Just Some Quick Thoughts On What I can Manage Now
Making Things Hard For Myself
Just a short piece here about how I'm changing my approach to stuff to alleviate issues caused by age, health and not being as arsed about struggling to do things as I used to be! 😉
Time was that I enjoyed the challenges of struggling to make a good model, I remember back to the days when I could do this....
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| Above: My 1/72 scale WW2 German infantry. The emblems and badges on these were hand painted! I was very proud of these and garnered some very positive comments online about them. |
Or this...
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| Above: My 1/72 WW2 Finnish Army (captured) Soviet YAG 6 truck. This was a model by the company ZEBRANO and is the worst quality kit that I have ever made. Nothing fitted properly and the detail was horrendous...BUT... I spend an inordinate amount of time refitting and remaking parts and customising and painting this model to look passably OK! In the end, despite the trauma this caused me I was actually very pleased with the job I did. |
Two different types of modelling struggles; one was the sheer challenge of working with very small details and the other was striving to make a sub-par kit good through extra detailed custom work. And I think it's fair to say that when I did these models that I was at the top of my modelling game... This was to change!
You all know the story by now if you follow my blog, but it's not just that I had unexpected health issue - it's that I am beginning to realise and accept that I am getting older!
To be honest, the problems I encountered after I had my mini-strokes back in 2021 have somewhat improved with time. Of course the brain damage that caused my Vestibular Deficit (think of it as permanent vertigo and motion sickness) will never go away, but the physical weakness and shaking that I initially had has over time settled down somewhat.
I have good days and bad days, and I have gotten used to just having to take my time and do projects in a sort of 'stop and start' fashion... I get there eventually.
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| Above: Part of yesterday’s Sopwith kit session… A painfully slow experience undertaking the very fiddly rigging element of the biplane model. I literally couldn’t only do one wire and then had to take a rest before carrying on, and only managed about four wires in total all morning!!! This also included many frustrating mistakes and all the accompanying bad language! |
The age thing adds a little annoyance to the mix with worsening eyesight and the inability to concentrate for long periods without getting fatigued. Just to sort of things everyone eventually has to deal with.
Making Things Easier For Myself
So, I have had to develop coping strategies for my modelling, things that alliviate some of the weaknesses I have with dexterity and handeling some delicate model parts and painting. Taking my time is one of the biggest tactics when approaching kit making, rather than long intense sessions of model making or painting my process these days is very much a stop and start affair. And some days I just can’t do anything at all depending on how I feel.
But on the positive side, I have some sessions where I breeze through my work with little or no shakey hand incidents at all and I nearly forget there is anything stopping me from doing stuff that I used to… And then ooopsie, I get a rude reminder! 😐
So, what else can I do to make model making easier for myself?
Well, one of the first things that came up when I shared my story on the AIRFIX FACEBOOK GROUP is that I am not alone. There are quite a few guys out there of my age that have similar issues brought on by health or age related circumstances. And one of the fits tips I was told when I displayed my work on my little 1/72 scale Sopwith biplane was TRY GOING UP A SCALE!
I chose a 1/72 kit as it was cheaper and readily available and because that is a scale that I was used to working on in the past. But it does add issues to my already problematic model making process… Typical of my recent session with my Sopwith kit was just how many times that I dropped small parts during critical moments feeding the always hungry carpet monster!
Scaling up to - say - 1/56 (28mm), 1/48 or even 1/35 will see an relative increase in size of ‘small parts’, making the model I am working on a bit easier to deal with. Though, on the downside it might see a relative increase in cost and bigger models also need more space to store or display them…
For example, I have been really enjoying making my Airfix SOpwith and it has made me keen to maybe try another WW1 biplane - maybe one of the Imperial German aircraft - so I looked around…
A rather nice looking Edward brand Fokker D.VII - a beautiful looking German fighter - in 1/48 scale would cost me around 21 Pounds, which a bit of an eye watering increase over the 7 Pounds I paid for my AIrfix Sopwith. That said, the reduction in the stress of my handling (fumbling) tiny parts might make the extra cost worth will… A sort of stress reduction tax you might say! 😂
Another option I came across while looking around online was something that appealed to my sense of humour, Suyata brand Fokker Dr.1 & Red Baron Cartoon WWI Fighter Plane Model Kit…
As a ‘caricature’ model of the Red Baron and his Fokker it isn’t exactly a particular scale, but it’s quite large being 11cm tall and 16cm long! And being a cartoon-like model all the parts are consequentially quite chunky. This would suit me (also, being a cartoon you don’t have to bother with any fiddly rigging)!
So, I have options when I next think about buying a plastic construction kit - though not forgetting the other alternative that I have already turned to which is my brick models. Again, these are great for me as the bricks are easy for me to handle and put together - but on the downside, I do loose some of the enjoyment I get out of the creative element of scale model making.
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| Above: My latest COBI ‘brick’ kit project, a 1/32 scale PLZ 23 plane. These take a lot of the stress out of model making for me with their nice chunky parts and not having to paint them. BUT…Equally, there is a little of creative enjoyment missing when what you are making is essentially a jigsaw puzzle. Still, I do like the cartoony look of these models. |
So, I have options which take some of the worry about model making. That said, I have been getting a lot of enjoyment out of my attempts to make my 1/72 Airfix Sopwith Pup model, I’ve just had to stoically accept all the little accidents that I have encountered while making it and that the quality of my model making has decreased slightly to just ‘OK’.
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