Sprue Cutters Union #8: Your World in Scale

This week's assignment from the Sprue Cutters Union asks us how living in the small scale world has influenced our day-to-day view of the 1:1 world, or to put it more blunt :

-  How obsessed with the hobby are you? -

<Me> "Hi, I'm Jeroen." <Them> "Hi Jeroen!" <Me> "I'm 35 and I'm addicted to ... scale modelling" <sound of people clapping ...>

I'm not obsessed with scale modelling! Am I?

I do not run around the garden or any park we visit, looking for the "right shaped rock", grass root or piece of bark. That's easy, because I've never done a diorama. That may change, so I can't count it as an argument.

Teaser : I just started my first attempt on a mini-diorama, just to get the feel of it. I'll be posting about it when I feel it's getting somewhere.

I don't spend nearly as much time at the workbench as I'd like. I'm happy with 1 or 2 one-hour sessions per week. Some weeks see more action, sometimes there's a gap of several weeks.
That does not mean I'm not often planning ahead. Less time means I want to use it more efficiently. That means an airbrush session will see 3 different models being painted. I think ahead about which combinations of pieces need to be painted in the same colour, so I can reduce the time spent changing colour in the airbrush.
It also means I think a lot about how I want to do something, before I start experimenting, be it making mud for the M60 or how I'm going to provide colour modulation on the Battlestar Galactica.  I read alot of articles (magazine or digital) and blogs on certain topics that are new for me, to reduce the time spent mucking about and achieve actual results.
I already have an idea for a diorama for the M1070 truck, but I want better weathering skills AND a few diorama's done before I start it.

I do (or did) not view every truck, tank or airplane as a source of information on weathering and what-not, but now that someone mentioned this habit, I caught myself doing it anyway (there was an 8-wheeled military something 3 cars in front of me in traffic this monday).
I do like visiting airshows and/or military conventions. In fact, that is what  kept the hobby going for all those years. I did once take an excessive amount of pictures of a Willy's jeep. Front, back, sides, interior, the works. That's because I want reference material if I ever build one. My father-in-law is ex-military and drove around with it a lot. Might be a good idea for a gift some day, or a piece of artillery, or ...

I'm obsessed with modelling, aren't I? 

/sigh

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See how bad the fever is with the other Union members :

• Scale model workbench
• Migrant's wanderings
• The Eternal Wargamer
• The Combat Workshop