Builders and Modelers

Are you a Builder or a Modeler?  Image Source

This is another one of those Facebook notes I've forgotten having written, because FB dropped its Notes section, but came up in my FB notifications after someone liked a comment wherein this article came about.

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This was inspired from a response to a comment from Raeon Co, a fellow Gunpla hobbyist, in one of the discussions we have somewhere in the nether regions of cyberspace, about the difference between a builder and a modeler.

As per the definitions from Collins Dictionary:

• Builder, noun. Plural form, builders.
  -A builder is a person whose job is to build or repair houses and other buildings.
• Modeler, noun. Plural form, modelers. Spelling form, modellers.
  -A modeler is someone who makes shapes or figures out of substances such as wood or clay.
  -A modeler is someone who makes theoretical descriptions of systems or processes in order to understand them and be able to predict how they will develop.

Now, as you can see, neither of the definitions indicate anything about our favorite hobby, but let’s appropriate both since they are applicable in context.

Both can be used as blanket terms when describing what we do when we mangle and dunk Gunpla in paint, but, what's wrong is to trying to distinguish what the other does in deference to the other, or making one term look superior to the other. That's why sometimes, I include both terms, modelers/builders in the same sentence/paragraph when I comment.

Technically (and I mean technically), we are all builders, regardless if we build the simplest SDs, or the most complex PGs, or build things from scratch whether in part or in full.

Technically, on the other hand we're also all modelers, because we build scale models*. Now some of the <elite> in scale modeling scoff at Gunpla builders just because, but that's besides the point.

What we're really talking about here is skill levels; there's beginner, novice, intermediate, and expert. But, here's what's going to bake your noodle: We are all beginner's just ONCE.

Why is that, you ask?

Once you buy your first kit, and build it, you build it as a beginner. Gunpla is a simple enough thing to build, with pictogram, and now even English instructions. So, that shouldn’t be too much of a stretch now, would it? Yet, we can see those who have built things before asking about issues they have to watch out for about a new kit they want to purchase as if knowing those issues will change anything, like, maybe it’s more difficult to build. Whereas it’s a valid concern when you’re a beginner, it’s rather a silly one if you’re on your 10th kit.

All kits, regardless of grade or scale, are basic builds, with basic instructions. They all have the same level of difficulty. What varies among kit scales and grades is the complexity of the build: the higher the grade, the more complex the build.

Anyway, after that first kit is built, you are no longer a beginner, but a novice, or a newbie, to disambiguate from NOOB, which is coined by expert gamers as an insult to novice ones who suck, mainly because they are newbies (though I believe, newbie was also an insult back then, but wasn’t insulting enough that a new word has to be coined. Now certain people are starting to adapt the term noob to describe themselves out of ignorance).

You will stay a novice on your second, third, hundredth snapbuilt kit, if you don't do anything else but snapbuild, but, sure, you can call yourself an expert snapbuilder for snapbuilding hundreds of kits, nubmarks and all.

Now, if at your second to hundredth kit, you started minding the nubmarks, panel lining and/or topcoating, doing minor mods and fixes, do minor kitbashes, to make your objet d’art a little more interesting for you, if not for others, then you're in the intermediate level. Some people start to paint at this level as well, but nothing too fancy or extravagant.

The expert level is tricky to know if you have achieved it, because you probably already are, but not know it, or think you are, but others don't think it, maybe because those others are better-skilled than you are and can see you have a long way to go, or, on the other hand, you have gained enemies that think your skills are worth squat. Truth of the matter is, the expert level becomes very flexible and arbitrary: as you become an expert at modifications, fixing, painting, kit-bashing, and finally, scratchbuilding, in varying degrees, you find yourself needing, because there are others who are better at it.

If you are a true, mature, emotionally-balanced builder/modeler you’ll realize that there are certain things you can do, and cannot do. You can fix, modify, or build some things but not others, hence your expertise is varied but/or still evolving. If you can do something other experts can do (or more), you're an expert.

But, if someone calls you master (as I have been numerous times), or tags you as an expert, you need to have an honest discussion with your ego not to let it go to your head, which is where praises usually go straight away.

Those are different skill sets as well. One can be an expert of one or two skills, but not another. One can do a great paint job, regardless of medium, but, suck at modifications, like scribing or extensions, articulation mods, and vice versa.

So, it's all about the skills. We're all builders and modelers. We are builders because we build scale models (of giant robots), whether it’s a simple snap-build to a hefty scratch-build.

*We are modelers because we style those models to our liking, regardless if we simply determine and tinker a kit’s poseability for the most dynamic, back-breaking and crotch-splitting pose, or when we sculpt kits in part or as a whole.

Truth of the matter is, even experts who are honest with themselves at what they can or cannot do at their levels still continue to learn, especially basic skills that elude them.

Like nub removal.

So, what made you think you're an expert? A million likes, perhaps?