I won the first Kilntime magazine competition recently. The first prize was Military Modeler - year 83.
I read the January edition last night. The cover featured Italeri´s newly released, eight wheeler 234/3 (the 1/35th scale model is moulded in sand coloured plastic and consists of 104 parts), set in a diorama. Below is the entire paragraph under the heading "painting".

Humbrol and Testors paints were used exclusively. The vehicle was constructed first and then painted, leaving the wheels off until last. Weathering was accomplished with the use of washes.

Its amazing how much kits, building and painting ... actually the hobby as a whole..... has evolved over the last 20 years.
Have high tech kits, more evolved painting skills and the level set by our peers, made the hobby more attractive or less attainable?

I've had a break from modelling, but have started back and feel that my skill are woefully back in the 80's - but i still get a kick out of modelling, and hopefully with the guidance of the nice people here i may improve - but it's a great way to relax after a hard day at work and it keeps me happy.

Andy

I was recently hunting through my valuable research material (boxes of old magazines according to SWMBO) and came across this:

That is "Tamiya's exceptionally well detailed motorised 1/35th Russian T 55 Tank" complete with rubber band track on the cover.
I notice that it cost 30 cents (NZ), way back then, the last Military Modelling I brought (last month) cost $ 15.99!

Ah, nostalgia is not what it use to be.

Cheers
David

I think the evolution of modeling has made the hobby an adult one versus a child's hobby. Years ago, we could buy a model for under a dollar. Today, that same model goes for $10. Not quite in the "pocket change" reach of the average youngster.

Everyone wants the top kit. It sells for $40+ and is found in a select few hobby shops. Gone are the days of the cheap kits hanging in the aisles of the neighborhood drug store and five and dimes.

Even the standard model kits are not aimed at beginners. Here's the cover of the November 1970 Scale Modeler. It has a review of the "tank for tomorrow", the Aurora MBT70. One of the first tank kits I ever built.

Why shouldn't we exploit technology?
An example are PE parts, which give fine details, then we passed from weathering with washes to Mig Pigments, one day we use a hand brush, then we discover the airbrush (I still have to)...
Let time pass and we'll see what happens!

Good point Frank

I started modelling buidling Airfix and Monogram kits waaaaaaay back in the 70's , then when I first discovered Tamiya in the 80's it was a revelation in terms of number of parts and the quality of the mouldings ( dont laugh this was the 80's ) .

So after returning to modelling only a year ago I was curious to see what advancements had been, therefore I decided to try a few of the newer Tamiya kits just to "cut my teeth" again, and was pleased to see that the mouldings in these kits where crisper and more delicate than their older offerings.
However when i opened my first DML kit ( Flak36) , to say I was stunned and a little over awed is an understatement :-) , but in reality I was hoping that this would be the case, with modern computer technology and manufacturing processes I was hoping for something special and DML did not dissapoint.

So to address your points Frank

There is nothing wrong in more complex kits , however on one hand you have the experienced modellers who demand the latest "all singing and dancing super kits" then there are the new modellers or someone returning to the hobby that these very same kits appear too daunting and too much of a challenge to undertake ( IMHO I still think DML realised this and thats the thinking behind the introduction of their " Smart kits " range) .
There is such a choice of kits these days to suite all skills levels its just making sure that people are not be "lured" into buying the latest "super" kit just because its what everyone else is talking about and building, then only to be dissapointed because their end result does not look like the one on the front of the modelling magazine :-) , my only advice to these people would be to think about what your present skill level is (it will improve , trust me ) and think about what you want to or can achieve , never be afraid of a challenge but at the same time be realistic and you wont be dissapointed.

As regards advancements in painting and weathering techniques,well I for one love to see people introducing and new methods.
I want to see what other modellers are doing, to drool over their work and sharing their knowledge. As a result of this it makes me want improve my skills and produce bettter and better looking kits , so what if it didnt come out right first time,I tried something new and I know I will do better next time its thats why I enjoy our hobby so much

Funnily enough I was looking at my first kit I finished a year ago it looked truly awfull it was built OOB , I had slapped on mud left right and centre , the wash was way too dark the dry brushing way too light LOL
Then looked I at the finished kit sitting on my workbench and was amazed at the difference in quality ( well i thought so ) , here I was 12 months later , I had replaced some of the kit parts with scratchbuilt items, I had used shading , filters , pastels/pigments, paint chipping all new techniques that I had seen used both on this site and in magazines.


Ian

Although like many I seek greater detail that goes with the price of todays offerings, there are times when I long for the days when I could buy 2 airfix series one kits from my pocket money and have enough to buy a tube of glue and complete both in an afternoon on the dining table.

Those were the days when a mere touch to the tube if Airfix cement, sent a large pool across the delicate bit. Tools then were a pair of scissors, a sharp penknife and a nail file, but what a sense of achievement. In those days PE was something that you did in the school hall twice a week.

If only I could be satisfied now like those days when if my stash is not bulging, I feel the need to go and empty my wallet to find something to cram into that small gap in the cupboard.

John

I still haven't caught up with all of the modern methods of painting and weathering. I've only used pigments a couple of times. I have had a number of airbrushes though. I am still struggling with filters. I've read many explainations, but until I see one done with my own eyes, it will remain a mystery. I am definately from the old school of washes and drybrushing with pre-shading and post-shading thrown in for good measure. I haven't even tried paint chipping yet....some day.

Made me laugh out loud! And I'm at work, looking in secret!

I'm in agreement with all. The hobby brings me the same enjoyment now as it did so many years ago, even if it has become slightly more complex.

I think the hobby has evolved into more of an art. Like all art to a degree it is subjective. I love all the changes with photo etch (thoughh I'm still struggling to learn) etc. but I can still enjoy a well done "low tech kit" built OOB if if it is done well.


I am with you Andy. And this site is definately one of the best advances in the hobby. Where else can you go to almost instantly get help before, during and after your project?

And I rarely even see models in the toy aisles of the department and discount stores like when I was kid back in the Neolithic era.....

I started modelling as a kid in somewhere around 1980-ish for my very first attempt. Back then for armor modellers in 1/35 scale there was Tamiya and Italeri as the big dogs on the block with ESCI and Heller picking up the scraps and a few offerings by other comapnies like Minicraft (now Academy). The aftermarket essentially did not exist at this time. There was no such thing as PE or resin conversion kits, individual link tracks etc, etc. You guys who grew up doing this stuff in the 90's don't have any freakin' clue how spoiled you are!

My first kit was either the Revell "see-through" ballistic missile sub (dating to around 1960) or the USS Arizona (which I think they just issued to young modellers in the suburbs back then- along with a copy of Frampton Comes Alive) - can't really recall which came first. I was probably under 10. My first armor kit was the Tamiya 88mm FLAK gun which mightily impressed my 12-13 year-old brain. That kit was absolute state-of-the-art amazing in 1983. According to my old issues of Military Modeller I probably paid about $12 for this kit - maybe a months allowance. It was a daunting kit but still within the abilities of a pre-teen novice because as I recall it turned out pretty good. I painted it all panzer yellow, probably from a Testors spray can and built a cool (but heavy) little diorama base for it and its charges out of wood and plaster. I thought it looked great. Other kits I built at the time were the Tamiya M3A2 half track, the Panzer II, a couple of Italeri Shermans, the Marder III and I'm sure a few others I've long since forgotten.

By the late 80's life took over and I took a break from modelling. I got back into it for a brief period in the mid-90's and boy had a lot of things changed. Some strange new player called DML/Dragon had burst out of nowhere and seemed to be coming out with more kits in a month than Tamiya had done in 25 years. Companies like AEF were making these strange kits out of something called resin of subjects the major manufacturers were ignoring, or improving the big guys kits with all sorts of doo-dads. Another company called Eduard was offering these odd flat sheets of little brass thingies that were supposed to make your models look better. How, I couldn't quite figure out. Some other outfit called Jordi Rubio was making gun barrels for models out of aluminum! That at least seemed like a pretty good idea. I always hated sanding plastic barrels to get rid of the seam.

Around this time a slew of great local hobby shops were going out of business and I picked up tons of kits for cheap which built up on the shelves. Then I bought a house and had some smaller versions of me, got a real job and something had to give. Guess what that was.

Earlier this year I caught the bug again. I'm not even sure what triggered it. I think I just decided to visit one of my old favorite brick-and-mortars on a whim. It's interesting popping back into the hobby every 10 years or so - you really get an appreciation for how things have changed!

My favorite kit when I started was that Tamiya 88mm FLAK gun. A kid could build it and it looked cool. I still have 2 on my bulging shelf of now-obsolete kits. I just got the Dragon 88mm FLAK gun. I think I would have had a coronary as a kid opening that box! I'm scared to do it now! But you know what? That old, easy to build Tamiya kit is still available and still viable to the modeller who doesn't want to spend months/years putting together one kit and doesn't demand the most minute amount of detail.

That's why I think so many of those older kits are still viable - and happily, most are still available. The old Tamiya kits are mostly still with us and many are quite inexpensive - between $10-20 USD for some of the older armor kits. Sure the Panzer II or Panzer IV D etc, etc. lack detail compared to newer offerings or don't scale right in some dimensions or have cheesy tracks or whatever, but these are great kits for a newbie to start practicing some basic skills on. And they cost half as much or less as the more up-to-date offerings. And when they are done these kits will look like what they are supposed to look like using the 2-foot rule. In the end the only thing that matters is whether the builder is happy with what s/he has built. I firmly believe cheap/old kits can still be built into attractive models.

Everyone has different things they want to get out of the hobby. Some people for example might be freaks for a particular vehicle - Sherman's, Tiger's, Panther's, or whatever. These folks might have multiple kits of that same vehicle in all sorts of different versions - differences a novice might not even notice. For a lot of these folks they want the highest degree of sophistication and accuracy possible. They may spend a year or more just building one model and making it perfect. Companies like Formations, Tank Workshop, Modelkasten and Aber exist for these people.

Another modeller may just want a nice little kit s/he can throw together in an afternoon. This person probably doesn't give a rats left testicle if the hull is 1 scale milimeter too wide, the coaxial MG cooling jacket doesn't have enough holes in it or the curve of the turret casting is slightly off. Hey, check out my Tamiya M-5A1. Built it straight out of the box, even painted it flourescent pink with purple pokadots from a spray can just for fun. Doesn't it look great? #:-)

Abso-freakin-lutely!

For me, I've always considered myself a diorama builder more than strictly a modeller. My model builds almost always end up in some sort of scene. My needs are different from the dude described above. If I pick out say, a tank kit, I pick the kit to set the scene, not because of any particular affection for that particular tank.. Since the focus is the scene, not the kit, I don't require super-detail or even super accuracy. I just need it to look like a Panther when I'm done. I don't run out and buy 10 reference books on the Panther just because there's a Panther taking up space in the back of the diorama somewhere. The Panther is there to set the scene, not to be the focus. I pretty much trust that the kit manufacturer got the major details right. Maybe all I need to dress up that vehicle is an aluminum gun barrel (which I do like very much) and perhaps some mesh engine screens. It can take a long time to put together a diorama which might have several kits in it, plus the figures, the scenery etc - who needs to fuss with all sorts of minute details that most people who see the diorama are never going to notice because they are looking at the scene, not just the tank. For me, I don't want that Aber PE set, I want the Eduard ZOOM series set. That will do just fine. Or maybe I'll just get the new Dragon Smart Kit Panther - detail without the fuss. And for what I have to pay my babysitter for one evening, even she could afford it!!!!!!

Right now I think there is plenty out there to please everyone. For the person who wants a basic, inexpensive (relatively - have you checked out the price of gas lately) kit to build up for fun in a day or two, there are plenty of great choices. Heck, those Monogram snap-together car kits are still around! For the person who wants to build hyper-accurate scale replica's of every Sherman variant ever to roll of the production line, we've got you covered too. For the person who wants to build nice little diorama's - we've got options today that would have made me cream my shorts 20 years ago! Need help moving up from being that first type of modeller to the Sherman-freak guy ? We've got resources for that too.

The fact that there are so many choices can be a bit overwhelming but ya know, I've been here on Armorama for just a short time and I've already witnessed how helpful everyone here can be to a novice or greenpea. I think most people here understand that poeple get into this hobby for different reasons and have different expectations about what they are going to get out of it.

Just my opinion, valued at precisely $0.02

Anyone see a pattern here? A good number of us started to model in the 70's and 80's then took a break as we finished school, found girls etc, and now established have re-entered the hobby - usually with more fun money available. At the same time the Iron curtain fell and a flood of information has become available. Also computers have revolutionized everything. In the end it is we the consumers that have driven the market to where it is now. I bet The demographics of kit builders has changed right along with us as we aged. This used to be a kids hobby, when we were kids, now it is a middle ages adult male hobby (with obvious exceptions). It is not surpriseing that the hobby grew up with us. Is it better, I think so. I have more fun now then I did then.

David (DJW) Your mag has 2 years on me . :-)

Wow...seeing the 2 magazine covers on the first page of this thread sure brings back memories. I started modelling, mostly armour with the odd aircraft thrown in, around 1966....but it really took off for me in '67 when we moved and a neighbour kid had a bunch of those mags and showed me a REAL hobby shop....then I really got into it until I stopped modelling about 1975.
Of course there was no such thing as PE or aftermarket kits in those days. Detailing back then required the use of plastic card, melted sprue,cardboard, tissue paper and balsa-wood...putty and a razor-saw for zim. Testors and humbrol paint only.
When Tamiya models started to arrive on the market here in Montreal, about 1967 or 1968 we freaked out at not only how good and clean the molding was,but also at the improvement in details etc., and at the variety....late 60s early 70's Tamiya was the first company I know of to market Jagdpanther, Stug, Panzer4, Tiger1, and even then if you wanted to build a Brummbar then you scratchbuilt it. Example...the only German tank available around here before 1967 was Auroras 1/48th scale Panther and King Tiger.........no Panzer 1,2,3,4 or Tigers, no JagdTiger, Jagdpanther, no Stugs ,no arty, no half-tracks. Things now are amazeing and far better.....of course its all far more expensive and intimidateing now and standards to strive for are much much higher.
Just my 1 cent worth.
Cheers
Gene

I think the hobby has made tremendous advances in the last 10-15 years. While PE, aftermarket and such were all important, I feel that in the last 7 or 8 years the internet has been instrumental in advancing our hobby. As a medium of idea exchange, websites like armorama, modeling madness, ARC, or missing-lynx, are unsurpassed. Its this exchange of ideas which has driven our hobby.

What does surprise my however is that with such a flow of ideas we don't see more stylistic variability. This is especially apparent in weathering. It used to be that everybody did the wash/drybrush routine. Now over the last few years people have been jumping on the filter/ pigment wagon. While I don't think either approach is better or worse, I find it strange that more styles have not developed.
Then again, as in any other art form, there are stylistic movements which become dominant for some time and then return to the fringe. In my line of work we measure such things and call it seriation.

I wonder what the next big deal will be

Your probably right. I was in the local Target store this morning and while wandering through the toy section found no model kits or paraphenalia of any kind (I could have used some glue actually - my 10-year-old stash mysteriously dried up). There was a time when a store like this would have stocked some basic kits, glue, paints etc. Perhaps it is a bit more difficult for kids to stumble into modelling today the way most of us did. But for us big kids, yeah its way better.

To get my oldest into modelling I plan to combine a Tamiya 1/35 T-Rex (she, like most kids is into dinosaurs) with some old Tamiya Panzergrenadier figures into a fun little diorama.

Hey, you didn't think I was going to use resin figs at $12 a pop did you?