With the move and the job searching... I haven't touched my iowa for a month+. My father stopped over unexpectedly last night. Even though we have spent a lot of time on the phone discussing it and listening to his old "navy" stories; he has never seen it. I first pulled the hull out and started to show and explain all the guts of the ship. I thought he'd be impressed, but I started to notice he just simply wasn't. I got a bit discouraged. He started asking questions about the deck and wouldn't water splash in during battle... so I dug out the deck plates, he still wasn't terribly impressed. At this point, I was dissappointed. He had always been very interested in the boat and my progress, and he obviously didn't like what he saw. So I finally decided I would find the superstructure that I had (started) to make out of foam (to model the final product). i layed out the turret covers, and lined up the superstructure. I then turned around... Something sparked in his eyes and became very excited. He ran to his bags and found his camera. He started taking pictures and then the stories started once more. It just goes to show you, engineers and fellow nerds, just because we are mostly interested in the guts of the model and constraining nature to scale circumstances... Its the "superfluous", functionless, details that make or break a model and our hobby. I must admit as I looked at her, basically whole, the r/c naval combat bug bit me once more. I can't wait to move to WA so I can finish her.
The guts are important to be sure, but it is the other bits that give the ship personality. Be it a flag or funky paint scheme. Pax, J.
There's something magical about superfluous decorations that makes our hobby so much more than just battlebots on water. I love my superstructure, every single beaten, blasted, shattered, missing, or broken cubic inch of it. When people look at it, the first thing they notice is that it's a model ship. Then they spot the guns, and realize its a model warship. THEN they spot the crisp camouflage paint, the blood-red highlights, and the severely battle-damaged superstructure and they go "now that's a fighting ship". Take away the superstructure and snappy paint, and its just an ugly lump of wood and fiberglass in need of repairs. Just to look at things from the other side, I once brought the decks and superstructure for a Scharnhorst in to school for show and tell. I laid everything out just how it was supposed to, and people went "huh?" Later, I brought in the rest of the ship to make new decks. I put it together (even though the decks and hull were unpainted) and the same folks who went "huh?" several weeks earlier were thrilled. It's not just the hull or the superstructure or the guts that make a ship a ship. Its everything put together, every gas line and electrical wire neatly arranged, every gun in working order, every turret and mast present, and even the tiny silhouettes of past kills painted on the side of the bridge.
