02-16-2011, 03:22 PM
One more point about wood vs. styrene, if it hasn't been made yet, is that in N scale or HO at a distance (some would even say close-up too) wood grain really shouldn't be visible to remain in SCALE. However, for our eyes, we like to see texture, even if that texture is faked with paint or a decal.
Lance Mindheim recently pointed out in an article that the depth of mortar lines between cinder blocks scale down to such a small number that there's virtually no difference between modeling them with an actual gap or a photo decal and in fact the photo decal may come off as more realistic. However, our eyes don't always want realism, we want a perception of reality.
All that to say, if we broke out a laser micrometer and measured our models we'd find them to be more caricatures than miniaturized reductions of reality. Craftsman kits seem to encourage over-abuse and hyper-weathering of our models and we love how it looks (or many of us do) but it's really just a caricature of reality on so many levels.
If the model you'll build will be set at a distance, then look closely at your prototype reference shots that show the structure at that similar distance. How much wood grain can you see? Even if you model with wood, you may not need to worry about adding any distressing and graining unless it's a foreground model (or you're just obsessive about such things).
Looking forward to progress photos!
Galen
Lance Mindheim recently pointed out in an article that the depth of mortar lines between cinder blocks scale down to such a small number that there's virtually no difference between modeling them with an actual gap or a photo decal and in fact the photo decal may come off as more realistic. However, our eyes don't always want realism, we want a perception of reality.
All that to say, if we broke out a laser micrometer and measured our models we'd find them to be more caricatures than miniaturized reductions of reality. Craftsman kits seem to encourage over-abuse and hyper-weathering of our models and we love how it looks (or many of us do) but it's really just a caricature of reality on so many levels.
If the model you'll build will be set at a distance, then look closely at your prototype reference shots that show the structure at that similar distance. How much wood grain can you see? Even if you model with wood, you may not need to worry about adding any distressing and graining unless it's a foreground model (or you're just obsessive about such things).
Looking forward to progress photos!
Galen
I may not be a rivet counter, but I sure do like rivets!