a question !! why the hobby and epitomise what it means to you ??

[windymiller]

hope members dont mind me asking and i dont mean to pry but i do like chatter on a forum and well maybe youve discussed this before ?? but anyway just wondered what got you back into the hobby (or indeed kept you in the hobby) and what you get from it ??

 

[Bortig the Viking]

Hi, for me it was retiring, after a hard life driving hgvs and being a driver on the railway, due to my health I retired at 45 so plenty of spare time. Do have another outlet i go to Men in Sheds. This started in Australia and came over here you can chat, plenty of people do models, plastic and radio controlled airplanes plus we have access to most machinery such as band saws, drills etc. If you want to learn more Google men in sheds. As for my models I'm currently working on a Mercedes 300 sl and a VW Beetle in different stages at the moment, what you gonna start as I noticed you had a few ideas just don't do what I did when restarting buy all this stuff that's sound good but in reality gets put in a box and put aside.

 

[scottie3158]

Alan,
For me I find it relaxing to spend a few hours listening to the radio and creating something. It is a hobby where you can push yourself to improve. The other thing is the shared fun on a site like this.

 

[Bortig the Viking]

Forgot to mention as I have a man cave, luckily the wife allows, I myself have a stereo so make models to music, AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the like, great to forget the world outside.

 

[windymiller]

my man cave still in the making but it has quad ceiling speakers a planed night sky mural and daytime sky effect with the setting sun and two great pillars at the porchway !! but my reasons i think are firstly to rekindle the innocence of when i was a lad making models with none of the crap i have in my head today, im in ore of many of the builds i see and would like to learn all the hints, tips and techniques to enable me to achieve that and in doing so maybe allow me to cast out the outside world focusing just on the detail in front of me as my escape. sorry if that sounds all deep and meaningful

 

[Jakko]

I never got back into the hobby because I’ve been building models since I was maybe 7 or 8 years old (that was in the early ’80s), though I’ve gone through several periods of not building much of anything for up to a couple of years on end — but I’ve never considered myself to have stopped building models.

As for what I get out of it, I suppose it really comes down to the satisfaction of having built a model

 

[Deleted member 3568]

For me it takes me back to my youth when I thought I was good at this but had not heard of weathering or pin washes so now I'm trying to use my new found skills to help improve (oh how I wish I could get the models you could then.

 

[Xarathustra]

As above. A second (or perhaps third) childhood.
I have (or rather more...had) been gagging to build a Panzer V (Panther) for many years as it's my fave tank design of the WWII era. A friend (very sensibly) suggested I (re)start on cheaper & simpler models...which I did for 4-5 months.
I've now completely lost my enthusiasm I'm afraid!

 

[windymiller]

doh come on george what about the panzer v ??

 

[Xarathustra]

doh come on george what about the panzer v ??

Well...maybe one day....sigh...

I'll be sticking around anyway as I like looking at what a lot of people do on here & the skill they have.
To be honest I just don't think I have the patience for it nowadays. It's a bit like my DIY decorating. I enjoy it for a month or to, but then need to not do it for a year!

 

[PaulTRose]

good question

guess im the typical built kits as a kid, gave it all up in late teens due to school/exams/first job/motor bikes/girls/beer becoming more important at the time.........fast forward 25 year and im frehly divorced, moving into my own place, whilst unpacking came across a long forgotton tamiya lotus 7 kit someone had bought me years before......thought it would keep me occupied for a few nights....bought some paint and glue.............and the bug bit me again!

that was 12ish years ago and i get hell of a lot out of the hobby..........not just the sense of accomplishment when i build something but its also the friendship or comradeship or whatever you want to call it.........not just on forums like this but also from being a member of an IPMS club and going to shows....i also find it a great way to de-stress from what the real world throws at me....that hour in the evening at the bench with the radio on is great

once had someone at work as me what my hobby was
'im a modelmaker'
'hahaha....thats really useful' in sarcastic voice
'well actually it helps me with my job (i work in quality assurance in engineering/manufacturing......used to be automotive, currently rail).........it helps my hand/eye coordination, improves tool dexterity, constantly striving for improvement, looking for new methods and kaizen, problem solving and countermeasure, increases ability to think laterally....................whats your hobby?'
'football'
'ok, at least it keeps you fit'
oh i dont play............just watch it on the telly...............in the pub sometimes'
'hmmm.......thats really useful' in a sacastic voice





oh, and i still have that lotus 7 ,,,,,,shows how far ive come.........and i love that kit, one of my faves (along with the sas jeep .....still have the one of that i did in the 70s!)......built another 3 of the 7's since and really want to do a couple more if i could get them at a sensible price

 

[boatman]

I never got back into the hobby because I’ve been building models since I was maybe 7 or 8 years old (that was in the early ’80s), though I’ve gone through several periods of not building much of anything for up to a couple of years on end — but I’ve never considered myself to have stopped building models.

As for what I get out of it, I suppose it really comes down to the satisfaction of having built a model

As for me Just what Jakko said ive been building models for the past 60 yrs or so started when young an it make me feel content to think the model came from my mind an two hands. An for the last 25yrs I have been scratchbuilding big r/c warships that takes yrs to build on each one but I never get fed up .Because I build each bit like a separate model an then put them all togeather to make the main model if that makes sence An im now when warmer wheather about to start my last big build of hms tiger in 1/72 scale so she gonna be a biggun an by the time she's finished i'll be to old then to carry on but its been a great hobby just wish we could get the younger gen intrested more
chris

 

[Deleted member 6559]

About four years ago I first watched the film 'Ronin' starring, among others, Robert De Nero and Jean Reno. It's about a group of criminals hired by the IRA to do a bit of gun running etc. In one sequence a wounded De Nero is taken to a dodgy doctor for treatment and that doctor spends most of his time painting and building miniature figures. He's engaged in building a diorama of the 47 Ronin and I was reminded of the kits on that subject made by Tamiya. I couldn't resist Googling them and before I knew it I'd ordered a set and the rest is history...

Prior to that I hadn't modelled for 37 years. I'd stopped aged around 16 to get into music, girls etc etc. then life took over. With the kids more or less grown and with more time on my hands I was looking for something to do and this seemed like a good idea. I trained as an artist and had got into painting big sloppy abstracts, but I was getting increasingly dissatisfied with that and wanted to return to something that had more of a craft element and required time and concentration. Result - many happy hours of Zen-like retreat into my own world.

 

[JR]

Modelled as a teenager, than life took over. After my eye problem I decided to slow down work wise running my own joinery business and ending up retiring 4 years ago when I came back into modelling only after reading reviews following an interest in tanks of a company that sells cast model tanks, that once you subscribe to you can hardly escape their clutches decided to build my own kits instead .
Eventually joined the now closed MM forum , loved the banter and help,. when that unfortunately closed move here with the gang. Finding as modelling is, a very solitary hobby coming on here with like mind people is the thing that keeps me going .
John .

 

[minitnkr]

Been modeling since about 6yrs old. Started w/scenery on the family 0 Guage model RR in the 50s. I've never really stopped, just scaled back considerably from 12 to 20yrs old when girls/cars held most of my attention. What I get out is similar to PeterD, in that I'm able to focus into a Zen-like state where all else is background. PaulE

 

[Gern]

What was it with all you guys spending your teens with women instead of doing summat sensible like boozin'? The hangovers I used to get from beer were far less severe than those my mates got from the girls they got mixed up with!

Didn't nobody tell you: "Marriage is a disaster for young men and a comfort for old men"

I too did a lot of (very poor) modelling as a kid. Then I found that booze and modelling don't mix - at least not on the money I could earn back then. Got back into it purely by accident when someone bought my grandson a model kit and I was asked to build it. Made a pretty poor job of it so decided I'd see if I could get better enough to at least show some of my efforts. Gimme another 40-50 years and I might get confident enough to show ALL of my builds!

 

[windymiller]

there was a maoosive modelling / toy shop near me called sp models at snetterton, must of been one of the biggest in the uk, whenever i needed a "moment" id loose myself round the shop (literally i had to phone my wife up and ask where she was the shop was that big) sadly could never get my boy into models after he dropped lego, and an even bigger sadness was it subsequently closed !!!

 

[Dave Ward]

Been making models since I was 6 or 7, encouraged by my father - and never stopped. Been through the whole range of modelmaking, balsa aircraft, balsa boats, plank on frame ships, model engineering, R/C powered planes and of course plastic models. Just part of my life now, I'm retired, and with decreasing mobility, and it gives me great satisfaction, to do something that I think I am actually improving at!
Dave

 

[Si Benson]

Great to read your background stories guys

Personally I was a late starter to model building. I was always an outdoor kid right up into my mid teens, not one for staying in. I did paint a few warhammer figures in my late teens and built a few RC cars but it didn’t last long.

I gave up smoking in my mid twenties and built a selection of Tamiya military kits to distract and keep my hands busy.
Never painted them, just stuck them in a box in the loft. Had loads of spare money before marriage and children so got myself a 1:16th Tamiya RC tiger 1 to build but it became an ornament once built.

About 10yrs ago,a trip to Bovington had my in awe of tanks, seeing all the kits in the souvenir shop gave me a push to want to paint what I’d built yrs before.
Stumbled across modelling forums and modelling magazines while looking for advice and got totally hooked.....been building ever since!

 

[Jim R]

Very interesting to hear of how modellers came to be modellers. When I retired I moved from Yorkshire to the Outer Hebrides. I had always worked long hours but now found I had "free time". The weather on the island was not always conducive to doing stuff outside and the wife suggested that either a murder or a divorce was in the offing if I didn't find something to do rather than get under her feet and ask if it was still raining!
On a trip off the island to visit family I found a model making magazine at a motorway service station. I was amazed at the sheer quality of the models in the magazine. I bought it and joined the old forum and built my first ever model. A Tamiya jeep. The rest is history.

For me I find it relaxing to spend a few hours listening to the radio and creating something. It is a hobby where you can push yourself to improve. The other thing is the shared fun on a site like this.

Scotties post pretty well sums up my feeling now. Just wish I had more time and wasn't so painfully slow at modelling.
Jim