This past weekend a few relatives visited my wife and I from out of town. They decided 4 months of quarantine was enough and we were happy to welcome them in our home for a night. My wife has 4 wonderful brothers and 3 of the 4 made the trip. These boys know I took up modeling last fall and said they were excited to see the few builds I completed so far. My favorite build is the 1/48 A6M2 Zero from Tamiya. It‘s displayed on Coastal Kits mat in our dining room. Here’s the part I find so interesting. Each of them wanted to pick it up the minute they laid eyes on it. What’s the fascination with touching? I politely ask them not to and all is well. I Have to constantly ask my wife not to touch completed assemblies too.
I don’t know where you guys stand on modeling being art but I never had the desire to touch works of art at an art gallery. Being arrested is certainly one reason but I wonder why certain people feel this need?
I am not sure, but maybe its bacause a model is 3 dimensional, people feel the need to pick it up so they can look at it properly. At most of the shows i go go, every display has do not touch signs.
No one in my house touches my builds, but i guess if you live with someone who models you are used to it. All of my models are on bases, so if some one did feel the urge to inspect one, hopefully they would pick up the base and not the model.
Well, ya can’t see the underside as it sits on the display board on its landing gear…
Seriously though, I never like visitors touching my displayed builds either. Simply tell guests that the builds are fragile and will break easily if handled. I don’t see my work as art, but it is quite fragile and usually many hours of effort before it gets to my display shelves.
Any curator or security guard will tell you there are plenty of people who do!
It’s human nature to want to handle a pretty thing. The problem is, sometimes even other modelers forget how delicate and damage-prone our little ‘masterpieces’ can be. I know that while building, I will occasionally forget the odd pitot or aerial mast (that I myself recently wrangled into place with much pain and effort) and ‘snap.’ It invariably seems that when anyone else reaches for one of my creations…they seem instinctively to home in on the most vulnerable (or impossible to restore) bits…then just grin like idiots, and say “Sorry. But you can just glue that back on, right?”
I wonder if it’s because people think models are toys and we instinctively tend to want to handle toys. It’s the same with scale model trains.
I’ve had the same experience many times. I try to keep my models behind glass, but I’m out of display case. The trains are another story. Out in plain sight and are fair game if I forget to explain they are to look at only, please.
If I see a guest taking an interest in a particular model, I tend to quickly grab it show it to them. I never really thought about it before now, but maybe it’s a conditioned response defensive thingie of some sort.
I don’t think anyone means any harm. Normal, sane folks have no concept of how much time and effort goes into our models, I think.
Edit: Ha! Guess I cross-posted with Tojo. Looks like we have the same idea. [:D]
When I volunteered at the Museum at Dinosaur Ridge we had of tons of people who wanted to touch everything. We had a real dinosaur footpint that they can handle and several bone and skull casts that they could touch. I guess touching makes it real. Especially DINOSAURS and children. Hey, I Ioved it too.
I’ve seen people at shows reach out to touch the models and their kids do the same. Evedintly they don’t know how to read so neither do their kids. Then you hear a voice come over the speakers “does anyone have a pair of tweezers and some CA”? I’ve had that happen to me several times at different shows. Now I go with a small tool box with almost everything I need. There’s always something I forgot.
I think the ones who go tho shows are thoroughly trained, they are usually avid modelers or are with avid modelers.I never seen anyone try to touch at a show.I guess it has happened,but the ones who come to your house are the ignorant,unknowing,think its a toy, ones who dont think or respect.
Yeah, I don’t know why people feel the need. I am a docent at the Carmel Mission and the catafalque of Serra; well his head is bald. Tourists keep it polished.
Back when I was working on a display of aircraft for the 18th T.F.W. I came into my office one morning and found a nnote from the wion operations officer on my desk asking me to report to his office.
I went in showing some nervousness and thinking that this coiuldn’t be about the call I had received from the Captain of the Enterprise. That was over a week ago. The Colonel came out looking a little strange and started to explain that they had just received a JASDF F-86 for the wing collection. They were trying ot figure out what size national insignia thye needed to have made for it when it occured that we had some T-39s on base that used basically the same wing.
Unfortunately by that time he had accidently broken the landing gear off one of the models sitting on top of the file cabinets. The other models damaged were done by some of the other pilots in the office.
It can happen anywhere, to anybody. That’s why not only do we put signs on the table, at our contests, we have people walking around talking to people and watching the displayed kits.
GH, did you have Sister Francis tooooooo? Between the 12" ruler and that pointer she really did a number on us. That’s why we start getting arthrirus and other pains in the hands as we get older.[;)]
Jim [cptn]
Stay Safe.
PS - If she got really PO’d, she’d use the mahogany clicker.[:'(]
