Wow! It’s been 4 months and a half since my last workbench post… Well I guess I was so busy making models, there simply wasn’t enough time to do this kind of posts. On that matter; in the first half of year I’ve managed to build 8 models already! At this pace, I am looking towards the record modelling year for me… There will be a number of firsts for me as well, but I guess we will have some time to reflect on achievements of the past year. And truth be told – two Visby class corvettes and Marineflieger Tornado are all in advanced stages of completition. As you can see from the photo, there’s two big birds on the table at the moment. Both SAM projects, one is Minicraft’s renedition of KC-135E tanker, which is a nicely detailed kit, but lacks in certain areas, while the other is Eastern Express Antonov An-22. This is a huge bird, moulded in short run technology, that presents more than a few obstacles during the build, but the end result will be more than worth all the troubles during construction. This is a longer term build, so no estimated time of completion yet…
A while ago, a heated debate emerged on one of my friends Facebook page regarding certain well known modeller. Some person was claiming that this certain modeller is ruining each model he builds because he rarely uses any weathering and (sometimes) picks wrong shades of paints for his projects (majority of them are not to Federal Standard and eyeballing correct shades seems to be the only option). This offensive person was also stating that each modeller should progress his modelling skills with each finished build. I find such statements and accusations quite hilarious. It is in my opinion that we all have our own reasons, why we indulge ourselves in this hobby – some might be trying to build the ultimate model, someone else just relax with this hobby, then another build a collection. There are some people out there, that use modelling as a therapeutic tool for their medical disabilities. You never know, who maybe be “hiding” behind the internet alias; it can be a kid, it can be a person with some disability, it can be an elderly person, it can be someone your age,… You never know so judging by the photos and not knowing the modeller is immoral by my standards. And then we have another issue. Who are you to judge other people? In case of this certain modeller, who started the argument, I can easily find faults on most of his models. When I picked up one from his latest finished work and mentioned it to him, he childishly started serving me low punches. I can just conclude in the words of The Beatles – live and let live. And if you want to prove your “supremacy” playing with plastic toys, visit as many modelling competitions as you can… I guess your ego will hurt a little less if getting a few medals…
Other topic I want to discuss tonight is the oh so famed ultimate accuracy. Eduard’s new 1:48 Bf 109G-6 comes to my mind as it caused quite some storms in a teacup lately… Eduard have established themselves as one of the premium scale model manufacturers. Opening their boxes will always reveal precision moulding, crystal clear canopies and in case of their Profipack releases, even photo-etch details and masks. While some of their models don’t exactly fall together, others are real gems. We all know, Bf 109s are one of the most popular subjects in scale model world and it comes as no surprise, model manufacturers want to have a slice of this market for themselves. Eduard recently started promoting their products with video commercials and appearing in all kinds of media. Promising the ultimate Bf 109 model in quarter scale, the kit when released, fell under close scrutiny by the so called rivet counters – or better said, couch modellers. Wing span is too large; landing gear struts are too high; there are bulges on the wings that shouldn’t be there; and so on and so on… Some ‘experts’ calling this model a total fail, others complaining about this and that, and some even calling for boycotting purchases of kits from companies that make mistakes with their kits. I find this accusations quite stupid. There is no absolutely accurate model and probably, at least with current technology, there will never be one. Not even the highly prised Tamiya kits are totally accurate. Take canopies for example. They are all too thick, no matter the scale. Even the vacuformed one are. And those who are the loudest, don’t want to work with them either… Same goes for plastic fuselage thickness, panel lines, rivets and the list goes on and on… I just don’t get it, why a bunch of grown men complain about their plastic toys – and yeah, whatever you want to believe, plastic models are just that – toys! You find a problem with newly released kit? Correct it! Or start building LEGOs! As loud as such people may be, they are not aware, they represent just a tiny percent of all model builders. Grow up!
VVS modelling 
I am 63 years old. I have about 30 Me109s to build, about 40 Supermarines , a bunch of aero team aircraft, all the X-Planes and one of each aircraft flown by Western Airlines. I don’t have time for extra detail and weathering, and if the paint I have on hand is reasonably close that is fine with me.