SPA Modeler

We all love this hobby, otherwise we would not keep on doing this day in, day out.

Thanks to Torbens (Mostrich) comment on an earlier post, I was thinking...

What do we "hate" or dislike most when we build our planes, cars, tanks, figures or dinosaurs ??
Something we just need to do, as we don't have any alternatives, and just need to go through to be able to finish the build ?

* * *

I will start:

Fixing and sanding seamlines, I just simpy don't like it, always difficult, I see the result only when I put on the first layer of paint etc. And either I overdo it, make round seamlines flat etc.. Always difficult...

- Kari

Decals.

They don't bother me much when there's only a dozen, at most. I actually almost like em then!
That little Typhoon I just finished, for "review" had just over 100. More than half of em had to be done 2-3-4 times, because they'd keep coming up with the paper towel...

The detail work in the middle... after basic construction and painting has begun, there is that period of the detailing... it can go on for far longer than the basic construction or final stages. That’s where my interest may begin to drift away...

I had to really think about how I was gonna fill in the rest of this sentence! For me, "What I hate most is cutting resin free of stubs." Once the resin is free of its stub, the piece becomes another part and my blood pressure drops to normal. I try to tell myself that the stub is necessary for the resin design to be made. I try to console myself with the fact that there is more detail present in the resin piece than in the styrene equivalent, but these are "convenient fictions" told to myself in order to get over the feeling that I am going to spend usually an entire evening "freeing resin parts from their confining stubs," and most likely I will nick either myself or the resin which I paid gobs and gobs for the privilege of using. Honestly, though, this animosity may be decreasing since more resin kit and parts makers are well aware of the issue and changing the way resin pieces are produced. So, in the end, if you read this far, my feelings are more of a massive pet peeve that is rapidly diminishing the more I find good resin guys. However, I am definitely looking forward to Wingnut Wings kits when they arrive and the satisfying "click" sound as each bit of styrene comes off its sprue with all its tasty details intact.

case in point—

I've found I'm pretty patient when it comes to building. From start to finish, I generally take all of it in stride, with one exception. I hate trying to find that one, irreplaceable part that just flew away. Styrene, resin, or brass, nothing annoys me more than applying a hair too much pressure and watching as the part, (usually the size of a pin head and critical to the build), launches into the Twilight Zone. Of course this is followed by the equally annoying air and ground, grid by grid search.

Losing small / tiny parts to the vast twilight zone - be it plastic or PE. Also finding that you’ve snapped off a part off the kit by accident.

BlackSheep214 wrote:Losing small / tiny parts to the vast twilight zone - be it plastic or PE. Also finding that you’ve snapped off a part off the kit by accident.

Losing a large part is far worse!!!

Fermis wrote:

BlackSheep214 wrote:Losing small / tiny parts to the vast twilight zone - be it plastic or PE. Also finding that you’ve snapped off a part off the kit by accident.

Losing a large part is far worse!!!

I’ve had that happen too. Once I thought I lost a car kit body. Only to find out I literally left it at my grandparents’ home cellar.

Tank tracks-I'm starting an Asuka M4A3E8 and each link has 2 pieces and there are 77 links per side. I have to be very careful with the glue because they are(supposed to be) workable tracks. 79 year old eyes and shaky hands add to the difficulty.

I hated this when I was a kid and I still hate it now, after coming back to the hobby from a 20+ year hiatus:

Painting and fixing canopies.

:shudder:

I hate it. But I’m going to keep doing it. And sooner or later, I’ll get good at it.