ORIGINAL: Propworn

My pet peeve by far is watching newbie’s attempting to get into scale only to be discouraged by some who seem to take pride in pointing out things lacking in others efforts. I’m not saying that applies to anyone here I am saying this in general. I have seen this happen many times at the field and in competitions.

Here is a prime example that happened at a low key scale competition that I attended as a judge. There were modelers of all abilities. One young fellow I had encouraged to give scale competition a try had just finished a kit Mustang, Fit and finish were very good for his first attempt he purchased the kit and built it over the winter with the intent of entering his first competition. His retracts were commercial (not very scale), rivets were a little big and not the right style, control linkage and horns as per the kit instructions and not to scale. Most of all his documentation was very inadequate. He entered in an advanced class not knowing what was required. Several advanced modelers who were checking out the competition made some very unflattering remarks about his model and his chances in the competition. He looked at the other planes that he would be up against and decided scale might not be for him. He decided to pack up and go home. A very advanced scale competitor wandered by and asked about his plane. When he heard what had happened and the young man was giving up and leaving he brought him over and introduced him to me. I was Scale Chairman for MAAC at the time. We sat down with the young modeler and convinced him to try Stand Off Scale. There he met 2 others about his age and if I remember correctly he finished in the top half of the group. No he didn’t win or even place but he came back and told us he had a great time.

Be careful about criticism even constructive can take the wind out of someone’s sails if it is taken the wrong way.

Remember we all started out as newbie’s and if it weren’t for the helpful suggestions of those advanced scale modelers the learning curve might have discouraged many of us.

Dennis