wives......oh boy!

So, I rush home from work last night, look in my model workshop, on the desk is sitting my Tamiya Zero, ready for decals. I am psyched because I have learned, finally, to use the decal set solution and see the beauty of decals that actually look painted on. I sit at the desk, look this way and that way, turn it upside down and note that the 2 coats of future are dry. “All right” I holler to my daughter who has her season opener high school soccer game. “Here I come” I yell and have to put it down. So, I work 2 hrs of concessions, pour drinks and fry burgers. I film a great game between 2 powerhouses in the state which ends 0-0. She plays 70 of 80 minutes at center mid and makes her Dad proud. However, the whole time, all I can think about is applying the decals. Great paint job, grey belly and jungle green mottle. Coolest I have done yet. Game ends about 10, run home and have to help kids with homework. Run to the store for milk and finally get to my desk about 11:30. Apply the decals, looks great. I take the plane upstairs to show my 18 year old son and my wife. My son, an artist, appreciates the hard work and marvels at the paint job. My wife, well my wife looks over from her chair and says “oh, it’s plastic”. I turned, kept my mouth shut, brougt the plane back to my office, turned off the light and went to bed. Got up early, immediately went and sprayed on a finishing flat coat and put it on the shelf. Rearranged all 20 planes. From Atlantic to Pacific. It sits next to the Dauntless. Plastic I thought. But what a great job! Wives…, what can I say?

Yeah, nsclcctl - I can relate to that. About 10 years ago, my ex told me she really liked the Ford Ranger Splash pickups. Got the kit and spent the next 3 weeks building it in ‘secret’. Paint was perfect, engine wired and detailed, even made a personalized licence plate with her name on it. Put it in a display case and wrapped it up for Christmas. She opens it up, looks at it for about 5 seconds and says “Oh … thanks.” and sets it aside.
Did I mention she is my ex? [8D]

I know what ya mean…
Girlfriends can be even more cruel!
Whenever she can’t sleep, she says, “tell me about that tank thing your building…”
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

She’s gone in 35 seconds!

I appreciate my wife but I obviously don’t appreciate her enough. I feel for you guys but I can’t imagine what that’s like. My wife is very supportive of my hobby (even though she bugs me sometimes about how many kits I have on the shelf) and she really tries to share my excitement even if she doesn’t always “get it”. She is a crafter herself though so she is always finding stuff in the craft sections and asking me if this would work for something or telling me that would be great for this. You guys have my sympathy and if you ever find a supportive woman don’t ever let her go!!!

Ray

I’m not married, but the girls like a guy with a hobby. Except of course when I get bored with them and say “i’m going upstairs to build models…you coming or you leaving now?”…great way to get the house to myself again :slight_smile:

My wife is very supportive of all of my half-finished kits setting on my desk and the ones still in the boxes on the shelf. Heck, she even helps me out by buying me new ones to add to my growing collection. She appreciates the work that I do get finished too. She has a couple of my D&D miniatures that I have painted out for display. Heylonghair is right, if you can find one that is supportive of your hobby…she’s a keeper! [:D]

Jerry

My wife is quite indulgent and I have few complaints … except that she tries to govern how many models I have in progress at a given time. The other day I got a shrink -wrapped kit off the stack (wanted to open it and determine what preparations I might need to take for it). She saw me do it and said, “What are you doing? You don’t need to start another model until you finish a couple that you already started.” I just looked at her a moment and replied, “Excuse me, but this is my hobby; I do it for fun. I don’t need to have my hobby ‘managed’ by anyone other than myself, thank you very much.”

Qapla’

SSB

I am pretty lucky in that my wife tolorates and somewhat appreciates my hobby. She doesn’t like my airplanes, unless they are painted with a pretty color, but she really likes my wooden sailing ships.

Amen, Longhair and Coldwar. My current wife (hmmm … that doesn’t sound quite right) is very supportive of my modeling and my 1:1 automotive projects. Right now, I’m working on an AMT '67 GTO for her daughter. I machined a few bits for it out of aluminum and when I showed them to her, she shook her head, smiled, gave me a squeeze and told me her daughter will love it. She will actually come up and watch what I’m doing and ask questions. She’s a peach. (Found her on the Internet, BTW)
[:D]

Congratulations Hoser, and I hope that she continues to be your current wife for a loooong time![:D]

Jerry

Heh…same here I guess. My story is a little different. I’m into, well, cars. In my case, a Toyota Supra Turbo. I’ve owned the car a few years and really love it. Suddenly, after allot of miles, the engine started knocking. I was trying to decide if it made more sense to keep and rebuild the engine or sell it…which would have broke my heart. I told my girlfrined about it and immdeiatly she said, “Well, I guess you better fix it then huh”? The car is fixed and my girlfriend and I are now engaged. [:D]

I’ve been very lucky. My fiance is very supportive and is always coming by my work area and checking out my work. She will say: “Hey sweetie what you doin?” and I will begin to go into a lengthy discussion about how im using some new technique I learned. She will tell me how cool something looks and won’t hesitate to point out my mistakes when I mess up. Yeah, its a match made in heaven I tell ya. But there is one thing she keeps nagging me about…“Where you gonna put it??” [:D]

How different can you get. My ex while on a day out with the chileren and me to a preserved railway said while standing in the shop '“Do all these records just have the sound of trains going Choo Choo!” You could have heard a pindrop and used my face for a red light. My wife (No2) can tell which loco is hauling the excursion train up the mountains by its exhaust beat!! And will usualy come with me to watch and photo it if its a new one.
I’ll keep this one!
Dai

my g/f always tells me she likes watching me do models but everytime i look she is on the computer so where is the watching goin on. i come to the conclusion in her head she loves me doing models cuz then i am not on computer and she can get on it lol.

You are right, many wives do not understand the modeler they have at home.
Two usual questions: 1) Where are you going to place all those unbuild models?
2) Where are you going to place all those built models?
Who can understand them?

Longhair said it…,
My wife pretends to be really interested but doesn’t see or fully understand all of the effort that goes into creating a “scale replica” instead of a “model”. She does, however, have an appreciation for my skills, and often remarks on how lifelike or realistic my work is (so do my clients!) because she’s very into all forms if arts and crafts. She’s very good at what she does.
She never gives me a hard time about my slowly growing collection of unbuilt kits - but every now and then gives me a very hard time about building one for myself instead of for clients (haven’t built one for myself for 3 years - too busy with the paying jobs) - she says it’s time I did one for myself so that I can enjoy it.

She’s pretty cool. I think I’ll keep her. She’s also probably the only one out there who’ll put up with me…
Cheers,
LeeTree

My wife is completely non-commital about the whole thing. If I do it, fine. If not, she won’t get her LHD of the Kearsarge done, but she never had one before, so who cares? As long as I don’t spend more than the rent, she doesn’t really mind. She just never understood us artistic types and musicians. (Yes, I’m both)

demono69

… 22 years ago next Wednesday, I was giving airplane rides at Richlands Municipal Airport, Va. on a pleasant Saturday afternoon. Three girls pulled into the parking lot and said they wanted to go airplane riding; twin sisters and their friend who lived in a town about 35 miles up the road. I had a Skyhawk that day, and the twin with the prettiest smile, Lisa, was asked to sit up front beside me. Their ride lasted considerably longer than what was usual, as I was picking small cumulous clouds to fly through the edge of, up around 5,000’.

We got back down and as Lisa was getting out, she said “That is the best time I’ve ever had in my life”, while looking right into my eyes with that look… you know, THAT look! Three months later she became Mrs. White! [;)]

Not long after that, she appeoached me one day and asked; “Which one do you love better, flying or me?” I said; “Honey, you’ll always come first in my life, but Flying runs a very close second, and I’d hate to ever have to choose between the two.” [8D] So she never said anything else about my flying, and my model building (which pre-dated flying by about 10 years) became something she just accepts as Part of Who I Am.

About 14 years ago, my Grandmother taught her how to make Quilts by hand, so she spends just as much time consumed in her hobby too. Modeling in my “Cave”, and Quilting is hers, we respect that about each other. [:)]

“Honey, have you been cleaning up my work desk again?”
Frank

G’day

My story is different again. After being away from this hobby for 20 odd years, I dug out some old kits & got back into it. Whilst browsing thru a local hobby shop (after being dragged in by yours truly), the Mrs says “I want to make one too”. So she got herself a 1/48 Revellogram Wildcat (cheap & not difficult).

The next time she went in to the shop, she buys (for herself) a 1/48 Academy AVG Tomahawk. Since then she’s bought a Revellogram Fokker Dr.1 & a Huey gunship.

Needless to say there aren’t too many complaints re kits hogging up desk space. Cant complain can I !

Good job seevee. I would love to get my wife to build one. I think that she would like it, but it is like trying to get her to go shooting with me…it’ll happen one day.

oldhooker, I have suggested to my wife that I finish trying for those pilot’s license that I just couldn’t afford to finish when I was 18, no go on that one. I have yet to be able to get her in a plane. Maybe you could talk some sense into her about it. [:D] She supports almost everything else that I do though.

Jerry