I personally build for ME. I will add AM parts here and there but also build OOB. I enjoy both. My philosophy is: If it looks like a ... , smells like a ... , It must be a ... .

Happy modelling

Greetings all;

The malady underdiscussion here was identified years ago. Adfvanced Modeler's Syndrome. I have gone beyond that affliction much to my joy and chagrin. For me it depends on what I am going for. I like going beyond the box contents to complete a build. But more often than not If the kit is not built as a cutaway I have learned to stick to clean building and thinning edges with rigging a must. (I do biplanes and etc.)

When it comes to superdetailed builds Like those who like a little coffee with their cream, I like a little plastic with my brass and resin.

Sometimes I want to highlight a particular scheme and cutaways prohibit this. (Cause most of the skin is apparently removed for display.)

My point is do what you enjoy and Model On!!!

Personally I'm very much an OOB man - not least due to money constraints, when some of these after-market sets can cost you as much as than the actual kit itself.

I try to buy the best kits I can afford and do my best to make my builds look as realistic and as close to the originals as possible. But that said, I don't loose any sleep and get overcome by an irresistible urge to buy an expensive aftermarket kit (or scratch-build my own new parts) if - say - the tow shackles supplied with the kit are thou too thick, or if the gun barrel of a tank is 2 mm too long in my preferred scale (1/35 for AFVs).

I know that such things are matters of great importance to some folk, but personally if I can build a nice-looking kit out of the box and finish it with a decent paint-job close to the original, that'll do me fine.

Me, I'm a rivet counter and d*mned proud of it! :-)

I get the most joy out of pushing myself and my skills to get the most realistic and accurate model possible. Drawings and calipers are things I use all the time and shaving rivets to make sure I put on enough has brought my eyesight to the sorry state it is today. :-)

I do use some aftermarket stuff, but I like to scratchbuild and will, at the drop of a hat, scratchbuild the entire tank if there's no kit on the market. I do subscribe to the "If you can't see it, I ain't buildin' it" code, though. No sense being insane. If I want to build an interior, I open up the vehicle so you can see it.

I build for me, certainly, but I like contests and willingly accept the vaguries of judgement by falable humans to get the most enjoyment out of shows and contests. I don't compete to be the "best" but I do like it when my efforts are recognised with a favourable score or an award.

While I occasionally try to build OOB to relieve my AMS, I have to say that I don't think I've built completely OOB in 20 years. I just can't resist improving _something_ on even the most straightforward builds.

Paul

This is an interesting hobby like no others I have experienced. It turns you partly into a machinist, an architect, a mechanic, a painter, and McGuyver at times. The longer you stay in the hobby, the more addicting it becomes and the more you focus on "details". For me, literature and the internet have turned me into a detail freak as much as anything else. I recall being a kid and building a model OOTB and then never seeing a real life counterpart that really resembled it. It made me wonder "did I build it right? Did I paint it right? I followed the directions". That was when I started taking notice of missing details in the kits. At the time, I had no clue how to add many of the details, and there wasnt any tutor in my life who could show me differant techniques. Literature on specific subject with detailed pictures was either limited, non existant, or just plain too expensive to purchase. Now, with the internet, you can find almost anything you want. And the more you look, the more you often find that the kit you thought would be great actually needs a ton of work to make it accurate. And then of course, you see some of the fine works of art on here, and you think "WOW, that is amazing! I want to build with that level of detail!" So you strive to build better. You read, talk to people here, check out reviews, look at referance images, and learn how to scratch build or add the details to make your model look "real". I could have fun building OOTB, but the way I see it, Id rather have a few really stunning models on my display then a whole bunch of boring ones that look like the ones I built as a kid. So, the way I see it, "details" are a natural progression in this hobby you really cant avoid. But, hey, progress is a good thing! LOL

Gary

Rick Nelson

I have to do the day job to someone else's schedule, cost and quality, my models are for me. If it's a favorite subject, I'll add AM. If I'm trying to learn a new technique, probably not. If I need a distraction, well this is a great hobby for walling out the rest of the world and concentrating on a single task at hand.

Now if my eyes and hands would just co-operate....