Grab her while you can DaveMan! Ladies who dig our hobby are rare!

Welcome to Armorama!

No need if they dig our hobby, man, as long as they finance them....

I never had the illusion that I will get a girl whom share my hobby, actually I don't know how would I react if she was into this hobby too. I think I might feel that she invades my terriotory...(I am weird... #:-) )

But recently I met a gal whom not only doesn't interfere with my hobby, she even finance it, well, in the way of gifts....Nice to have a rich girl friend....

To stay on topic, I don't find the needs to explain my hobby to anyone, if they like it, great, if they don't, or well, can't give a tiny rat's butt about it....

My fiancee` says, "finish half of what you have in the closet before you buy another."

She doesn't understand.....if you see a great kit at a great price you HAVE to buy it. But like I tell her and my friends...I spend my $$$ and time on a hobby that does not cause harm to myself...to myself...to myself or others (Dang!! I need to remember to open the window for ventilation).

I work in a nightclub and the girls there think that is fascinating that I spend my time and money on a real hobby and not use it all up on drugs and alcohol and most of them love to look at my website. They are always asking when I am gonna put more models on there.. When people at work ask me why I do not go hang out with everyone when we close... I tell them...I have other things I like to spend my hard earned money on. If they think of me as a nerd or geek, oh well, that is there problem.

#:-) To be honest..when i was in High School I never told anyone what I did for a hobby, except for my closest friends. I played football and was a party guy and they just wouldn't have understood..or so I thought. Now I don't care who knows. Actually I was at work the other day and i asked the one of the guys on my team if he had anything to read...he said "you probably won't be interested,but, I have a FSM magazine you can look at." After I about fell out of the chair I proceeded to tell him about my "chronic Treadheaditis".Turns out he is also a treadhead. We even had other people on the team asking questions about some of the kits in the MMiR, and Steelmasters magazines I took into work in the days following. One of the women on the team said she built Aurora figures as a kid. The most common comment I get is..."I just don't have the patience to do that". No one makes fun, though. I do collect some German Militaria, medals, books and a helmet..my stepdaughter went to school and told her friends that I was a Nazi...I'm not, but... try and explain that one at the PTO. I don't care about political correctness..never have never will! As a Conservative Republican people will think what they want regardless of what I say or do..'Nuff said!

i just say "hey, i have got a life. so i don't need to spend my evenings in a bar like the rest of you losers." they do not like that, but it is nice when you are a lot bigger than them. i have told co-workers in the past, that i work with my hands and put together things for display purposes. most seem to understand and some say it is for kids. to which i reply, "todays kits are too expensive and difficult for kids to build or understand without adult supervision." so i have encouraged some people to start a kit with their kids

Chris Pig no.1

I have no problem with 'MY' hobby. As a student of history the construction and display of accurate historical models from WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War is just an off-shoot of my life's passion for history.
I even downloaded a picture of my latest creation - Panther A (early) from DML a 'Best of Show' winner at OCIPMS as my screen saver.

I'm not sure there is anything anyone else needs to "understand". If others believe our choice of hobbies is childish, oh well. Like others have said, this hobby is too expensive and the work too complex for children. I remember when I was a "child". The kits were put together rather badly and painted even worse.

If it is the military aspect they don't understand that's Ok with me. I'm in the military and since I'm in a foreign country right now 99% of the people I hang out with are military or retired military. If other people look down on us and believe that armed conflict is wrong they must remember how it is possible for them to express their views. I believe most people in the countries where we have been "sticking our noses in" appreciate what our country's leadership has down for them through our armed forces and our policies.

For me personally, sitting down to work on a kit is fun and relaxing. People who have a problem with that seem pretty shallow to me.

Mark

I have recently started scale modeling and my wife is very supportive and doesn't give me any problems concerning my hobby.

I don't feel that I have to give an excuse to model what is fun for me. namely WWII aircraft and armor. A couple of people have told me that building military weopons was offensive and abnormal, I told off by saying... a weopon never killed anyone that didn't have a person operating it. and a couple who have asked about swastika's on my models and why I didn't just leave them off. I have said that would be like leaving off the white star on U.S. vehicles or any other national markings, and I will use them where approprate because I am "building historicly accurate scale models"

and thats all I have to say about that..

Delbert,

Just about everyone I know is aware of most of my hobbies(plastic models,football,lacrosse,fishing,shooting,etc,etc........)
I do get a few quizical looks when I mention the models. I haven't figured that out yet.
As a few of you have said, "I could care less what others think"
Hey, I'm not out on the streets selling crack to kids are robbing convienence stores.
Plus, my oldest daughter and my son have asked me to help build snap-tite kits with them.
Doesn't get any better than that!!!

What a fascinating thread.......................All of the input has been enligtening, eye-opening even. I never realized that any of us felt the need to 'explain' our hobby to anyone!
I also find it interesting that quite a few of us have described the interpretation of our hobby by other's "childish".....hummph, sorry folks, being someone who cherishes his kids as much as I do, I find that moniker absolutely endearing! As someone who has dealt in a very adult world for a very long time, when someone accuses my hobby of being supportive of my children's world I take that as a 'job well done' by Dad!
There has also been some mention of the indulgence/non-indulgence by 'outsiders' of the use/collection/hobby of firearm's. The side of intolerance being more heavily weighted.
Your pain is felt by a lot of us 'old' soldier's. But, try to imagine how difficult the balance is for those of us who still feel the man/weapon relationship intimately, but have made the decision to lay their weapon down long ago after having had enough of the bloody thing.
If you have any heart at all, having done the damage, and been able to walk amoung the litter afterwards, you just don't want that kind of destruction at your fingertips anymore.
Sooooo, some of us(me), get enjoyment out of the whole 'genre' vicariously through a static hobby. Hence, military modeling.
I'll try to stop here..........

Tread.

BTW, so people don't wonder why I qouted Mark above...
When I came home to the U.S. in '73, my first duty station was the Marine Corp Air Station at El Toro, California. Shortly after I was assigned there (I was a 'short-timer') myself and a few buddies rented a house out on Newport Beach. We thought we had 'died and gone to heaven'. The four of us decided just after we'd moved in to go lay out on the beach which was literally just a stone's throw away from our front door. We were having a ball, listening to American (southern L.A.) radio station's again, and just enjoying the rays of the sun, eye's closed and waiting on a southern California tan we could all bring home to our loved one's...
Everything was "5 x 5 ", when we hear the voice's of high school kid's calling some bum's or somebody "disgusting", and "crazy killer", and other 'thing's'.....all of a sudden they start spitting on us,...yeah, US. Believe me, that's an experience that stay's with you.
The point about other countries appreciating our "sticking our nose's in" is a question better answered by Murphy's sister, Pandora. :-)

When my Brother-in-law came home after several tours in Vietnam as a Marine, he experienced the same thing. People actually spat on him. I just can't imagine what that must have been like. I wonder what all those horrible people who did that kind of thing have become. Probably the lying CEO's of big companies...

Steve

I have never had any inclination to explain my hobby, any more than a hunter or fisher would explain theirs. It is what it is, I build models.

I agree. What is there to explain? It's legal, and educational!

And one can only understand the future by understanding one's past.
My bastardization of some famous quote.

Cheers
and happy modelling!

Andy

Hi. I LUV our hobby and dont mind telling anyone about it, like many of you my father served in wwII and many of my uncles Igrew up hearing their stories and ihave been captivated by the subject .I guess Im lucky I come from the East End of London which was on the recieving end of the Blitz and the people are not so P.C. I model most countries,modern or wwII my favourite is German their armoured cars and apc's are like something out of a Si-Fi movie, and if friends look at my models guess which one they study the most yes the Tiger what is it about that beast?. Great posting really gets you thinking.

We marched in a parade, in full uniform thru the Bronx during the summer of '72. Didn't think that we were going to get out of there alive.

Eighteen years later, it was a wonderful feeling to have the support.

Thanks,
Kevin Keefe
Mortars in Miniature