Yes, I'm late restarting my blogging for 2021 - a bit late but it's been a bit of an hectic start to January. But things are starting to settle down again so it onwards and upwards...
But what is my strategy for the coming year? I look at 2020 as a learning period, even though I made some models that I was quite happy with everything still felt like prototypes and no two builds were the same. 2021 is about consolidating by build techniques.
As I mentioned in my last post of 2020 I now have a 3D printer and that will be taking over my build experiments and prototypes. I'll be reserving my wooden builds for special projects. This should speed up my learning process as working on wooden build only for them not to turn out the way I wanted is a annoying waste of time...
Anyway, I don't have anything to show off yet BUT I came across this interesting article by CNN which - although isn't about my sort of toy soldiers - is a very interesting look into how attitudes towards 'military toys' in general is changing...
"LEGO won't make modern war machines, but others are picking up the pieces. "
In the article an influential peace group remarked on the production of 'war' themed models...
"The basic aim is to avoid realistic weapons and military equipment that children may recognize from hot spots around the world and to refrain from showing violent or frightening situations when communicating about LEGO products. At the same time, the purpose is for the LEGO brand not to be associated with issues that glorify conflicts and unethical or harmful behaviour," the peace group quoted from a 2010 LEGO report.
As someone who in involved in one of the hobbies driven by an interest in all things military - even one which is principally 'toy' in style - this sort of thought process is a little worrying. For my part, I do wonder how this sort of attitude will affect those model makers who see themselves as part 'historians' who make 'war models' in order to persevere moments in history.
Some modellers might suggest that this is the thin edge of the wedge - military themed models not, but in the future how will such an 'anti-war' perspective affect military re-enactments or even military museums?
Food for thought.
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