Hi everyone,
My name is Michał and I live in Gdańsk, in the north of Poland—the city where World War II began in Europe. I’m about to turn 50 in just a moment. Until recently, my primary hobby was collecting militaria, such as classic badges and medals, historical uniform buttons, and, perhaps most of all, field post and POW mail from WWI and WWII. Although collecting is incredibly fun, I decided to dust off a passion from my youth and try building something with my own hands.
For a long time, I focused on setting up a proper workbench, as gathering all the dedicated tools, paints, and so on takes time and, let’s be honest, quite a bit of money. I’ve also managed to put together an interesting stash of unbuilt kits. I spent a lot of time reading modeling literature, browsing forums, and watching YouTube videos. Originally, I intended to focus on classic combat aircraft and the history of Polish aviation. Over time, however, I discovered a passion for building military vehicles.
So far, I’ve completed one model—Tamiya’s classic Walker Bulldog. I treated it strictly as a testbed to practice using different tools, modeling techniques, and airbrushing. I should point out right away that this model will head to a storage box as soon as possible. In my closet, a new kit is already waiting, which I plan to build “for real.” I’m going to detail it using Eduard photo-etched parts, some resin upgrades, and proper individual link tracks.
My modeling philosophy is simple. I want to build the best models I can—meaning avoiding mistakes, maintaining historical accuracy, and, as far as my eyesight and skills allow, paying close attention to details. I must also admit that I’m not a fan of the Spanish School of modeling. I don’t plan on weathering and beating up my models just to show off skills, which often strays far from historical reality. I also have no intention of competing with fellow modelers. My philosophy is that a hobby isn’t a sport. Everyone should build according to their skills, time, and budget.
On that note, I’d like to ask the experienced modelers on this forum a question. At the beginning of your modeling journey, how did you deal with beginner mistakes like excessive glue, damaging or losing tiny parts, or one scrape of sandpaper too many that erased a rivet? Or a panel line scribed too deep or too wide? Did you allow yourself a margin of error, or did that model end up in the bin while you headed to the hobby shop for a new one? I’m the kind of person who is rarely satisfied with the results of my own work; I can always spot an imperfection. I often find myself wondering if I should just start a project all over again.
P.S. While my English isn’t terrible, I decided to use a machine translation tool for the sake of clarity and to make sure everything reads smoothly.
Warm regards to everyone, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
As a history fan, I must add: it was the Free City of Danzig back then, but today it’s Gdańsk and thankfully, the only battles here now are fought with plastic and glue.