones' hobbies, rather than resenting them.

Besides, I think scale models are cool. Another group showed me pictures of the military scale models they build. They don't just do the models. They make these dioramas and landscapes to put them in and distress the tanks so they look "used" and stuff. Very detailed! Do all of you do that?

I'm not sure I've ever seen a model country! I've seen modelled countryside on my husband's N-scale train layouts, but entire countries? Sounds interesting! I'd love to see some. Are there pictures?

like to have pictures of that thing to work from. Would gift certificates to large booksellers like Amazon or Barnes and Noble, where you can use them to get books with photos of whatever you are currently building be good? A friend of mine runs a used bookstore. She gets lots of donations of historical coffee table books with big detailed photos of war scenes and airplanes and ships and terrain and maps. It seems to me such things might be enjoyed by and of use to scale modellers.

It also sounds like modellers can't get enough shelf space, yes?

BTW, where do you like to get your modelling supplies?

Nope. Some of us just build the models and set them on the shelves. In my case I always kept them in theme groups. I experimented with 'Fighters', 'Bombers', etc. but I kept coming back to 'Countries' and that was the way they stayed for many years.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Bill meant a country theme, i.e. aircraft used by the armed forces of Italy, Germany, or Spain, etc.

Yes! :)

Yes. ;-p

Local hobby shops for the most part.

That does make more sense, but I was looking forward to seeing a tiny scale model of Brazil!

I do like to recommend buying locally. I'm glad this is one of the hobbies that does that.

For those who are not local, is there a online retailer with a good selection that you like? I live in the boondocks and I recall that, when my husband was building train layouts, the "local" hobby store was over 25 miles away.

BTW, I like your "rules of acquisition". :-)

Micro-Mark (which I saw one of you recommending on another thread) offers gift certificates and seems to have a good selection of items for modellers. Would any of you be disappointed to receive a gift certificate to this site?

Venezuela might be more interesting. Especially with the angry little guy in the middle - sort of a Hispanic Howard Dean - playing his fiddle in a pool of oil as the army he once equipped, rolls thru the streets under the control of some ambitious future general.

WmB

BTW, I can see why you guys are a bit fed up. I've been reading through this group and you really do have a ridiculously high percentage of trolls. Far higher than the other groups I've been to.

Why in the world do they bring their political agendas here in such volume? Do scale modellers have a really active international lobby group or something? Or do they think you can do some sort of voodoo on the real airplanes using the models?

Thanks! ;)

Nope. I'd be _pleased_! :-)

Yeah, a Howard Dean with armed forces... :(

percentage of

You think there are a lot of trolls on RMS? You ain't seen nothing - you must not be looking at the 'right' groups. ;-p

Sort of - the US branch is at

Huh?

I think she's suggesting that we'd build a model of some military hardware and then blow it up, to destroy the real thing. Like a voodoo doll.

I think it would only work on a F-101....

(btw Al... see you in Kansas City. Arthur Bryant's BBQ, man...)

--- Stephen

Brazil could prove an interesting modelling challenge. How to portray all the burnt out forest and hang smoke overhead realistically? OTOH, they do have a heavy electric railway.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

I'd like to get my supplies locally but the death rate among non-model railroad hobby shops around here is pretty high. What I can't get at Michael's I go online for.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Or a Zubr. But they're already extinct.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Heh. ;)

If Gene and Kevin don't kill me by making me *walk* there. Damn fitness nuts like to torture me just because I've let myself go to seed since I retired... ;-p

BTW, I noticed your note about having a problem with wrapping, so (since I'm awake in the middle of the night) I took a few minutes and dropped your "rules" into HTML which will wrap nicely on screen. If you want it, you can pick it up from the location below. Take the 4 spaces out of the location. Let me know if you pick it up and I'll remove it from my site.

http://www. spousalsponsorship. org/ Misc/ rules.html

You may also enjoy this Modeler's Prayer.