I was just curious about the ‘typical modeler’. I got to wondering about this, especially in the last couple of months.
I’m a student in my 3rd year of university, and have been an active modeller for the past 6-7 years. Heck, I even got my gf into it.
I started off with military aircraft, then as my repertoire (read: tools, paints, materials, etc) grew, I moved on to armour modelling.
I currently have many sub-par airplanes waiting in like to be rebuilt.
However, I don’t see too many modelers like myself. It’s usually much older and a male-dominant crowd. I can’t help but be saddened by this. It is great to have so many wise and experienced mentors, but it does not seem that there is enough young talent, and ultimately, this is what the hobby needs to survive.
Comments anyone? I’d love to see what kinds of modelers are out there.
The reason why you see so many older males (late 30s and above) is because we were the last generation not to grow up with video games. I will turn 40 in a two days, my brother is almost 36. We had the Atari 2600 and he was into the video games from the beginning whereas I was still into building the inexpensive models made by Monogram, Revell, Airfix, Lindberg, Matchbox and Aurora. You could buy their low end kits for under $2 and they were sold almost everywhere.
I’ve been building kits since I was in grammer school which means over 30 years. I started off building whatever I could find and afford. I have built all types of kits (still do) but settled into armor modeling. While my main interest is in modern military equipment, I will build any kit that piques my fancy.
I have been in the military for over 21 years and on active duty banging my head into various pieces of military hardware for the last 17 years. Having references so close at hand is a mixed blessing. It’s great for detail reference, but sometimes you get hung up trying to perfect the details. I usually build a Sci-fi kit or some other type of kit to work through an AMS block.
I started another thread in the off-topic forum addressing your comments, but worded a bit different. Consensus seems to be, the hobby’s fine and will continue to flourish. My problem on my other thread is that the younger generation has too many distractions.
Anyway, back to your question. The hobby has evolved so much in the past 10 years or so that I have seen many great things. The trick the companies are using today to help attract younger modelers are prepainted kits such as cars. Think of them as today’s snaptight kits if you will. Theory being, once they get hooked on them, they will work their way onto bigger projects. Next the Gundam line seems to be very popular with children also. Perhaps my other thread was premature.
I can safely say I have learned more in the past year then all the years before about modeling and that the vast majority of my finished kits are obsolete. Iv’e modeled off and on for some 30 years! Have to admit I don’t see too many children in my LHS’s. People reassure that the hobby is alive and well.
i’m 27 yrs old, started modelling when i was 15 with 1/144 aircrafts then i stopped because whenever i display my builds, our maids clean up my shelves with a feather duster, ruining my box stock builds.
when i got a copy of FInescale modelers mag last year, i started uilding again, this time with armor.
i have a playstation, gameboy, and i collect toys, etc… but i enjoy modelling the most.
young at heart!
lol, I hear you on the obsolete kits. I’d say that pretty much everything save my last two or three kits are definitely to be rebuilt (If I ever get around to it all) but I definitely enjoyed them all throughly, as they were a learning experience.
I hope that you’re right in the sense of the hobby being alive and well. I personally see this becoming a lifelong obsession (I say lifelong, since it is allready an obsession) for me. I just wish that more individuals of a younger nature would realize this to be so much more of a fulfilling hobby than anything else.
I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on gaming systems plus games, but I’ve allways come back to this.
This is not just a hobby. As entertainment value, no game could provide the hours of joy building a kit will provide. Furthermore, it teaches patience, dilligence, attention to detail, values that can benefit an individual in all aspects of life, not just their own entertainment. Aren’t these values that could help anyone, anywhere, in any endeavor they attempt?
Well I agree with you on this , but unfortunately that is just our opinion, much like someone who might think that gameboarding is the hobby to end all hobbies. None of my boys are the least bit interested. The daughter has shown a little bit and I’m helping her on dare I say a car!
To pick up on Major G’s idea that video games keep younger kids from modeling, I think there’s a valid point there, although I have a few very bright and creative students who are very much into video games. I’m one of those mean parents who never allowed my children to have a Nintendo or any other video game for the simple reason that there is so much more to life away from the TV. However, although both like to make models on occasion, neither does so all of the time like the ‘old man’ does. My son is more into constructing his own gizmos for electronics and his model railroad, while my daughter is a reader, writer and musician. Both are avid skiers and do other sports.
My opinion is that modeling helps develop one’s ability to follow instructions, put things together both physically and mentally and is a great tool for not only cognitive development, but also an interest in the world in general. It’s great to make a model and see the actual object in a museum, on the street, in the sky or at some event… or vice-versa (see it then model it)!
I model anything that interests me… this means I’ve made all sorts of subjects from the Jupiter II of the old ‘Lost in Space’ series, U-boats, tanks, aircraft, cars, ships and what have you. My modeling is an extension of things I like, but can’t afford!
I’ve been modeling for over 40 years.
Ron
Well, I am 52 and returning to hobbies after a long absence. I have three sons and scouting took up my free time. the oldest is 22, the middle is 18 [both in college] and the youngest is 17.
the youngest and I are modeling together [both in the Sherman build] we are going to be doing some dioramas and I plan on getting back into R/C gliders, something I have not done since the oldest was a new born…
My wife plans on painting some of the figures but won’t be building anything, she says she does not have the time.
Well, I’m 26 and have been back in modeling for about 6 month now, I started out at 7 with a 1/72 ME-110 and eventually evolve into 1/35 armor now that I am all settled down I see my self modeling for a long, long time.
Hi all,
Well I’m 33 years old myself and love my video games and my modelling. I started model building when I was in grade 7 and have done, oh about 30-40 projects since then. I am a manager in a software company and enjoy online roleplaying games with my friends and I still love to build by armor dioramas. I have a son that’s only 6 months old at the moment, but believe me, we’ll be building models together as soon as I can get him hooked [;)]
Sure, I spend alot of time on my PC… and I have an Xbox and I have a PS2… and have had Atari, Coleco Vision, Intellevision etc etc, but I also find time for modelling… and sometimes there just isn’t anything I would want to do more then build a great armor piece that I may have seen in a movie [:D]
-Greg
PS: boy it helps alot when you have a wife that understands the importance of hobbies in a man’s life [;)]
JUst chiming in here as well, I am 34yo, but started doing models around 10-12 yo I guess, I was always fascinated with anything WWII related, just started to get back into it though, but alas, I don’t seem to have the time as I once did to spend a whole Saturday working on them!
Right on Greg.
I find myself the same way. I love my video games, etc, but at times, there is just nothing like building a model.
I haven’t done many dios b4 (only one) but I’d love to get into that as well. I’ve found really great and cheap ways to emulate materials for groundwork, grass, etc
Well I’m 50. Been building as an ‘adult-modeler’ (whatever that means) for 20 years. Made models as a kid. Quit when I got into high-school years, came back at about 30. I didn’t have video games or cable tv or vhs/dvd’s as a kid. I modeled because it was fun and somewhat affordable (most kits were $1.00. the really neat kits, with lots of parts were $2.00. Some were 50cents)!!
Just because I’m older doesn’t mean that I don’t have distractions…like a wife, whom I love tremendously and four kids, three at home still, plus church, etc!
Anyway we come to this hobby one way or another. What will attract one generation most likely won’t attract another! Not sure I’d want to try and make a living out of trying to predict what will succeed next!
My two cents!
Glenn
I’m a 40-year-old guy who will be 41 on the 1st day of March, and I’ve been building for 32-odd years. I started out building all my stuff in a consistent scale since I was ‘group-building’ with a friend who did the same thing, and whom I wargamed later: my collection against his. So I was always trying to find and build a kit that would ‘trump’ my friend’s latest acquisition. Later we went up against another kid who had an army, and that’s what started me on Braille Scale Armor and helicopters. In part, I still build as if I’m preparing for the next battle. I guess I never really grew up! [:I][:o)][}:)][:D] It is alot more fun building nowadays, now that I can share my work with others and learn new techniques from people who are far more knowledgeable. I’ve even been able to refurbish some very old kits that I built in my preteens and make them look almost professional! [;)][8D]
Now I’m trying to see if I can break 1000 models built. Maybe that will bring me to the attention of Guiness, and I can be listed as having the largest collection of miscellaneous models built by one person. [:o)]
Hey, a guy can dream…[|)][:I]
As for me…
I’m 35 and started modeling when I was about 8 or 9. I got back to modeling seriously about 5 years ago (after a few years away)
I started with the older Monogram aircraft kits and then began building their armor (I remember doing their "Screamin’ Mimi kit). I also was building Testor’s armor kits too.
What brought me back was a walk through a Hobby Shop when I was out of town. I happened to see & buy Tamiya’s Hunting Tiger and have been building ever since.
To a certain degree I had more FUN building models a s a kid. My friend and I would play war almost every day and we didn’t care how accurate the models were or painted. As long as they looked like they should we were happy. Now that I’m so stuck on accuracy, it has indeed taken a bit of the fun out of modeling.
I am 26 years old I have been modeling for about 15 years off and on. I have been known to take breaks of 6 months or more from building but i still buy kits in the mean time. I usually have to be in the mood to model. I rarely force myself to build something. I admitt that I took a bit of a break when I was dating my last GF… Then again on the flipside that ended just about the time the Panther build started so I had LOTS of time to kill. I do enjoy playing computer games as well (BF 1942, Delta Force, MOAA) but I get tried of that pretty quick. My job gets in the way more than anything. I am an editor / videographer / Graphics guy for 3 production studio that produces 2 (soon to be 3) national hunting and fishing show. I am solely responsible for our flagship show The Hunter’s Journal. So if I am not modeling thats what I am doing. When ya’ll see me signed on here at FSM at 3am in the morning I am working ( no internet at home)
Its nice having a shop in my spare room. I don’t have to drag anything out I can just go in a sit down. Basically I just model when I get a mind too.
I didn’t serve in the military but I have been intensly interested in history for as long as I remember. My father was a Civil War historian so I come by it honestly. I share the hobby with as many young people as I can. This Christmas I bought my best friends boy a die cast Tiger and Sherman. I think it is very important to push history to young people.
Ya’ll are right about modeling being a cognitive excercise as well. It is a great practice at problem solving, hand eye, ect. I majored in Digital Media (specifically 3D Animation) in college. It made me better at 3D modeling having a background in plastics. My professor agreed that it was a great combo. I built the tank in my signature using my modeling refs and a DML kit as a study. So modeling does have real world apps most certainly… Glad to be involved WHeW I am thirsty now… Talk to ya’ll later.
I have to say Duke has brought up a good point too. Modelling has become MUCH more of an enjoyable excercise now that the internet has made it so much easier to communicate and work with others about it.
I started modeling when I was about 10 years old ( 30 years ago ) , I was sick and my father brought me home a PT 109 model and that was it ! I remember that to this day ! I have gone to the armor side , as I like that a bit better now , although WWII air had me for quite a bit . One of the forumers had it right in that video games have taken over the creative gene we all have in us , hell I actually remember when cable TV first came out , and those cheesy video games we had when we were young , nothing but big pixel games , pong , donkey kong , pac man etc . talk about boring now , but at the time they were the thing ! So we had to find our own entertainment , by building stuff ! If you had the big money you built hot rods , if not you built models . I came in the between mode and did both ! Nowadays kids don’t have the patience for model building , its all immediate gratifacation if you know what I mean . I can’t get my son interested in this at all , its not his fault nor should it be a fault , its just changing times ! Lets face it , most of us when we were young and in school hated and slept through history , now i can’t get enough of it . When you get older , you tend to find out that all we have in america was paid for in american blood at some point or another , or british ,or australian etc , and we as modelers pay tribute to that in our craft . as corny as that sounds !
I am a freshman in highschool, and I have been modeling for 7 years as of january 2004 =) i guess it is one of the only places besides Starcraft and Diablo 2 that I have to fall back on so I dont do something stupid when im angry… which is prettymuch all of the time, but I am a nice guy, so dont worry I wont get pissed at you. I got my 2 best friends into modeling about 2 years ago, and I have taught one of them some tips and tricks that helped him build an outstanding 67 mustang =) and the other is more of an aircraft modeler, has an excellent blackhawk model that I helped him with advice. as for me I am an armour and Figures type of guy so thats where most of my expertez lies, but I do have 3 ships and a podracer that won me prizes in a junior modeling competition about 5 years ago at my local hobby shop. I love this hobby, and I wont drop it besides the pencile and paper got old after 12 years… ya know there is only so much you can do with a 2d object.