Museum quality models myth

I'll chime in, and being a new builder myself, and who is trying to get each minute detail spot on, I have my own thoughts on "museum quality". The ships I intend to build, although not as majestic as historic rigged sailing vessels (all the sails, planking, rigging, etc.), the Great Lakes freighters are much more generic looking, boring some would say, many look the same (essentially are, aside from name). What is museum quality to me...... it is what I strive for as I gain more experience. Here is a link to an article from the newspaper in Detroit (across the river from me). This is what I strive for in the near future.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/co...2/17/sam-buchanan-captain-mail-boat/95537910/

I follow him on a Great Lakes model builders group on Facebook - amazing work, and there are others builders too.

My problem is that I am limited to time, and tools, and funds right now too, so have to get by the best I can to come up with my builds. If you see the models in the article above, you'll see what I consider "museum quality". For anyone who has visited any of the museums on the Great Lakes - you'll know exactly what I am talking about.

I have one 95% complete build, which I think I posted some pics of already. Working on 2 others currently (same ship, 1:200 and 1:250 scales), plus I have blueprints for 3 other ones as well. I have my source for scale drawings (many are builders prints), I have an OK source for materials locally - can't find a balsa dealer that sells big enough blocks for my needs. I have quite a bit of patience as well. I also am very hard on myself for this though. I don't want to see glue marks, windows that aren't perfect, etc.

I am 48, and have just got started in a hobby I wanted to do since I was 10 years old.
 
Quite a lot of art being sold for outrageously huge amount of money gives me a strong desire to act like the little boy in H.C Andersen's tale "The Emperor's New Clothes"

Museum quality? Well, if you are a talented artist and you study enough years at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and then you spend - thousands of hours? - creating a piece of art like below, you can have it displayed at a museum:
View attachment 219565
This is perverse and absolutely in need of therapy, not funny either.
 
Well that is what I mean by overuse by the wrong people. That is ridiculous.

Now all that is needed is someone to advertise a museum quality "paint-by-number" kit.

I do not think that there is such thing as a "museum quality" painting advertised as such for resale or display. Lots of people paint and I do know a few, but I have yet to hear anyone say that their paintings are museum quality.
Artists paint and may dream as being able to have a piece exhibited in an appropriate museum, but they do not advertise their work as being "museum quality" paintings: whether they sell privately or through a gallery. And if selling through a gallery, the gallery does not used the term either.

On the other hand, modelers may do just that themselves to elevate the quality of their work and enhance their reputation. If the model is exhibited through a gallery or through a dealer, the term is likely to be used in order to differentiate between levels of quality.

G
 
Well that is what I mean by overuse by the wrong people. That is ridiculous.

Now all that is needed is someone to advertise a museum quality "paint-by-number" kit.

I do not think that there is such thing as a "museum quality" painting advertised as such for resale or display. Lots of people paint and I do know a few, but I have yet to hear anyone say that their paintings are museum quality.
Artists paint and may dream as being able to have a piece exhibited in an appropriate museum, but they do not advertise their work as being "museum quality" paintings: whether they sell privately or through a gallery. And if selling through a gallery, the gallery does not used the term either.

On the other hand, modelers may do just that themselves to elevate the quality of their work and enhance their reputation. If the model is exhibited through a gallery or through a dealer, the term is likely to be used in order to differentiate between levels of quality.

G
Yes of course. This is an ad on ebay, and there are more of them from different companies. Ridiculous, but also sad because every beginner will fall for it.
 
scroll back to post #63 Amati wants us to believe their kit is museum quality.

Perhaps a stretch of the imagination, maybe nothing but advertising hype, maybe an out right lie and not as advertised.

Museum quality is not a myth it is a real thing but very flexible and differs from museum to museum.

is Amati telling lies? not really because someone can take a hobby kit and bash it into a museum piece that some place on earth there is a museum that would accept it.

so what is going on here?

it is called advertising and one powerful tool in advertising is the use of a metaphor which is a figure of speech that describes an object in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.

A word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar
An object or idea that is used as a symbol of something else Metaphors are a form of figurative language, which refers
to words or expressions that mean something different from their literal definition.

If you hear someone say “metaphorically speaking,” it probably means that you shouldn’t take what they said as the truth,
but as more of an idea.

does Amati produce museum quality kits ? well metaphorically speaking yes they do because "museum quality" has been hijacked to dupe the buyer in thinking he is getting something of high quality because in the collective mind of the public we associate museum quality as a cut above the rest.
In the end let the buyer beware.
 
Well in the end, as far as I am concerned, it is what it is... is it not?

There are millions of ship models scattered throughout the planet: models built by dedicated experts gifted builders for some, but as far as the majority is concerned, built by dedicated average modelers.

In September 2548, the human race will have been almost entirely wiped out, and after decade of life in “dark” isolation, a few people will get together and start anew. It is safe to assume that among these people, some will look for their past: history and folklore. Luckily, one of my models (or trace of it as putrefied wood and remnant of metal work and linen) will be found along with a few hand tools used to build it. The find will be labeled as a relic of the distant past. It will be conserved as a testament of a wasted society: “boy, these guys had a lot of time on their hands and here is one example”. Technically, the model will have no historical value, as the age of sail will have long been forgotten by then: just a myth, a legend. It will just be a piece of folk art, but a piece worthy of being exhibited in a museum.
In fact, there will be so few of those models found that the assumptions will be that they were built by ancient expert master craftsmen... as offerings to the "Ocean Gods" (water will be very scarce by then)....

Anyways...
Personally, I think I understand the original notion associated to “museum quality” and today’s extrapolation of the term by many: as subjectively "ridiculous" as may be. Do I care? Fundamentally and practically, not really…
The term may be questioned today, but by who, for what? Why worry?
Do not take my word for it, you cannot believe everything you read: whether it is here or on kit packaging.
The fact that it is written somewhere does not make it true: especially in today's context.

G
 
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Ales ist relativ

I am translating this as "All is relative"
If that is the case and if my interpretation / understanding is correct... Exactly...
Glad that You, with the experience, wisdom and gift You have and as a person many consider a Master in the craft, have a simple but important word to say about it.
Thank you Sir.
G.
 
The fact that it is written somewhere does not make it true: especially in today's context.
WHAT?! Are you saying that advertising cannot be trusted? Does that mean that even if I buy a box of Tampax I cannot climb the Dawn Wall at El Cap, Yosemite or ride my snowboard down the Big Couloir at Big Sky, Colorado?
 
Hi ; what an interesting discussion ! As for me and for a model, the "museum" quality is reached after you are dead and when 60 years thereafter, your grandson does not bring it (the model) to a a pawn shop. For those precise reasons and due to my increasing ageing, I am very carefully studying about duration (in time) of cyanoacrylic glues ... more or less than 50 years ? ? ? I do observe that carefully made paintings dated e.g. 1990 have now crackings that you could observe with the X 5 magnifying glass, and I am still compulsively purchasing all and any ancient billiard balls (in ivory) as raw material I can find. I hope to be able to implement the "last planking of my life" in ivory (by using XIX th century piano keys). Totae vulnerant, ultima necat :)
 
Quite a lot of art being sold for outrageously huge amount of money gives me a strong desire to act like the little boy in H.C Andersen's tale "The Emperor's New Clothes"

Museum quality? Well, if you are a talented artist and you study enough years at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and then you spend - thousands of hours? - creating a piece of art like below, you can have it displayed at a museum:
View attachment 219565
Just don't switch it on...
 
let the buyer beware

the use of terms that have seemly been redefined or not defined at all

You have built a few ship models “out of the box” but you are considering taking the next step towards kit-bashing.
The idea is exciting, but you have no idea where to start. This presentation takes you through the process of transforming
your kit build into a one-of-a-kind, historically correct ship model.
To illustrate the Ten Steps, the presentation concludes with do’s and don’ts kit model, Mantua’s Peregrine Galley,


define "historically correct" taking a plank on bulkhead kit and turning it into a historically correct model will take more than 10 steps unless the actual ship was built plank on bulkhead.

oh wait the kits description is "plank on frame" not plank on bulkhead that makes a huge difference.

Scale kit description
The kit features the following: This intermediate kit would be suitable for anyone who has previous model building experience.
A double plank on frame hull construction, building plans with general details English instructions booklet, lost wax brass castings,
walnut and lime planking, wooden masts and spars, brass and walnut fittings, laser engraved details, rigging cord, sailcloth and silk flag.
All sheet ply sections are laser cut for accuracy. Ship holder is included.


oops look again there are no "frames" so when did plank on bulkhead get redefined as plank on frame? but you can loosely define bulkheads as "frames".



peregrine-galley-stavebnice-modelu-lodi (1).jpg
 
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