Hey, I don’t build “real” things. Mostly Mechas and cave racers… and I don’t get comments either. Probably because I suck. But it isn’t just the “reality” people who don’t get feedback. Plus you get featured frequently on Brother’s Brick. That’s some interest. Think also, with the beautifully realized models you make, there isn’t much to say. It’s not like most of us yahoos have anything insightful to say about cars, and the building technique is solid. With imagined stuff like Mechas, anybody can chime in with their two bit opinion. Castle stuff and all that is just more broadly accessible. But it doesn’t mean your stuff… and others likt it… doesn’t knock our socks off.

In my experience…I do build from imagination too….I find the ‘real’ stuff to be more difficult. This may be just my experience. I find the lack of constraints to make the imaginative build easier.

When it comes to appreciation I think the choice of material counts far more than the choice of prototype or free-build. I bet if you reproduced the Aliens APC with the level of quality you put into your cars you might find yourself on Boing Boing.

Building for myself I could quite happily build an entire fleet of Bedford vehicles of differing utility and in as many colour variations as my brick collection would permit. However by the third one I was overwhelmingly aware of the audience getting ready to slip into a coma at the prospect of yet another bloody Bedford and so, even though I really wanted to keep building them, I stopped.

I know I build for myself, I enjoy it, but am I really building for the acceptance of others when the models I build are not the ones I want to build for my own satisfaction with the end result?

In the end, however the good feeling comes, it is that which we build for, be it the acceptance of our own standards or the appreciation of others even the pleasure of building alone, it makes us feel good in some way. This is the only message I need, If I build I feel good…….. I’ll keep on building.

The first level is one I can appreciate them on — very clever, nice looking models with excellent details that look swooshable. I know nothing about aeroplanes so I have no idea how like the real thing they are, nor do I particularly care – unless Ralph isn’t happy with the result, in which case, I care that Ralph cares as Ralph is the main audience!

The second level of appreciation is that of the “connoisseur” of military aviation, who can appreciate the likeness to the actual craft and all the details of it. These are the people who would notice, and care, if it wasn’t quite right.

Futhermore, I’d argue that the AFOL term “MOC” isn’t a good description of models whuch as Ralph’s and Steven Marhshall’s. “My Own Creation” sounds like “this came off the top of my head” — I think a better term would be “My Own Scale Model” (MOSM), but unfortunately that doesn’t make an easily pronounceable acronym.

For some time I thought my audience was other builders. But it became clear that what I had to ‘say’ was boring and uninteresting to that audience. Realizing that I like what I build, and no one else was listening, I stopped wasting my time trying to take photos.

Cheers,
Ralph