Any scale modelers in the Great Rabble?

[James Hood]

Any current or former scale modelers out there in the Rabble?

As a lifelong (since age 6) scale modeler (mostly plastic kits and miniature figures), it was interesting to learn, some of the enforced staying-inside because of the covid plague...

...has resulted in an increase of interest in scale modeling.

Once a sort of rite of passage for many youth, the scale modeling pastime took severe "hits" in popularity in the last two decades because of the omnipresent cosmicnet, video games and magic portable phones, as life-time-sucks.

Interestingly, in the past 11 months, model kit and associated supplies there for are up.

Personally, 'am thrilled, some folks (from young to mature) are using their hands for something more creative than keying on or manipulating electronic devices...

...and possibly learning bits about aeronautics, nautical subjects, automotive "stuff," space (real and fictional) and most important, history.

('Have deliberately not mentioned model railroading, as that is a vast genre of scale modeling, in itself. Someone else can start a thread on this if desired.)

[Brian Rose]

I once was an avid builder who alternated from planes to cars and back. That was back in what could be called the golden age of kits in the 1960's . Once I got older then the scale of the cars changed to 1/1. Building them, particularly the airplanes, took a lot of historical research. That took me off into some of the more obscure corners of history that were definitely not mainstream. I don't regret a minute of it. I thought I was pretty good- then again I was 10 years old. When I watch the current crop of builders on You Tube, I can't compare. The amount of detail that some of them pack into a 1/72 plane is fantastic. While there may not be as many builders currently, the quality ( and detail) of the kits has improved so much since those days.
There are still a few unbuilt kits boxed up in the basement. IMC, MPC, AMT, Revell and Monogram. I did pickup a Revell plane kit a couple of months ago at an estate sale. Unopened and it was just too cheap.

[OC Richard]

What a great thread!

I'm a child of the 1960s. My Dad was an avid modeller, he got into it in the 1950s with the early plastic kits.

I saw some of the scratch-built wooden models he made as a youngster in the 1930s, they were very cool, a stern-wheeler and a couple early tanks, the kind with multiple turrets and cannons coming out of the sides.

When I was very small my dad was always working on plastic kits, WWI biplanes and sailing ships with all the rigging done with thread and the Aurora knights and a Viking ship. I marvelled at all those little Viking figures, how detailed my Dad painted them, the variety of hair-colours he gave them, their little moustaches.

He still did scratch-built wooden things, he carved some wood marionettes and he made Kachinas. It's sad that he got rid of everything.

In the mid-1960s I got into the Aurora Universal Pictures monsters and spaceships from current TV shows like Lost In Space, Land Of The Giants, The Invaders as well as actual spaceships Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

In middle school and into high school I got into the Tamiya WWII tanks and half-tracks.

I also got into painting lead soldiers. These two are all I have left. Perhaps because they have glass covers they never got thrown away. I just now took them outside and snapped this photo of them, they've been sitting on a shelf for ages. (You can see how we've been hit with the winter snow



I hadn't done any modelling of any kind since the early 1970s.

Then 10 years ago my daughter started dragging me to Comic Cons, mainly because she wasn't driving yet. I started getting into costuming, first building things for her costumes.

Yes 1:1 scale modelling as you so well put it.

Soon I was building costumes for myself.

There has been extra time during Covid, my workplace is still shut down. I've done quite a bit of costume work over the last year. Here's something I built a while back but have continued to make adjustments and improvements in.



I sculpted the dagger out of Sculpy, I made the sword out of foam. THEY ARE NOT WEAPONS, THEY HAVE NO BLADES. Both are non-ferrous one-piece props consisting of a scabbard and attached grip.

It was the first time for me using foam and Sculpy.

Here's how the dagger progressed as you can see IT IS NOT A WEAPON IT HAS NO BLADE.



Doing the belts was fun too, the weathering/ageing.

Here is the completed costume, the character is from a TV show. THERE ARE NO WEAPONS IN THESE PHOTOGRAPHS.

[The Q]

Modelling?
N gauge model railway 2mm to the foot, Highland Railways, based on the Kyle Line. Size 15ft by 6ft

EM Gauge 4mm to the Foot, Midland and South Western Junction Railway. Will be 53ft by 16ft

Sailing 304mm to the foot, Norfolk Broads.. sailing boat heading for completion size, 4876mm X 1220mm, 1000mm draft...

I have some plastic kits to build.
Tornado ADV F3 1:32 scale modified from an F2 kit with radar dome open on the ground part Built. (I worked on them)
Hurricane and Spitfire a great Uncle fought in them.
Matilda (2) Tank 1:35 Granddad fought in them..

[cessna152towser]

My 1/76 scale model railway in its own room depicts various cameos from my life experience, including miniature kilted bagpipers.

[neo71665]

I used to be an avid model car builder before I was able to play with the real things. Still got a few kits on the shelf but also got 2 project cars sitting behind my shop I need to get back started on.

[The Q]

My 1/76 EM gauge railway is based on May 29th 1940.
Based on Ludgershall station in Wiltshire.

However in 1907 this photograph of the Liverpool Scottish regiment was taken of troops marching down from the station at the top of the picture. Sad to realise that in 7 years time these men were in the trenches, of WW1,
1 in 10 of them didn't come home.
I intend to model this scene.

[The Q]

Here's a picture of the N gauge railway.

[Todd Bradshaw]

I built a lot of plastic models when I was young, mostly WWII aircraft and early jet fighters. These days, it's just N-Scale trains running along the shelf tops in my office with two parallel tracks making loops about 53' long, so I can run some fairly long trains.

I worked for a few years as a commercial hot air balloon pilot and doing repairs and inspections on them. At one point I built a model about one tenth size of a Cameron O-Type balloon envelope.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kmk7k1fxav...allet.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r38muw1quz...land2.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7htotqz2s...fabe1.jpg?dl=0

[CollinMacD]

Funny you should post this at this time. Like most when I was a kid, yes I loved to build plastic AMT cars, Revelle and Monogram Ships, and a few tanks here and there. As I grew into my teens I started to build wooden ship models as I grew up near Gloucester, Mass, and this a big pastime for off season fisherman. So I built several kits, like the Baltimore Clipper, USCG Eagle, Taurus Tug, and few more. All stopped when I joined the Military.

Now that I am retired, i have started once again to build wood ship models, and some plastic PT Boats, but I bought a rather large collection of WWII armor and trucks to build. I JUST started to build the remake of the German manufactured PT109. I built that model in 1963, so I thought I would start my hobby once again building something I did years ago. However this time I got a nice compressor, couple of Air brushes, nice collection of paints, and tools. So I have also purchase a good quantity of wood ships from BlueJacket and others, mainly I have Revenue Cutters, Nantucket Light Ship, Elco PT Boat, Swampscott Dorry, and several other models. I purchased many of the wood tools needed to do both plank on plank and solid hull.

This is the hobby I chose since I retired recently. I find it to be challenging, relaxing, and unlike building these as a kid, I now do research to assure i am painting these correctly.

Several years ago I did a few metal figures, mainly a Zouave Civil War soldier, came out great and was all hand painted... did this when i was on a isolated duty station....needed something to pass the time and it worked.

So YES I love doing these kits.