I don’t play with them, so I don’t consider them toys. Quite frankly, I don’t really care what anybody thinks about my little plastic tanks (well, ok. I care about what my wife and son think). I admit it, I build tanks, I read about tanks, I post about tanks, I talk about tanks. I guess all that plus the fact that I play rugby, and an acceptable level of social skill and fashion sense makes me a bit of a stealth geek. But that’s cool. Gotta be better than drooling in front of the TV.
how do you transport your tanks and airplane?
Like Jeff Herne said, this does happen in all hobbies. whenever it happens to me (rarely). I usually break out into an extremely detailed history lesson. I say something like, “Well this sherman was in such and such division along with blah blah blah. It was able to fire 76mm shells that could penetrate all but the thickest german armor. It was made by Ford in the blah blah plant and had a blank hp engine. There were this many produced. blah blah blah …” When I see the mood shift happen I stop. Most change thier minds and then think it’s cool. Sometimes they get real quiet when they realize thier ignorance. I don’t do it to hurt people though. I try to be gentle and humorous but definitely authoritative at the same time.
TOYS… nah I 've been told its a waste of money to spend it on things that just sit on a shelf. It takes a special breed to do the things we do with these “toys”. Look at it this way… Im not spending my money on cheap beer and other things that would put me in alot of trouble. There diffenently a no touch rule in my house.
Most of the models I build I end up playing wargames with and I actively call them my toy soldiers , much to the annoyance of some wargamers. I dont set out to annoy them , it just helps me keep my feet on the ground.
Mountain m the wargames you play have to be the most astonishing thing Ive seen , the scale of your battles must be huge and yet at the same time much more personal than the battles I play.Good luck to you and your Green army oh and welcome to the site .
I’ve confess. I’ve held my partially finished warbirds by the tail an imagined them straffing my workbench or ‘smokin’ a bandit." Big deal. As long as no one walks in on you practicing your impersonation of a Merlin engine, it’s cool.
I’m so relieved.It’s just fantastic to know that I’m not the only one that flies a TIE fighter around the house or is always on the look-out for another Sherman to pop with my 88.
I’ll make machine-gun noises and cannon sounds like everyone. I love my toys. I don’t play much with the kid’s anymore, because they’ve almost outgrown everything, so my hobby is pretty much all the toys that are left. The family has been very supportive and I mean wifey more than anyone. She knows that my toys ground me to the home, so no complaints on her end. My one aunt is quite interested in history and my builds in particular. Yes to each their own, we all have “toys”, just that some are made of styrene, pe, and resin.
two words: Historical representations
When I was building my first model in the basement (Spitfire) my dad laughed at me, and i asked why, and he said i was saying stuff like “Bandits at your 6” and “Engine Down!Engine Down!” while i was painting my model
I haven’t had the “toy” crack leveled at me in quite a while, but I do remember that I had a platoon sergeant in the Army who picked my JS III up by the gun tube just to show me there was a little dust under it. It was very traumatic.[:0] I’m better now, I think. [:p]
I suppose a “toy” is just about any object that brings you pleasure through simply fooling around with it–whether it’s a fifty-grand-plus sail boat or a sixty-buck armor kit. However, I take some comfort in knowing that, during the dead of winter when the city’s shut down by a snowstorm, my neighbor’s sailboat is locked in ice and unusable down at the marina, while I’m sitting in my backroom workshop contentedly assembling my toy!
just use this analogy: what’s the point of painting or sketching? don’t they also end up sitting still on a shelf? yet painting and sketching is hailed as an “artistic” hobby…which, of course, they are…but you can always compare the idea of modeling to drawing and painting and I’m sure others will understand eventually…
I have had an individual , refere to my models as " Toys " He had just seen the kits in the box , as I was building them . Once he had seen my my completed kits , his opinion changed . Upon his retirement , I presented him with a M-113 , in U.N . markings . ( An actual representation , of the M-113 , he had crew commanded in Yugoslavia ) It sits proudly displayed in his living room .
Frank
" PERSEVERANCE "
Interesting responses guys.I was’nt really mad about the TOY remark so maybe i should have used [%-)] instead of [:(!].I just don’t understand the toy remark ,for example,i would’nt call a collection of Hummell (sp)ceramic figures ‘toys’.We build models because it gives us a “hands on” piece of history and we want to make the model an accurate representation of the real machine.In our eyes the model becomes the actual machine.We can feel the metal and hear the engine and smell the exhaust in our imagination.We study the history of these machines and the battles they where used in . We put our knowledge,time and passion into these scale miniatures and gaze upon them with satifaction(love?) ,maybe sometimes dispare(hate?).We protect our models from those who do not respect them(can i pick up your toy ?NO!). So i dont care for the"toy" remark because it comes from someone who sees something small with wheels and thinks “toy”. I don"t mind enlightening people about model building but it depends on the person,I’m not going to waste my time explaining my hobby to someone unless theres an interest.So when someone calls my models “toys” i figure their interest is’nt to deep.They may prove me wrong and i’m open to changing my mind.
Ted?
Those who calls what we do "Toys"are people that wish they had the talent to do it.Digger
Gothenburg is the second biggest city in Sweden.
The overall availability of kits is however very limited.
None of the major suppliers is represented; models are displayed and imported randomly.
There are a few enthusiasts who still care to give you a sniff overview of your coming build though.
When I picked up my Mi-24 Hind (I know that I am in the wrong forum Caveman) we where 5 gents age 20 to 70 in the room.
We all agreed that we have passed the “apologize no more” level.
Why should we apologize anyhow?
We do this for fun, right?
If I have to get serious about what modelling is about I’d say it is NOT:
About perfection
About detail
About weathering.
It is about Solitud.
lol…i thought i was the only one who made gun noises when i put them together.
I some times make gun noises there target is my cat most of the time and some times my infantry fire the guns thats about as far as I go. I some times have trouble with my friend saying that this kit looks like it is made out of one part, but when I show him a unbuilt kit figures out how hard it really is. But I have been lucky nobody has said look at the toys.