I'm currently building the Takom/Mig King Tiger May 1945 kit for a build review but no interior. The ModellingNews has a some good articles on the Takom kit build up.

Yeah, the lack of feedback is somewhat discouraging. It would be nice if there were more people commenting on the articles- either on the model or about the review. If you don't like something in a review, let the author know, so he or she can actually correct it the next time.

I just had my VERY FIRST build, and review, posted just last week. I was excited...I finally got one out there! In all probability it will be my last. In 45 years of modeling, I have never been a rivet counter, but I do research to the best of my abilities. Constructive commentary is usually the norm, and quite welcomed! I thought I was providing a service with my build and/or review, with the intent of saving the modeler time/money on a purchase if the kit proves a bit difficult. I guess I'm wrong. I had no idea that the "verbal assassin" is alive and well on Armorama (thankfully small in number). It seems no matter how good my intentions were, or long hours of building spent, the having to re-learn photography, that the writing, correcting and editing taking longer than expected (cancer treatments slowed/delayed my build for over 5 months...thank you Darren)...god forbid you miss one detail, or place/use the one wrong word/description, for you will pay dearly for your transgression. If something in a review is incorrect, I would expect a constructive rebuttal (not vitriolic criticism) for future purposes of which I could/would actually correct my composition and/or draft, for the next time. Alas, there won't be one.

Speaking as a writer and artist of over 1000 pages of web content... feedback or comment is the exception. On average only one out of ten readers comment on anything. And those commenting are usually the same people.

As for mistakes? That is how one learns. Take the hits, acknowledge your mistakes and use them as a mean of making yourself do better next time.

That said, my days of doing model reviews are long gone. I'm too eccentric of a builder to make any sense, though I do have a couple of the Masterbox cavalry kits I'd love to do a build log on. But my work bench resembles nothing so much as a log jam right now...

I will say, it can be pretty discouraging when you put all of the time into a review and get attacked back. It is possible to provide corrections in a less antagonistic way but that's the internet! I will say after several build reviews I kind of like the blog format better. I try to build completely out of the box so that a reader can follow how the kit itself comes back together. Which means that, even if you really like the subject, you can't really make it the way you might like with PE, part substitution/rebuilding, and so on. It's hard work and takes a fair chunk of time outside of the actual building.

I confess that I find well done in-box reviews useful because I want to see the parts in detail before I plunk 50-80 bucks on a kit. A build review is better but it also typically lags behind the kit release by weeks or months. Put another way, I'll take a good in-box review over no review any day of the week.

John: I'm very sorry to hear that you've decided to quit reviewing kits.
But after reading the feedback you've got, especially from a couple of gents, I fully understand your decision.
It's perfectly ok to disagree with the author, and if some of the contents in the text need changes for corrections, I think most reviewers will gladly make the proper corrections.
It's all down to the tone of voice, from the more knowledgeable part. Some people just have a very hard time stopping their "I'm right and you're wrong" tirades.
Hope you change your mind and give it another go
Jacob

Lots of great feedback here. Obviously I am a bit biased as I don't have the time to do many build reviews and even the one I did recently on the Tamiya 1/48 Type 10 didn't get loads of response on that to be honest. Granted it's 1/48 but I was expecting more people to at least note that I had indeed built one.

I would just like to say that Armorama's content is almost completely reliant on what the community sends us. Sometimes with our help via samples that come from vendors, but also just on things they buy and build themselves. If people want to see more build reviews, that is certainly something we would publish if we can get people to submit them. Perhaps the next time you see a great build on here, or via some other online site or social media you suggest that to the builder.

Cheers,
Jim

Regarding what Jim said: I have written book reviews here where there were ZERO comments. It's a bit discouraging, but not from my ego's POV but the thought that none of y'all gives a **** about books, haha!

I personally like a good donnybrook to break out when I do a review. There are members here who challenge me (Gino, for example, and Frenchy with his photos that almost always prove me wrong, haha). That's part of what makes this site great: we share information, opinions, learnings and mistakes.

Yeah Bill, but we all know Frenchy has photos of EVERYTHING that we know shouldn't exist, including the Loch Ness Monster and area 51! How he finds them all is beyond explanation...

(We love ya, Frenchy! Keep those wonderful pics coming.)

As for lack of feedback, I grew tough rhino-hide ages ago on that one - the view-count is my guide to real success. After the first flurry, if a review isn't useful the hits will fall away. But a high score certainly suggests there's some gold in there, even if nobody but the trolls bother to reply.

Since most of my reviews are 1/72 scale, I always assume that 90% of the hits are by mistake, and as soon as the scale is discovered they leave and therefore hardly anyone actually reads them!

I think it is true to say that there are both good and bad inbox and built reviews. Many in box reviews are super informative about what is in the box and accuracy issues, but to write those can take a lot of research, and it's not that unusual for me to buy reference books for the purpose of writing that type of review, because I like to sound like I know what I'm on about even if I don't. Oddly enough in some ways built reviews can be easier to write because you only have to describe what you did and you have the photos and the instructions to guide you (plus a few notes). If I can't find any decent reference material then the build review is the best route. If you have no references and don't build it, you can end up with a pretty bland review (like my recent Ju87/JS-2 effort... not that great.)

The best reviews have both I guess, although bear in mind the number of releases that are just minor variants of kits we've already seen built, so the accuracy and what's in the box is probably more relevant (like my several Dragon Panther reviews - I'm not building everyone of them... ).

In terms of getting things wrong and then being pilloried for it, I always like to pepper everything with lots of words like think, probably, possibly, appears to be... Makes the text more verbose, but I am happy to admit when I'm not 100% certain and for almost all of us in most cases we are relying on research done by others.

Vettejack / John, don't be discouraged by that thread. I thought it was quite funny that the comment that kicked it off, quite unnecessarily impolitely, appeared, as I understand it, itself to be incorrect. Don't attach significance to it though. This is about plastic kits. They're toys. It's about fun.

Yes
I think what I was trying to say is that comments make the reviewer feel like people have read or listen to their review, which then makes the reviewer feel, well that was worth the effort I might do another one. View count is weird like Matthew just said, someone can click on it see the scale and go. If you put "not for work" or "adults only" in a title you may get 10000 views it doesn't really mean anyone has really looked at it other than trying to see if there is any naughtiness to it.

When someone comments it bumps up the review so more people see it on that forum/section.
Again these are just my thoughts:)

I know what you mean. Happened to me first time I saw the "Girls and Panzers".... man, I was dissapointed
Jacob

For whatever it;s worth, best armor reviews on the web, bar none, are over at PMMS. Here's one of his in-box reviews:

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/dragon/dr6329.htm

This is how it should be done! The flip side is that this must take an incredible amount of time to pull together. His full build reviews are even more comprehensive.

Maybe it's time to add 'adults only' or 'adult content' to the review titles .......

Is stumbled across a "/review", just the other day. I kid you not, it was just the name, number and a photo of the box.