I guess I can chip in here and say that I am a rivet counter - but a closet one. I count my rivets at home and build my models as best I can. Some of you may have seen the academy tiger I am in the middle of. When I first posted this on missing-lynx I got a heap of abusive mail from people all around the world with some very nasty comments about the work I had done. This in effect drove me from ML to Armourama where I have found more sensibly minded people who treat the hobby as just that - a hobby. This weekend I sat in my back garden, the sun was out, I had a few beers and I did some work on a JSU I have started. Now that to me is pursuing my hobby, doing it how I want when I want and if someone else feels they need to criticise that - well let them get on with it. I have only entered one competition with a figure I have painted, it came nowhere but I got a great deal of pleasure out of making and finishing it - and yes I still overheard someone at the same show have a go at it! At the time I was pissed but what the heck, if that is all these people have to do then it is their life that is the poorer and not mine. Probably at some point all of us are rivet counters but we just do it at a level that is fine for ourselves. When you start forcing those opinions on others then that is when you need to step back and re-evaluate what you are doing but trying to get those people to realise what they are doing is another thing entirely.

I, probably like everyone else here, have seen good and bad models - but I would never dream of going up to someone and say your work stinks. I wont have any track with people who act like that.

Lee

couln't agree more with you pte twig but these losers will never say it to your face I've treid using PE and found it very fiddly and alot of agro people seen to forget that it's a hobby not a chore or and wot's the use of working hinges on 1/35 scale don't think a rivet counter would like me to come up and see if it really is "workable" but then he never finishes anything :-)

100% agree !

I actually think that this is all a losing battle.

The nitpickers and rivet counters have already won. The shame of the matter is that they are the minority. They are the ones who basically do a "Broadway number" on many model kits. Those of you familiar with New York City's Broadway shows know that some shows are panned on opening night and it becomes the closing night as well.

Same thing happens with model kits. If the kit is a little off (or lot off), the critics tear it up and then it dies on the shelves. One thing I've thought strange is that the critics are more gentle with a terrible fitting kit as long as the basic shape is good and angles are correct. Heaven forbid if the kit fits like a glove, has superb molded detail and is off a degree or two.

All these superb build ups, books, reference sites, etc. have raised the bar to a level only a few master modelers can attain. They make it look so simple, but becoming a master modeler is much like being a world class athlete, artist, singer, musician, or the next Einstein. Not everyone has the ability, no matter how much they work at it. We could all spend 24/7 shooting hoops or practicing the guitar, but most of us will never near the level of Michael Jordan or Jimi Hendrix. Same with model building. I'll never be the next Zaloga, but I'm statisfied just being me and building for myself. Besides, my hand painted Spider-Man was a hit at my IPMS meeting.