Well i was getting a bit philosophical at work so i though of placing my thoughts here and see the responces.Modelling to me strarted when i first shaw a cover of a greek model magazine featuring an F-4 phantom (yes it was a plane that did it) painted in that beautifull Aegean blue from the 80's as an interceptor/bomber double designation.But what had striked me even more was the way it was painted and weathered,it looked so real i had to make double sure it was a model.I was hooked.Up to that point (around 12 years old ) i was just buying the old Matchbox kits and glue them together in about 10 min without even knowing what the camo instructions were there for.To me ,to this day my goal remains when it comes to modelling and secondary ltaking pictures, to come as close to real life as possible.Which brings me to my main subject of this topic, weathering.I am now to a point were no matter how immaculate constructed or detailed a model is ,if there is no weathering , it leaves me almost unaffected ,almost unimpressed despite knowing what effort is required to reach that level of construction.I increasingly feel more like an painter rather a modeller.I want to bring emotion and drama into life, to tell a story not just to assemble and cover in paint.When i look at some armor stuff specially from a lot of talented people around the world .i feel like looking at a painting , and not in a 3D object.There is drama ,purpose,life,emotions, actions.Takes your mind back in time , wondering -if you are young enough-what it would be like.Is anyone else experiencing this transition? is anyone else feeling the need to make the step over the artistic side of things , instead of just staying at the pure construction/painting side?I think if i want to see an nice clean model i ll just take a stroll down the naval museum-speaking for ships .For me the task of a modeller is to model the object inside life not outside life.

Hi Kostas!

For me, capturing "drama, purpose, life..." is why I merge to of my passions--history and scale modeling--into diorama building. In this process, not only must the models be accurate in detail and markings, but the way they are depicted, doing things, having things done to them, must be based on actual events.

In naval diorama work, this is challenging because of the larger distances in real naval operations and I have to compress the action slightly to get diorama bases that are of manageable size, but it's amazing what can emerge from careful research.

An added advantage is the Campaign concept at the KitMaker sites which adds the challenge of developing a scene that is fresh and relevant to a given theme. This lets me stretch the creative envelope. We have several fascinating Campaigns coming up this year at Model Shipwrights, and I look forward to demonstrating more of what I speak!

--Karl

Model building is all part of the God delusion for me - I am all men as I am no man.

Cheerski

Karol

Keeping in mind that this is a hobby and you can't dictate how people have fun.....

To me a realistic looking model (I.E. weathered) is much more interesting than a "buidler's model" (I.E.pristine) but I recognize that many people like clean looking models. Additionally, over-weathered models are a lot less appealing to me a non-weathered one. Ron Smith calls them "Drag Queens" and I agree... over make-uped and grotesque .

My passion for history fuels my passion for modeling.

My take on it is that people who take up this hobby are a mix of artist, engineer, and historian, and how each individual balances those three things determines what sorts of things they're willing to do and what they find important. For instance, I lean far toward the "artist" side of that triangle so you'd never find me going to the trouble to sand off an AA gun emplacement just to move it 10 scale feet back... as long as it's a fairly reasonable representation of what I'm building and makes an impact on the viewer I'm happy. But the true historian can't stand to know it's in the wrong place and the engineer thrills at the challenge of repositioning it. I can't imagine just painting a model the standard issue colors appropriate to the vehicle's owning government and ending it all there, I agree that weathering makes the model more visually interesting and for me that's it's purpose. But I'd bet the hardcore historian agonizes over knowing that his rust stains cannot possibly exactly match those on the real ship and the engineer probably thrills at making sure oil stains are where oil stains should be and that he does not put rust stains in places where the paint would not be likely to peel. So it's all a matter of what you find important and what you get out of this.

And that certainly isn't to say we're all equally gifted but just balanced differently. When I look at the stuff here I know that some of these guys are better artists, engineers, AND historians than I'll ever be. All our triangles are not of equal size