It is spooky october month, and it is frightening how late my response to our Sprue Cutters Union’s question is, which went something like this:

We all get lazy at times but let’s face it, there are areas of this hobby that modelers cannot get skimpy. Whether it’s a part of the assembly process, a finishing technique, or a particular tool, what do you think are the essential aspects you cannot afford to cut corners on during a build? What are your imperatives?

There are multiple reasons why it took me so long to get together a response, but checking many answers from other members, I just came to a simple realisation, which just held an even simpler conclusion.

YOU JUST CAN’T CUT CORNERS…

We’ve just had about every possible answer this month, from decals to painting to construction to finishing to even basic assembly and painting skills… And all of them are correct. It even seemed like everyone took a different subject in fear of posting the same as someone else, but in the end everyone is just correct. How can you cut corners in a hobby like this where we are showing details to the millimeter?

Now as a different approach to my answer I just tried to think of it this way, is there something you actually can cut corners on? Is there something so unimportant that people wouldn’t notice? I could think of just one thing…

Interiors…

Think about it, wether you build tanks, cars, aircraft or anything in between, there is only one thing you could afford to cut corners on without anyone noticing, and that is the things you don’t see. But even here we can find a limit. Take a tank for example, once you leave a port open, you have to show off something, at least a driver’s seat or the sort, because leaving that open sparks the interest of the viewer. Or the inside of an aircraft’s exhaust, you will still need to paint it black or it will be a torn in your (or anyone else’s) eye. And let’s not even get started about cockpits.

The fact that people are spending dozens of Dollars, Pounds, Euros or Yens on after market for said nearly unnoticeable interiors tells you more than a thousand words could. Wether you pay more attention to one thing or the other, I feel like you just can’t afford it to go around and cut corners.

“BRO, cool scratch interior bro, but like, I can’t see the back part of it bro…”

Maybe its not the best answer to this question, but this is how it is for me personally. How can we spend multiple bundles of money on kits, aftermarket and the like, and then start cutting corners as soon as we start building? If I cut a corner on a model, it makes me dislike the finished model almost right off the bat, maybe even before I finished it.

Put it this way. If I didn’t even care enough to go all out to just build the kit out of the box, then why did I start it in the first place? Just knowing that I could have done a better job simply ruins it for me. And once the model is done, there isn’t much you can do about it, so you better give it your best shot, every single time…

Check out the Sprue Cutters Union webpage to read other takes on this subject!