The Little World

To weather. Is it better to slosh muck over your model or leave it gleaming?

Only you can tell – but be aware that others will want to tell you what to do. So listen to me…

I presume you are engaged in the hobby of scale model building. If I am wrong – if it is a business and your eating money depends upon your work, ignore what I am going to write. You have your own set of priorities and requirements. I’ll see you in the next post.

But if you are doing this for pleasure, rather than money ( And if you are doing pleasure for money make regular visits to the clinic. ) then you are the person who not only writes, but directs and performs the music. You are also entitled to be the audience who applauds at the end. Your modelling and your models are for you. Please yourself.

Someone will decry you if you do not weather your models. But reflect that they will also sneer if you weather them too much or not enough. If you thought that the anoraks were fussy about the shade of green you used, wait until you hear them on the shade of dirt brown. It is like listening to wine snobs, except you have to do it sober.

If, like myself, you are thrilled and appreciative of a model that looks like it is fresh from battle, buy all the powders and paints they make and vallejo yourself until you are dizzy. Roll your model in the dirt and shake off the excess. Go out and go mad.

Or don’t. Make them pristine with every stencil and every line clean. If someone says they look like a museum model or a die cast, thank them and shake their hand warmly. They have paid you a great compliment.

If black-basing is your thing, or line shading, well do it. Never mind that someone doesn’t fancy it. Unless you are spray painting them they have no legal right to complain.