Why do we fiddle with details that no-one will see on a model?
"Because I know it's there." seems to be the stock answer when I ask anyone this question, and I guess it's as good as any.
Normally, we build models to please ourselves. In truth, unless someone is paying you to build it, there is absolutely no point otherwise. On that basis, you make things to a standard you are happy with. This might not be the highest in the world, but it's a level where you gain the maximum pleasure - this is a hobby after all.
Commercial modellers will have a different approach, but I know I'll never ben properly in that field. There isn't a magazine project I've worked on where I haven't done some work that won't appear in the photos on the page. Maybe I might take the model to a show (remember those?) and the fact the back of a building has been modelled will be appreciated by a visitor.
On the other hand, it just seems odd to me not to do this. While I might build on demand, I'm still proud of each and every project, and leaving bits off would seem to be selling myself short. An attitude that might satisfy my soul, even the approaching deadline makes me wonder!
What's the most time-consuming detail you've added to a model that only you know exists?
2 comments:
Allan Downes suggested, if you can't see it , why model it - a modelling legend.
Back in 1983 I built a 4mm scale model of the Dinorwic quarry hospital at Llanberis as a project while studying modelmaking at Hertfordshire College of Art & Design. I was working from a survey/drawing I'd made in 1981 but realised I had no information on the rear wall. This wall was only a few feet from the retaining wall holding up the slope behind the hospital and on my visits it was (I think) behind a gate which was always shut.
So I had no information. In conversation with the tutor I found myself persuaded to take a 3-day trip to Porthmadog and then on to Llanberis solely to survey this one rear wall that on the finished model would be all but unseen.
The rear wall had one small, centrally positioned arched window but was otherwise the same hand-scribed Das stonework as on the rest of the walls and that's how I modelled it.
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