The News at TIM – Mid Week Musings (No: 43)

by theimperfectmodeller, posted in Musings, Uncategorized

Welcome to this weeks Musings!

—000—

Plymouth Model Club Annual Competition

The Monday before last was the Plymouth Model Clubs annual competition.  Now I know competitions aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but I like them.  I’m genuinely relaxed about winning or losing (I prefer the former but am far more experienced in the latter!) as I’m more interested in getting feedback, being inspired by others and trying to gauge my own standard.  The way I see it there is always room for improvement and entering competitions is one way of determining what works and what doesn’t in the eyes of other people.

Last year I got a great buzz from winning the club Diorama and Single Figure categories.  Notwithstanding the fact that the club is not huge the club members are nevertheless my peers and if they like what I do then that’s a good start to the year ahead.  It’s also worth noting that prior to last years modelling success I would at best described myself as a serial loser.  Despite years of devotion to sport and hundreds of pounds spent on lottery and raffle tickets for good causes it is true to say that up to last year I had won the square root of sod all.  To find out that I was reasonably good at something was to put it very mildly, bloody amazing!

A year on and with several talented new club members it was never going to be easy to emulate last years success.  This year saw a lot more entries within each of the nine categories and for sure the standard had increased throughout.  I knew this would most likely be the case and with that in mind felt I would have to pull out all the stops in the three categories I had chosen to enter.  I wasn’t wrong.

With very little to chose between 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in every category I was delighted to learn that I had managed to defend the two titles I won last year whilst adding a third.

“Operation Overlord – The Road to Caretan” came first in the diorama category, “True Grit” first in single figures and “The Dragon Slayer” first in the miscellaneous category.  To say I was delighted was an understatement.  I’m not getting carried away, far from it.  I plan to enter all three into one or two other competitions during the year but am well aware that the competition will be much, much tougher.  There are without a doubt some very, very talented people out there and as I have said before the best modellers don’t even bother to enter.

Already I’ve started to think about next years competition.  As our club chairman pointed out, the standard within the club has significantly increased and winning any of the competition categories in the future is going to get harder not easier.  So the search for ideas has begun.  Finding a figure which appeals to me shouldn’t be too difficult and I’ve seen a couple which appeal to me already.  I have some diorama ideas floating around in the air but something for the miscellaneous category, which includes Si Fi and Fantasy, is  very much a blank for now.  So, if anyone has any ideas don’t be shy!

—000—

Conversions

Now as the above article might come across as a bragging post (which it isn’t meant to) I thought I ought to balance things up a bit.  I am well aware of my failings as a modeller and one of the biggest by far is figure conversations.  I’ve done a couple of extremely minor things like bend arms and limb amputation but beyond that nothing to write home about.  Why is this?  Well to tell the truth I simply cannot see beyond the composition of the original figure.

Try as I might I cannot picture the figure any other way and as such feel unable to even get started.  Swapping body parts and weaponry from one figure to another requires a level of imagination which so far continues to elude me.  I’m not without imagination, I’d like to think I apply it to the scenery and composition of my vignettes and dioramas but for some reason I cannot seem to apply it to figures.

Many of you, IRO and Thomas for example, both of whom posted excellent pieces just recently, have a vision which I can only admire.  I on the other hand don’t which of course is another reason I will continue to remain the Imperfect Modeller.

—000—

This week TIM has been listening to …

Waterloo Sunset by the The kinks

Now I’m not called Terry and my wife isn’t called Julie (listen to the lyrics) but Waterloo station is where I proposed to She Who Must Be Obeyed almost 40 years ago.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  These days the final verse of “Paradise By The Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf seems a more meaningful track as I reminisce!

—000—

This week TIM has been watching …

Rhod Gilbert

We are fortunate to have some great comedians doing the rounds at the moment.  One of the things I like about Rhod Gilbert is he is funny without the need for f’ing and blinding every few moments.  This link is to one of my favorite pieces.  If you enjoy it then I would recommend two of his full length shows on YouTube –

and,

—000—

Until next time.

TIM

25 thoughts on “The News at TIM – Mid Week Musings (No: 43)”

  1. Wow, that’s quite harsh – joke or not, you’ll be meeting the metal on the edge of the knife if she ever reads that!!
    I quite like Rhod Gilbert, there are a lot of quality UK comics out there. I like a lot of US comics as well, but overall the UK has it by a mile for my own sense of humour, at least. I’m a big fan of the various panel shows as well. Which reminds me I need to watch the latest BFQOE soon.
    Oh, and working back-to-front, big congrats on the triple-header of competition wins! If you want something really different, might I suggest a Space Marine defending a wounded Space Marine while standing on the corpse of a fallen Space Marine from a Chaos Space Marine?
    Space Marine.
    Space.
    Marine.

    Space.

    Marine.
    Biologist.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Trust me when I say SWMBO gives as good as she gets, I’m the victim here! In all fairness I’d be lost with out her. I know this because she is always right and it was her that told me 😉. Seriously, I love her dearly. As for space marines, I can take a hint, I’ll check them out. Have just bought 3 x Wasp Jump Trooper (CP Models) which look cool so might be able to put them together some how.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. I reckon a marine biologist diorama would be pretty great, too. Beach in the corner, and a (small) whale or some dolphins suspended in clear resin with the aforementioned marine biologist in scuba gear interacting with them!

        Liked by 1 person

  2. I think you are a being a bit harsh on your self Dave , that figure conversation you had with the big breasted lady not long ago at the club might not have gone the way you planned ,but I felt it was pretty good maybe just a little more practice eh! .

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  3. Congrats Dave and having only seen the dioramas that you built, I know that yours are pretty damn fantastic so I’m not surprised that you won again. What a nice feeling to be appreciated that way. As for a diorama suggestion, I would love to see you take on a classic sci-fi movie scene from the 50’s like War of the Worlds, or The Day the Earth Stood Still.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Thanks Mark. I have to say it is nice to think people like your stuff. The nice thing about the competition is people don’t know who’s model is who’s although some might correctly guess. Thanks for the Si Fi ideas, so far I’m favouring going down that route and 50s retro is a good shout.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. Congrats and well deserved mate. Not sure why you are down on yourself regarding conversions – I’m sure you’d be awesome at it with practice… maybe you just haven’t had the right motivation to get stuck in?

    As a wargamer, I have had plenty of those ‘Man, I really want that in my army, but it doesn’t exist as a model so I’m going to have to make my own!’ moments – all good incentives to convert minis 😉

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  5. A very big congrats to you mate. You must be quite the superstar at the old Plymouth club by now. Do they roll out the red carpets when you stroll up with vignettes tucked under your arms? Haha. That’s awesome news and very well deserved. I’m sure the others were good too but I don’t know them haha. With conversions just start small. Do a head swap or something then build from there. My brain is a funny old thing. I quite often visualise what I want to do and then just make it happen. If I don’t have the right bits I cut them and carve them until they are the right bits hehe. I’ve been to Waterloo station and got in trouble off a lady friend at the time for giving a busker (a very good one) five pounds. She said he was a beggar and that I’m paying for his drug habit. I shrugged and said well I was paying for the brilliant music. Which, by the way, helped drown out her irritating tone haha. I love the Kinks. My favourite line they’ve written is “I’ve got a big fat mama trying to break me” haha. Nice post and thanks for the shout out.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Not sure about the superstar status but there is no arguing I am a legend in my own pants! 😉

      Thanks for the conversion advice. I reckon you’re right, start small and one bit at a time. I’ve just found a figure I like but they only make the one design but I’d like to have several so looks like that might be a good place to start. I’ll let you know how I get on. No problem on the shout out, you deserved a mention given the work you do on converting figures, even if some of them are a bit weird from time to time! 😉

      Yea the kinks were underrated I reckon, overshadowed by the likes of the Beatles and the Stones. Always liked the song Lola myself and for fun a track they did called Plastic Man. Ah, those were the days.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. Used to have a couple of their vinyl albums going back but never replaced them on CD, not sure why because they were very good. No More Heroes and Peaches were up there for me. Saw them live once as well, the Apollo Hamersmith as I recall. Blimmey that was aling time ago!

        Liked by 2 people

  6. Not surprised you won in those categories Dave, they’re all excellent! Nice for you to win with the Normandy diorama as well, since it’s not long been finished. As far as suggestions go, I have none! You’ll probably find you like the look of something you see on a blog somewhere though and it’ll maybe get you thinking!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Congratulations and well deserved. I am at a similar level regarding conversions…As IrO said start small with the conversions. Head swaps are ideal for that. I remember reading Peter Gilder’s Modelling book in the 70’s where they took various Airfix 54mm kits and made them something else completely.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Wow, three category wins? That is very good work. You should be very proud. And don’t worry about ‘bragging’ as you put it – if you can’t show off your achievements on your own blog then where can you?!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yes, three categories but it will be much tougher next year to replicate that’s for sure. Fare point ‘re bragging, it’s easy to forget some times that you are the owner and author of your own blog and don’t need any ones approval for what you publish.

      Like

      Reply

  9. Congratulations on the wins, and really good to hear that more people are joining your local club, that can only be a good thing. Plus imagine how proud you’ll be when you beat them all again next year!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment