I don't know if this would be considered sacrilege or not, but tonight I started to build a kit completely OOB, without any special prep work or worries about accuracy. In fact, it is an inaccurate kit to begin with, and I don't really care!

This exercise was prompted by the "Lack of Confidence" thread posted here last week. After reading it and adding my 2-cents - basically agreeing that I'm so fearful of screwing up a build when the painting stage is reached, I never finish anything, I realized that I never really even start any builds either. All because I don't want to "mess anything up" with these wonderful kits I've collected over the past 6-8 or so years. I think I've started five kits in that time (four aircraft and one ground), and haven't finished a one.

Last weekend I dug through my stash and pulled out the old, early 70's Tamiya 1:35th-ish scale M4A3E8 Sherman. The static version of the motorized tank. I had bought it from someone on eBay, warts and all, simply for nostalgia; this tank was one of the last kits I ever assembled as a teenager.

So, tonight I started assembling it. Just as it came from the Tamiya factory. I'm not even really prepping the parts, cleaning mold lines, filling voids, worrying about the out of scale or holes in the bottom issues etc... I'm just building it.

And you know what?

I'm having fun.

I've completed about half of the build tonight, and should be able to finish the superstructure assembly tomorrow night. Then, I'll finally break out my 12 year old, unused airbrush, mix up some OD and start my practice the dreaded painting.

And when it is truly finished, no matter how it turns out, this Sherman will go into my display case as my first completed kit in 22+ years. I'll even post pictures here if anyone is interested.

I guess the purpose of this post is ultimately to say thanks to all the great folks at Armorama who participate, share their knowledge, inspire, and so much more. If I hadn't (re)discovered the site recently, I don't know if I would've jump started my building endeavors.

Cheers to all

I've built the motorized version for my son straight OOB and it was one of his prized possessions at the time. I love taking old kits and just slapping them together.

In fact, I'm currently working on an ancient (1958 era) Revell T-34/85 in 1/40 scale. It was one of the kits I found half built in my sorted through stash. The off scale deters me from trying to find AM ways to improve the kit.

If you want some good quality kits to build OOB, try any of Tamiya's new 1/48 scale armor. While there is a bit of aftermarket around for them, they can be built up very nicely without. The Hetzer or StuG would be a weekend project and give you great satisfaction.

out of 8 years of building over 20 kits... i have one left :-) your jsut a perfectioniste, thats all it is Everykit i built since i joined hte4 big A is in my room on display.

Right now iam builting revell monograms old f-15, the first one i built... which took 3 hours and paint stains all over my kitchen table lol... totaly inacurate... horrible details, but nostalgia makes the kit fun and brings old memorys back

Enjoy the hobby, have fun, apreciate your finished work and keep it to see your emprovement

Frank

I think you are aproaching this hobby the way we all should from time to time. It's to easy to get caught up in building everything "perfect" and "100%" accurate (yeah, those phrases have gone through my head) and forget to have fun.
I'm finally building again after not touching a kit for a few months and I'm trying to have fun with subjects I don't normally do (aircraft -- I haven't finished one in 7 or 8 years) --- and so far I am!

BTW, we'd love to see the photos when you are done.

Hey Dave
Here, have one on me Nice to hear you've cracked open a kit.. Have fun with it and build it for yourself. Who cares if its OOB and doesnt have all the widgets and whirrly gigs that drive the price of a kit into orbit..Have a blast with the airbrush.. I think you will be amazed at how the paint will look when you are done..Hope to see some pictures as you progress and of the finished product..

Dave

You mean there are other ways beside twisting the parts of the tree and gluing them together?

When it stops being fun, it's time for a new hobby....... :-) :-) :-)

I started the hobby about 4 years ago and have finished 16 kits.. and I thought I was slow only doing about 4 a year...

when I started I was a total airbrush newbie with no confidance at all in using them. but I put in a lot of practice painting white cardboard and index cards.

Now I have a little confidence that it will come out right..... even though i'm still a little jittery every time I start..

The main thing is don't be afraid to try something new, or learn something new. whats the worse that could happen. you get a bad paint job and have to strip and repaint... (why thats even more practice)

and as for the super accurate super detailed standards, well I must say I see some amazing work by the fellows here in the hobby and every model they produce seems to push their standards higher. And that doesn't bother me even though i'm mostly an OOB builder myself, every model I build pushs my standards higher and higher..... and looking at a model i've built knowing i've put forth my best effort at the time is very satisfying to me.

Hi david!

We have talked about that lately in the aircraft forums (remember Delbert?) and I called that "Diktat of superdetailling and accuracy"...
I have nothing against the 100% perfect and accurate model builders, nor against the fact some build only one or two supermodels a year! It's just not my thing!
Last year I was building a Devastator in Midway markings and didn't knew if the underside of this particular aircraft was overal grey or grey and blue! I ordered a book on the web and did wait over two month to have the answer! I said to myself "that's freaky!"
I decided to build my kits OOB and to live with what is provided in the box! I make some adjustments and scratchbuilding but won't go mad anymore if something isn't 100% accurate! I have a lot of kits in my stash and can't allow me to spend 2 month for building each one of them! I wouldn't have enough of my lifetime!
Hyperaccurate and superdetailed models are great and inspiring! But there are not the only way to experience modelling! There not the Holly Grail!
I think it's terrible not to finish (or start) a kit because you fear to fail or do mistakes!!! It's also terrible for a youngster to enter our hobby today! Imagine the building standard they have to deal with! Nothing to be compared with the old kits of our childhood!
If you don't build (and make mistakes) you won't improve! And if you don't improve, you don't want to build! It's a vicious circle you have to break if you want to reduce your stash!

Keep building for fun!

Jean-Luc

Hi all,
my current project is the Zvezda BMD-2 and I'm building it OOB. Just using some putty to fill the gaps and drilling the cannon muzzle. I think it'll be cool as the kit itself is quite accurate and finely cast.

Sometimes it's good to keep it simple even if I like detailing with or without AM parts.

olivier

You said the important word -enjoy -Yes I respect others and am working to improve my work but hey there is always time just to slap together a model just to do it
You enjoy it and I hope to see your photos
Ian

Amen

Wait...There are other hobbies?!?!

As one very much afflicted with the dreaded AMS, I have one thing to say. While I to enjoy an OOB build (well almost anyway, I must clean seam lines fill holes etc), I have never let the fear of ruining a kit keep me from pushing foward. In the end, even if I ruin a kit I have been working on for six months, so what? I had fun upto that point, and probably learned somthing in the process.

Looking at it from antother way, how badly could I ruin it? Most likly most mistakes can be fixed with a little extra effort. At about the 90% finished stage I dropped my Panzerfahre from the workbench and it crashed to the floor. I almost trashed it, but I said well, lets see what I can do with it. It took 5 hours of extra work, and some repainting, but I bet you cannot tell that I had "ruined" the kit. So I guess the lesson learned here was bascially just go for it, have fun, and if you think you ruined a kit - you probably didn't, but if you do I'm sure you learned somthing in the process, and the next one will be that much better.

To borrow a very effective advertising slogan...

JUST DO IT!!!

I always build OOB now and again, just for the enjoyment and the stressless fun. Basic clean-up and filling small holes is not as bad as it sounds. The little Tamiya GAZ67b I finished was such a model. Straight OOB with a little channel plastic shape to hold the spare wheel. When painted, it looks as good as anything I spent months building.
Im happy now its finished, but I know I would not be, if I left very visible moldlines or flash or gaps. You´re right to do now, what you consider fun, but this will not be a one-off excersice. I think everybody should do at least one or two of these a year. It keeps modelling in perspective. Fun for me is also trying out something new that I read about or seen somewhere, with no worries about how it turns out.
Definately not sacrilege in my books.

Well done David and have fun building your Sherman.
My last two kits (both Japanese 1/48 aircraft) have been built pretty much OOB, except for adding homemade seat straps, and i couldn't be happier with them as i tried new technique's and learn't a lot. I'm also still apprehensive when i'm holding a loaded airbrush in my hands, but you have to dive in :-).
Its nice to build a quick model every now and again espiacally as my next model is Dragons Sd.Kfz. 251/16 Flammpanzerwagon which has got about a billion pieces :-). So have fun and put it on your shelf as a job well done and something to be proud of.
Andy

Great to hear that David, enjoy the build! I build OOB too, I don't worry about adding AM parts or superdetailing. Maybe in the future I'll get into that but for now, I'm happy with just building OOB. I do spend a lot of time trying to get the model as clean as possible and removing mold lines, filling gaps etc which is time consuming enough but I don't worry a lot about accuracy.

Some people love it, some people don't worry about it either way it doesn't matter as long as YOU the builder are having fun! With the new Dragon kits coming out, you don't have to worry about AM parts much because they come with SO much you can actually build a pretty darned detailed kit OOB without even trying as it's all there for you.