Year-end reflections

It’s been a while since I wrote anything new for the Soup, so I thought I’d just check in to say hello and share a few thoughts during these final days of the year.

It’s been a busy few months here in my neck of the woods. In early November I spent a week on vacation in Napa Valley indulging in my newest interest, wine, and soon after was consumed with planning a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 at my house. Then it was all about planning for Christmas and doing some spring cleaning around the house that didn’t get done back in the spring. My workshop is a mess at the moment, serving as a staging area for clutter that I’m moving from one room to another.

While these things have distracted me from working on a model, I’ve remained engaged in the hobby thanks to the interwebz. Every day I read my favorite forums, check the 65,451 model-related groups in my Facebook feed, and contribute a comment or two here and there when I have something substantive to say.

Beyond my home a lot has been going on these last couple of months.

Scale Model World has come and gone in Telford, and based on the photographs I saw of the competition and display tables (iModeler had particularly good coverage) it’s clear to me that I really need to prioritize a trip to England in the next year or two, even if it means skipping the IPMS Nats to do so. The vendors room looked amazing, and the quality of the models was exceptional. The models coming from the hands of our European friends are truly something special; I'll have more to say about that next year.

With Telford and the nearing of year-end, many of the manufacturers have announced their 2016 releases. The good times continue with a huge variety of models in the pipeline, so I recommend each of you ask your boss for a raise. Everyone is raving about AMK’s MiG-31, and I’m sure that if I were to nominate one model as the model of the year it would probably be that one. In addition, a friend tells me that Flyhawk’s new HMS Naiad is “amazing,” high praise for a tiny 1/700 kit; one reviewer on Model Warships says the light cruiser, "sets new standards for injection molded kits in terms of quality and value.” The most ironic announcement for me was Tamiya’s Su-76. Literally the day before I told a friend that it was about time we saw a new-tool kit of the SPG.

Some of you took advantage of Squadron’s Black Friday Sale, and many of you once again complained about their prices. If you made your selections carefully or collaborated with friends and shared an order it was easy to find value in the sale. Personally I saved $80 on my purchases, not to mention the shipping. No complaints here!

Out in the real world, beyond the comfort of our workshops, we've been intrigued by Russia’s involvement in the Syrian conflict. Nobody in their right mind wants war, but it’s been interesting to see the Su-34 in particular used in conflict for the first time. And with the typical Russian star insignia painted over on most of the aircraft, that’s one less decal to apply to our model and one less opportunity to screw up the finish! The Aviationist has provided good coverage of the operations, particularly here and here.

Finally, and most recently, we all cringed at Steve Harvey’s mistake naming Ariadna Gutierrez as Miss Universe and her short, four-minute reign as the most beautiful woman in the galaxy (with the possible exception of Rey from The Force Awakens). To put a scale modeling spin on the event, we can learn something from Ariadna’s response to the mistake. She handled it with class and grace, posting a very kind statement to Facebook, which we should remember the next time we feel slighted at a model contest.

With that I shall sign off for the moment. For those who share my passion for music, I’m going to post my list of my favorite musical albums and songs of 2015 in the next few days. In the meantime, I wish you again a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

P.S. A sincere “welcome” to all of my new readers now following me on Facebook. I’m surprised at how many new Likes I’ve received despite not having posted much over the last two months. Thank you for your support!

It's time to be thankful

It’s Thanksgiving week here in the United States, so I thought I’d take a moment to share what I’m thankful for...in our hobby. We spend a lot of time griping and complaining throughout the year, so I think reflecting on the good things we have is time well spent.

I've always liked the Soviet T-64, so I’m thankful for the many variants of the tank that Trumpeter has released over the last couple of years. It's a reminder of how far we've come since the primitive Skif kit. I could say the same about their T-62 and T-80 series. Looking more broadly across the hobby, we should all be thankful for the deluge of kits that have hit the shelves over the last few years. A friend recently pointed out that pretty much any tank he wants to build is available in kit form. These are the best of times. The biggest risk to the hobby now? Running out of subject matter!

I’m grateful for contests. As much as I like looking at your models online, nothing beats the experience of seeing hundreds of models in the flesh. No matter you skill level, you should be entering contests and sharing your work with me.

I'm grateful for rivet counters. Yes, you read that right! Despite the lack of pay and the heat they take from armchair modelers, their contributions are important to the hobby. Rivet counters tell me things about kits that I would never discover on my own, and there's great value in that.

I’m thankful for the friends I’ve made in the hobby. My best friends are guys I met in IPMS clubs or contests. Unfortunately, most of them don’t live near me, so it’s a treat to meet up with them at contests or during family vacations.

Lastly, and most important, I’m thankful for simply being in this hobby. Building models gives me great satisfaction, and I’m not happy unless I spend time at the bench. It always strikes me odd when I meet people who don’t have hobbies. How do they spend their time? What do they spend time thinking about? I feel bad for them.

Count your blessings.

Plan or plan to fail

This month’s topic from the Sprue Cutter’s Union is:

“Do you plan and prepare for every step of your build’s process, or do you wing it as you go?”

My answer is a simple one...plan!

As I’ve gotten older, now in my late-forties, I increasingly find it important that I plan my builds with more diligence than I did in my younger years. I blame this on a poor memory or simply the aging process. Whatever it is, when I “fail to plan,” a phrase Jon used in his introduction to this month’s SCU topic, I usually forget something important.

For example, I forgot to add the control columns in an F-15B I built a couple of years ago. I forgot to remove the masks from the under-fuselage observation windows on my F4F Wildcat build earlier this year. I assembled a Rafale fighter without first considering how I would fill and smooth various seams after subsequent parts were attached. And I installed headlight guards upside down on an M117 Guardian.

I almost always begin a new project by studying photographs of the actual aircraft or vehicle (as well as particularly well built models), reading conversations about the model across the interwebz, and studying the unbuilt model. I’m looking for areas that I can improve and areas that might prove to be troublesome. I look at the aftermarket and photoetch parts that I will use and make notes about how they’ll be added to the kit. I mark up the kit instructions using a red pen, noting changes or additions I intend to make and refer to them throughout the course of the build. I also make notes to myself as I build the model, reminding myself to add this or that piece, to scribe a new panel line after fuselage assembly, etc.

This planning process is now very important to me. Planning reduces the chance that I’ll forgot something important and be left with a model that doesn’t get built or wastes my time. And the gods know that time is the one thing we never have enough of.

Remember the The Five P’s that I learned in the military…Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

Contact them directly!

I don’t understand people. The internet puts the world at your fingertips -- literally -- yet we fail to use the resources that are just a click away.

This guy has two phones an an email account. Why is he posting questions on Hyperscale?

I often see modelers post to the forums asking for information about a particular vendor or web site. Here are some I’ve seen over the last few months.

• Why doesn’t Lucky Model have Trumpeter or Hobby Boss kits in stock?
• Will Brookhurst Hobbies charge me postage at cost for a single sheet of decals?
• Has anyone heard from HLJ about their Mosquito pre-order?
• Any news on if/when we will see the next issue of MMiR?
• Squadron shows three prices on their website: List Price, Our Price, Lowest Price. Are they offering it at the Lowest Price?

These are all valid questions, but they should be directed to the respective companies not the modeling community. With very few exceptions, every company with a web presence has contact information, usually an email and sometimes a phone number, for just these kinds of questions.

I understand it’s easy to quickly post a question on your favorite forum, but I strongly suggest we start communicating with companies directly before reaching out to the modeling community, which, by the way, is full of misinformation. If a business fails to respond (and shame on them if they do), then a more public inquiry is warranted.

It's just a hobby

Doog has just published yet another insightful view into our hobby, dismissing the “It’s just a hobby” mentality that infects many of the conversations we see online, and I suspect in person, too.

He’s right. When we talk about the accuracy of the latest Trumpeter kit, obsess over the tire tread pattern on a P-47D, or discuss judging at IPMS contests, it’s too easy to dismiss efforts to improve our models or the hobby by saying, “It’s just a hobby.” It is a hobby, but it’s very important to many of us. It’s our passion and it consumes our thoughts, much like wine consumes the thoughts of an oenophile or music consumes the thoughts of a pianist.

We should remember that the conversations we have online largely mirror those we have face-to-face. Some are constructive, and some are inane. The other day I remarked to a friend that a new release is “cool.” Not exactly evidence of a deep thinker, right, but I said it? Would I express that pithy comment online? Of course not. The difference between an online conversation and one that occurs in the real world is that online conversation allows us to consider and compose our thoughts before expressing them. Ideally the comments we post online are constructive and free of microaggressions.

I understand how some people can become annoyed at the minutia we discuss. It's comical at times. Recently someone asked about the correct color of a 1950s era tarmac. That’s a bit much in my opinion, and I was tempted to tell him not to obsess and just paint it a suitable gray color. But it’s important to him, so I simply moved on to the next topic.

Let’s embrace our hobby. Let’s embrace the passion others have for it. Let’s learn when to contribute and when to put the laptop down and build a model instead. In them meantime, remember that as your thinking about whether the access panels are correct for that Kitty Hawk 1/48 MiG-25PD you’re building, someone is carefully planning next year’s crop of hay for the state fair.

Award-winning hay at the 2015 New Jersey State Fair. Beautiful, ain't it?

My modeling imperative

This month Jon, our esteemed shop steward at the Sprue Cutters Union, asked this question for October:

We all get lazy at times but let’s face it, there are areas of this hobby that modelers cannot get skimpy. Whether it’s a part of the assembly process, a finishing technique, or a particular tool, what do you think are the essential aspects you cannot afford to cut corners on during a build? What are your imperatives?

I have to agree with the thoughts of the commonplacemodeler, who said his first imperative is to finish every model. That should be the priority for each and every one of us. If we don’t finish models, we don’t improve our skills and we amass a collection of half-built models that never get built. Neither is a good thing.

Beyond that fundamental imperative, for me the painting and weathering of a model is the most important aspect of every model I build. And every model I look at.

My favorite aircraft from the 2013 IPMS Nats, Bob Windus’s expertly finished 1/48 Hs-129.

As I think about the models I’ve seen at contests and club meetings, those that remain in my memory are those that were, shall we say, stunning. They weren’t necessarily the best built; they may have had construction errors that took them out of contention for an award; they weren't necessarily the most detailed. But they were exceptionally well finished. Whether they had very little weathering or significant weathering, their overall impact was the factor that creates a place for them in my memory.

Here’s the thing. You can put all the detail you want into a model, but once it’s on a contest table or in your display case, it’s very hard for a viewer to see unless he makes an effort to get up close and look for it. Most models are enjoyed at a distance of two to five feet, so it’s crucial that they’re painted and weathered to the best of your abilities.

And yet, I have to wonder why detail is also important to me. The models I’ve most enjoyed building are those to which I’ve added a bit of detail. I should build a few models de-emphasizing detail and focusing on finish. That’s what I did with my Academy F4F Wildcat and a Hobby Boss 1/72 MiG-3 recently, both with good results. Maybe it’s time to try again.

Are hobby shops doing enough?

I recently wrote about the demise of hobby shops and wondered if that’s really a bad thing. We talk a lot about the challenges that hobby shops face in light of the availability of models on the internet, but I’ve always wondered if shop owners have done enough to drive sales. Many seem content to just sit and wait for people to come into their stores. They’re not encouraging customers, particularly existing customers.

A couple of months ago my fiancée and I had dinner at a nearby restaurant, and after the meal they gave us this envelope.

As you can see, it offers two rewards. At the very least it promises three dollars off your next order. It also entices you with the possibility of a bigger reward, but you won’t know what it is until you give the sealed envelope to you waiter upon your next visit. It could be an additional $5 or $10, or even $500. It’s an intriguing opportunity and it’s hard not to want to go back for another dinner.

I wonder why hobby shop owners don’t do something similar. Call me crazy, but if I were an owner I’d be doing everything I can to get my customers to buy my products, and a big part of that effort would be directed at my existing customers.

I’d periodically have flash sales and alert customers via email. Imagine, “25 percent off all plastic kits on Saturday from 10-noon."

I’d offer a rewards program for frequent buyers. For example, get a $10 coupon for every $200 you spend.

I’d offer a birthday discount, like 20 percent off order on your birthday.

I’d give a reward for volume purchases. For example, spend $250 and get $20 off your next purchase of $100 or more.

You get the idea. I realize there’s be a cost to programs like this, but I have to believe that $25,000 in revenue, for example, with a rewards program is better than $15,000 without one.

P.S. If you’re wondering what we ultimately got in that pretty red envelope, well, it’s a funny story. I didn’t realize there was an expiration date, so we didn’t get to use it. Turns out it was good for $50!