The Little World

Versus the final model painting. Which is better? Which is more authentic?

Which is likely to get you a medallion on a ribbon at the Big Local Scale Model Exhibition? I think we all know the answer to that one…

But not every model is destined to be under the eye of the Judgemental Committee. Some of them are made just for the builder – appealing to their sense of proportion or sense of humour. Tickling an old memory or using up things that have been lying around. Heck, a lot of successful marriages have been built on just such a basis.

Occasionally I get ideas – which should silence the critics who say I don’t have any. I’m not saying they are good ones, or practical, but some of them can be brought to sort-of-fruition. And they start out with pencil sketches on A4 paper. Night after night, working out how things might be made to appear real without spending $ 125.49 for a kit of after-market realism.

In my case after the market the main idea is to conceal the cost of the kit – not add on extra little bags of resin or brass misery. It’s hard enough sneaking the 1/6 scale model of the Graf Zeppelin through the laundry door as it is.

I have decided that some dioramas – in my case airfields – should be done with ultimate and intimate detail. That is, if I can find it as a product on a shelf. The rest will be done as abstract sketches or cartoons – much in the same what that Walt Disney could make a super-detailed animated feature and Chuck Jones could make retro-50’s Roadrunner cells. They were both good.

I am also not adverse to calling on CGI and electronic trickery to flesh out my creations when they are put onto digital images. I add trees from Photoshop and string realistically-sagging telephone wires onto bare power poles. The thought of trying to make realistic and durable overhead wires on a layout is beyond me – if I were making HO electric trains under catenaries I would unabashedly opt for the manufacturer’s system – crude though it might be.