Please excuse the title, I was not too sure how to express how certain members of the modelling fraternity make me feel. There is a lot off laziness in the hobby and one of the things that boils my piss more than those that post on forums and social media about what colour they should paint their panzer grey Tiger is those people who post other peoples work on Facebook pages without crediting the modeller who has spent hours day weeks even months on it or even worse they post pictures of others work passing it off as their own. Now I will probably never have my work treated in this abominable way however come on people credit where credit is due, if I had worked my butt off creating an inspiring diorama and somebody else passed it off as work they had done I would be less than impressed. What makes me laugh is when you see work by a well known modeller, a piece of work that has been seen around the show circuit on the internet and in magazines and somebody is passing it off as their own it’s a bit like me going to the Louvre in Paris and saying that there Mona Lisa, I painted that, or the Venus de Milo, I sculpted that.
Another thing while I’m at it is plagiarism, not only are people passing others work off as their own they are blatantly copying other peoples work and saying that the original idea was theirs. Now I am sure the great modellers among us would be flattered if work they have done inspires others to have a go at emulating that work, blatantly copying is just plain wrong. I know it is tough coming up with an original idea for say a diorama, and it is something I have struggled with over the years copying is not the answer, being inspired by someone’s work or by a picture in a book now that is what should be happening not directly mimicking the work of somebody else. The advent of the internet over the last 20 years has not really helped with this at all, please don’t get me wrong the internet has added an extra dimension to the hobby as far as I am concerned, for example you can obtain anything you need for the hobby 24 hours a day 7 days a week and from all 4 corners of the world, it has given me the platform to share my thought frustrations and annoyances about the hobby with those who choose to read my rantings.
Plagiarism is not just blighting those whose work is at the very top of the hobby, it also effects those who have the talent to sculpt and try and make a living selling those wonderful figures and busts to us the modeller, bad copies of these works crop up on a certain auction site on a worrying scale, it is piracy and those in power to restrict the sale of these pirated items do not seem to act quick enough and it puts these small cottage industry businesses at jeopardy. When I write the blog posts I try to use pictures of my own work or photos I have taken at military vehicle shows, air shows or at museums. I think I have only used a picture I found on google once, and that was of Geoffrey Wellums Spitfire, it isn’t hard to be original, if you cannot sculpt, leave it to those that have the talent to do so, and the pirating and illegal distribution of other peoples work is not unique to figures and busts, it can be found in other areas too, such as books and magazines.
A few years back I was looking for a book that had been out for a couple of months and the only copy I could find was going for a kings ransom on the auction site I mentioned earlier, so every Friday an internet search would take place and on one of these searches I found one going free, yep free and to my utter shock it was a PDF copy, now the guys that write these special interest books are not multi millionaires with a sports car in the drive, theses are guys like me and you just trying to share with the modelling world how they achieve the level of work that they do. Next time you are after a book a bust or a set of figures and you see them really cheap on the internet take a minute and think about the person who has sweat blood and tears and put their heart and soul into the original work and treat them with the respect they deserve. The same can be said about the modellers whose work gets posted on certain Facebook pages and does not get the credit, I always credit the modeller when I see this, and I am sure sooner or later I will get removed from these groups however I don’t really care, these people deserve the credit their talent and dedication deserves.
The Average Modeller.
The Average Modeller 
You make a very good point. Sometimes I think there is a fine line between being inspired and simply copying. I don’t mind either just as long as credit is given to the originator. The idea of claiming to be the originator and that someone else is the copier is truly distasteful.
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