Hidden detail...To do or not to do?

[Ian M]

For me it depends totally on how much can be seen and how it can be presented. It varies also from aircraft to armour. Why spend hours building a jet engine if its not to be seen. Then you find out that the intakes and exhaust nozzles hang off them.... The Jet engine in Derek's tomcat could look rather good if he displayed it pulled and built a stand for it.... Sorry different subject...

I would go more to town on a cockpit of say a harrier or a tornado, where they are large and easy to peek down into. A bomber that has a tiny windscreen I wouldn't bother.

As for armour if it can be shown open in some way and the detail is there I will go all in and do every thing. Having said that I have also built a tank with 80% motor detail and left the whole lot out! Tanks dont exactly drive around with the engine exposed do they.

Not really into cars, but if it had a really good engine, like the large scale tamiya cars, I could good to town on that and even display it on a stand next to the car.

Bottom line is, for me, this. If it can be seen or shown beside, I will do it. if it wont or can't I don't.

Ian M

[BarryW]

I am in the 'one at a time' camp. With the detail I will usually build it into the model but only paint and weather it if it can be seen. I do like getting a good cockpit though - you just don't know what might be seen after all....

[Guest]

For me it depends totally on how much can be seen and how it can be presented. It varies also from aircraft to armour. Why spend hours building a jet engine if its not to be seen. Then you find out that the intakes and exhaust nozzles hang off them.... The Jet engine in Derek's tomcat could look rather good if he displayed it pulled and built a stand for it.... Sorry different subject...Ian M

I agree with what you say Ian, but following through with this idea if the engine is on a stand you couldn't really have weapons on the Aircraft as a big maintenance job like an engine change is not likely to occur with an armed aircraft. Weapons in a Trumpeter kit forms a large part of the kit, so it would be a huge waste. In the Tomcat and other 1:32 Trumpeter modern jet kits you have to waste quite a lot of the kit no matter how you configure the aircraft. This configuration decision process is what I am going through just now before I start. I wish Trumpeter would give you crew with their kits instead of so many weapons, since for example they give you two heights for the nose wheel, the lower one for me suggests either taking off or landing so you need crew to depict this configuration. Sorry to digressing and rant a bit. Cheers Derek

[mossiepilot]

I do what I feel like when building the kit, or if it will be seen i'll install and detail it to the best of my ability.

But Derek's comment about crew figures, not just air crew but ground crew also would be a nice addition to a fully detailed kit.

Tony.