Count your modelling blessings!

[Kevin WS]

I have a number of friends in Russia, and they model (with often superb results I envy), despite what to many in the West would be insurmountable difficulties.

My one friend lives on the edge of Siberia - he has no electricity for lighting, and is literally cut off for nearly 7 months of the year. But he continues to enthusiastically model, diving off into the house to find bits and pieces as he needs.

One potential issue which has always bemused me is the fact some modelers model without access to a printer. Their solution is to stick paper on a (glass) PC screen with masking tape and then trace, completing much of the drawings later off-screen with a ruler or compass! The sheet is then stuck on thicker paper or card, and colored in with watercolors. Truly laborious, but better than no model at all.

So, where there is a will there is a way!

[FRD]

wow Kevin, that is definitely something to think about...

[Dane]

There was an old soviet aneсdot*during the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war. Anecdote based on the play of the word "выход" (vykhod), which means two concepts: exit from the situation and exit from the room. "Way out" and "exit" are one*word "выход" in Russian.

Anecdot:
Dialog during dark times of the late Soviet Union:
- Where is the way out?
- The exit is in Sheremet'evo-2!

Sheremet'evo-2 was the only one international airport of the Soviet Union.

[herky]

Originally Posted by Kevin WS

I have a number of friends in Russia, and they model (with often superb results I envy), despite what to many in the West would be insurmountable difficulties.

My one friend lives on the edge of Siberia - he has no electricity for lighting, and is literally cut off for nearly 7 months of the year. But he continues to enthusiastically model, diving off into the house to find bits and pieces as he needs.

One potential issue which has always bemused me is the fact some modelers model without access to a printer. Their solution is to stick paper on a (glass) PC screen with masking tape and then trace, completing much of the drawings later off-screen with a ruler or compass! The sheet is then stuck on thicker paper or card, and colored in with watercolors. Truly laborious, but better than no model at all.

So, where there is a will there is a way!

this was how most ofearly paper models were designed. all hand drawn

[Kevin WS]

Indeed Herky.

Plus what you said probably explains a lot of the skills that still exist over there in relation to model design - where many still remain hand-drawn and coloured.

[herky]

Originally Posted by Kevin WS

Indeed Herky.

Plus what you said probably explains a lot of the skills that still exist over there in relation to model design - where many still remain hand-drawn and coloured.

i believe that many of JSC models were originally hand drawn and are now being redone using computer programs

[Kevin WS]

And of course, do not forget the models from Richard Vyškovský and P. Blecha - all hand-drawn.

Many of the hand-drawn models have a style all of their own - a lot of the Vyškovský and Blecha models border on art in their own right.