I was looking through photos taken at a model show at Cedarville, Illinois, when I saw a very strange thing. Appearing at the show was a model of an orange cabover flatbed truck, carrying a tracked snow vehicle.
It looked awfully familiar to me, and so I emailed my friend John, who I thought would know something about it. He replied with the attached pictures.
The model is an almost exact copy of one John built in 2012!
It’s not a coincidence; the guy didn’t just happen to build the same kit. John’s model is built of parts from several kits, bashed together with a healthy dose of John’s special imagination. The Cedarville guy went to some trouble to build such an exact duplicate.
I’m not sure exactly what to think. I think it’s irksome to have a copy of one’s model out there; I think it’s perhaps sad that the Cedarville guy didn’t put more of his own imagination into it. John is taking perhaps the best possible attitude: He says that he’s flattered that someone admired his idea enough to build a copy for himself.
How much of the model world is people like you and John who use their own imagination as opposed to others who just build kits?
Surely everyone begins with kits. John might feel honored that his model was as great as a kit. For someone who usually builds kits, being able to copy someone else’s original probably feels super creative to them!
I’d be fuming if someone copied my original and won a contest as their original. But I think otherwise I’d be flattered like John is.
It’s obviously not an exact clone; the other guy must have seen the pictures and replicated it as best he could given the materials on hand, but without trying to copy every detail exactly.
Your friend’s version looks better to me; it has more detail and a better surface finish (though I do like the snow on the copy). Which leads me to think the other guy is something of a newbie. Most people start developing their talents by copying others. If the other guy was supposedly some seasoned pro, it would be concerning, but I doubt that’s the case here. If he keeps at it, he’ll have better developed his own talents in a few years. Imagination isn’t something that comes automatically; it has to be developed alongside the physical skills.
Is it a model of a real truck? Is it well known? Featured in a magazine somewhere? Maybe he got the idea from the same source.
And either way, it’s not like one person “owns” a source. Unless the “copy cat” is doing it JUST to fuck with John, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Admittedly, it’s not like making a copy of someone else’s version of a kit (which I did, because it was a good truck!) - this took a lot of work. But it’s still just a model of a real (?) truck. No different than painting your own copy of the Mona Lisa.
Though, in my experience, I’m sure there are clubs that, if they knew it was an “inspired replica”, wouldn’t give it any awards, and they’d all stand around together and make fun of the “copycat” builder. Even if they didn’t know the original builder. Even if it was better than the original!
Not everyone is a composer, some are “merely” musicians.
That said, there are painters, and then there are forgers. It’s all in whether someone is trying to pass off their work as an original and make money off of it.
It’s not a model of a real truck; the original was straight out of John’s imagination. The Cedarville model has to be the result of seeing coverage of John’s model on the internet and deliberately building a copy of it.
I think the Cedarville model was built by someone who just really really liked John’s model–and lacked the imagination to put his own spin on it. A musician, and not a composer.
Then it does seem odd to copy it, but that’s just a question of degree. I’ve borrowed ideas from well done versions of kit models before, rather than copying a unique piece such as this, so I’m just as guilty. I’ve seen enough of these desert-oil-field-truck-looking behemoths at model shows that I thought they are all based on real trucks, but I never checked it out. (wish I could link to some of the ones I’ve seen locally) Maybe they are all inspired by each other?
Unfortunately, too late to edit the thread title now.
