The Little World

There is no better way of starting a donnybrook than to suggest that a model is the wrong scale. Say it to whom you will, you will have a fight.

And haven’t we all seen the box scale gem that is destined to shine alone? Or the model that supports too little or too much detail purely because it is moulded in the wrong size. Perfectly in scale but totally impossible.

Yet I have seen marvels built with such loving care that they have rewarded the builder as much as the viewer. Even if the subject is obscure ( and even more if it is common as muck ) the level of detail is just right to show the lines and design. No-one looks to see what scale it is in…this falls away. Some other models are strained affairs – even if the colouration is paint-chart perfect and all the bits are on straight. You just look at them and see a pile of parts.

It all comes back to art, and the eye that can see proportion and shade. The true graphic artist knows when to apply more detail to perfect a scene, and also knows when to withhold it to allow the viewer’s mind to supply the defect. This can be far more effective than adding every rivet, and far more economical in time and material.

I build 1:72 and recognise that many models will seem just a sketch when held against a bigger scale version. But I remember that impressionists can sometimes be the most accurate painters in a gallery. If my models evoke the original I count it a victory.