It's not exactly a struggle, just that my eyes go after a while. I used to read articles where hairy arsed old men said that they'd moved to 7mm scale because they couldn't see the bits anymore. I used to think this was odd as in the larger scale you still get small bits. Whizzing down from 7 to 2 I think I know what they mean. It's not that the bits are small, it's that the bit that they attach to are small as well.
I am now officially a hairy arsed old man.
Welcome to the Club Chris. I am building a 1/35 tank kit at the moment as another modelling interest of mine. Nice kit with a sheet of etch parts some of which I cannot even make out properly under a magnifier. Younger eyes probably see them clearer but there has been a move over the years to provide ever smaller details to the point that you really do wonder how you are supposed to actually build the parts let alone see them. The words of a guy selling a riviting tool at an exhibition now make sense to me when he said the obsession with ever more detail was actually driven by the increasing use of digital cameras with better and better resolution allowing detail not seen by the eye to be seen in photographs. I am at an age where if I cannot see it why model it!
ReplyDeleteI think you have hit at least one nail on the head - photos are key here not a viewing point of 3' away.
DeleteYes, I find that intricate work is best done before the evening. The eyes don't play ball after about 7pm. Glad I'm building a 1:43 scale coaster. Everything is huge!
ReplyDeleteI bought an Optivisor with money given to me for my 50th birthday...somewhat scarily that means I've had it nearly 6 years! I found that it was like having a new pair of eyes, my close in vision had been deteriorating since my early 40s, it started with things like not being able to see the graduations on my motorbike's chain adjusters and got worse. At least my manual dexterity has so far remained good.
ReplyDeleteI've done a little modelling in larger scales but it's never really "stuck" with me, although the results were pretty reasonable I just don't find it satisfying. Now, where's that box with the N-6.5 kits gone?