Clouser: The rejection of the hobbyists, unfortunately, is not really plastic. It is the sterile conditions of the dies and the manner in which many of the kits or models, of plastic are developed. You understand the dies for running (for instance) styrene models are sunk in a negative manner (cavity) into a block of steel. The diemaking is done by a person who knows little about a railroad car. He is concerned only with his own mechanical ability to make the necessary cavity.
Moore: I'm not in the habit of buying kits -- fact is I hate like hell to put a kit together. Friend Crosby sent me four -- I finally put the Haunted House together for him but sent him back the others -- to hell with them -- too much like work to suit me.
Moore: I'm not in the habit of buying kits -- fact is I hate like hell to put a kit together. Friend Crosby sent me four -- I finally put the Haunted House together for him but sent him back the others -- to hell with them -- too much like work to suit me.
Benjamin: One might subsume that the eliminated element in the term "aura" and go on to say: that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of a work of art.
Clouser: On the other hand, an epoxy cast car has the advantage of the original master's being a piece made by a railroad-oriented modelbuilder. This would be comparable, if not exactly, to anything he would build for his own collection.
Moore: But does you good in that you try to make your own directions more logical and plain.
*Needless to say, this conversation never occurred, but was constructed from text appearing in Bob Hegge Interviews Bill Clouser that appeared in Model Railroader, March 1971; Walter Benjamin's essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction; and a letter E. L. Moore wrote to Hal Carstens dated 3 July 1967.
Like ELM, I usually find more wrong with kit buildings than right. I'd rather scratchbuild it the way I'd like it. It gives me greater satisfaction in the end. I tried to convert an HO Life-Like general store into a house and ended up building it entirely from scratch-- index card clapboards, illustration board walls, homemade windows, etc. It came out far better than trying to kitbash and fill in the ugly kit gaps.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day I thought assembling plastic building kits was 'cheating'. Maybe it was because I didn't have the money to buy many, although I did breakdown and buy a couple; probably Tycos. But even when I did, I thought I was doing something taboo :-) Don't know why I thought that way, but even today some of that lingers on in my mind.
DeleteLet the gentle spirit of Art Curren set your troubled minds at ease. These plastic 'kits' are simply fodder for all kinds of creative fun. No need to burn yourself trying to scribe shingles into balsa wood when AHM has done that for you! Or drawing lines on paper to try and simulate brick. No sir, injection molding has taken care of that too. It only remains for you to rearrange the bits in whatever fashion you desire and add a lick of paint.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. Thanks for reminding me. I need to write a little on Art Curren's great work.
DeleteAs I think about this some more, I recall his Shibbel Fruit company that used a couple of E. L. Moore's Schaeffer brewing companies. It's on my bucket list o' builds. I need to look that up.
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