I appear to have a condition called "Acute Vision." I have never heard of this before and it has been diagnosed by myself rather than any medical practicioner. I wonder how many of you have it too? Some time ago, I built the attached model of Chepstow Castle to illustrate an article. It only took a few hours and when completed, I decided that it looked awful and did not use it! It has been lying around collecting dust for several years. Yesterday, I sold it on Ebay for quite a surprising amount. I showed the attached photograph to a fellow shipbuilder who declared that it was excellent and well up to my normal standards. I produced the attached photograph of a more recent model of the Framlington Court. and asked others if they could tell the difference in quality. Very few could! Recently a model four-masted barque that I built 37 years ago and sold for £16 appeared out of the blue on Ebay and sold for £400. I contacted the buyer (in USA) and sent him a picture of a simlar model completed recently – guess what? He couldn't see any difference in quality! But to me, the 37-year-old one looked dreadful when compared to the more recent one!

I am now getting the feeling that I have been wasting my time all these years trying to improve if very few can distinguish very poor from very good!

Surely some of you here can tell the difference?

Bob

I don't think he was trying to flatter me as when I showed him the picture, I said to start with that I was amazed that it sold. It didn't go for all that much, but still a lot more than I expected. I started it at £4.99 including postage ((£2.80) so I was expecting £2.19 profit, from which Ebay fees and income tax would be deducted. Even then, I was doubtful if it would sell, but it went for £8.50. Then I looked round Ebay and found lots of similar models going for considerably more, whilst others of far better quality (not mine) were going unsold, but all similarly priced. When our local ship model club put a public display on some time ago, one of our members had a large 74 gun ship that he had been working on for over thirty years – absolutely superb and well up to the standard of the old dockyard models. Another member took in a very simple model of an exploration ship in ice. He admitted that he had just thrown it together in the space of one afternoon "just for amusement." One visitor made a great thing of declaring the exploration model was without a doubt the finest model in the room!

Bob

Hi Dave,

Yes, I guess you are right. Looking at ship model displays from time to time, I often note how the poorer models are getting all the attention. It is not "sour grapes" on my part, because I have not publicly displayed my models for years now, but just feel sympathy for those who have put in considerable time and effort to produce accurate and pleasing models without any great appreciation.

Bob

Len,

Yes, I think that must be it. When I started building models round about the age of 7, I produced a number of them very similar to yours above, but never kept any. I smoothed off the sides of the hull by rubbing it on the back yard concrete floor!

Bob