Someone posted a thread on here about enjoying the hobby, and the discussion went into constructive criticism vs rivet counting.
I mentioned a Churchill I just completed that had at least one big mistake (access hatch to the mortar is not correct), but I really enjoyed the build.
So what models occupy a place of pride on your shelf, even though they would make a rivet counter pucker?
My flawed favorites are imperfect due to manufacturing design, some due to my skill level, so I guess I’m expanding the scope a bit.
Here’s my 1/72 Dragon Churchill MkIII AVRE.
This is an Academy 1/144 SU 22 Fitter. You can get these kits for under $3. Just a fun kit. The landing gear covers were a bit thick, so replaced them with sheet styrene. Antenae is a pin.
This is a 1/72 Revell Mig 21 Fishbed. Never could get the canopy to fit right, wheel covers not quite right either. I tried a different technique for panel shading on this one. Painted the panels various shades of gray then sprayed a light coat of silver. The shaded undercoat gave a nice variation. I can’t say it was one of my most enjoyable builds, but I’m just happy I got it done.
This one is another kit that fought back. A 1/72 Airfix 190. Engineering made this one a tough build, things don’t fit quite as well as some other Airfix kits. I like this one because it was my first attempt at German camo. The lighting in the picture makes it look like it has some bare metal weathering. Another frustrating build that turned out ok, so it earns a sweet spot on the shelf.
They look good to me in the photos Paladin! Frankly I’m at the point that instead of obsessing about getting something perfect I’m more likely to simply chalk a bad model up to a learning experience and move on applying what I’ve learned to the next one.
Wish I could link a few but most of my photos are still on PhotoBucket locked up where I can’t really access them. Maybe I’ll pull the models out and take new photos when I get a chance.
Your builds look great. I recently bought an Airfix S-3A that looks really nice to me. It may have very lightly raised panel lines and such, but, even if it is not 100% accurate in all details I think the kit actually looks pretty good, and it seems close enough to what my understanding is that the S-3 looks like to make me happy. [:P]
Pat
PS. The more that I think about it now I realize that alot of the old Airfix/MPC, Monogram and Revell stuff I built as a kid (especially the planes) were more than good enough for me. [:D]
A “flawed favorite” of mine is Tamiya’s M4A3E2 Sherman “Jumbo”. I bought it while on a Tamiya nostalgia binge and didn’t know a thing about the M4. That helped enormously with keeping the AMS at bay; it wasn’t until after I finished the model that I learned the turret side walls should have been vertical not sloped. I’m sure there are a plethora of details that are wrong or missing, but ignorance is bliss, and it was a blissful build!
That was an eye opener for me. Now I know that my modeling enjoyment is inversely proportional to the amount of AMS in a project.
Conversely, Beavis of “Beavis and Butthead” fame once postulated that “The angle of the dangle is inversely proportional to the heat of the beat.” Heh-heh. Heh-heh-m. Yeah, yeah, that was pretty cool.
It seems no matter how careful and meticulous I am when starting a new build, my resolution to make a “flawless” model always fails somewhere along the way. Breaking a delicate part, the inadvertent glue finger print, the blunders always happen! Oh, well, nothing’s perfect.
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