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Presbyopia - Near Vision problems Making It Difficult to Model


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Every one says that the fiddly bits are the hardest part of scale modeling to do. Even more so after 40. I have started noticing the problematic situation that develops when you have presbyopia - This loss of focusing ability for near vision due to the inflexibility of the focusing lens in your eye. A photography analogy would be when your focusing element for your macro lens goes all wonky and jams. I find myself rubbing my eyes more due to dryness. If I bring a model part up close to my eyes to ascertain the detail work needed it goes all blurry. The inherent miniscule size of the detail work in 1/48 scale modeling (heck...I'm not even going to touch 1/72 scale any more) now either involves getting a large magnifying lamp with a large magnifier element (the one I have is too small or wearing magnifying glasses and I need to find one that minimizes the diffraction (think putting a straw in a glass and looking at it: it looks bent or broken in two). I need to know where my hands are on the kit so that I don't screw up a panel line or something. I don't like things around my head, wearing a magnifier glass would involve so much frustration that I would more than likely throw the model kit or the glasses out the open window in anger.

I'm getting the feeling that it's more than time to start switching scales to 1/32 and I hate to do that because it's going to involve selling the majority of 1/48 kits that I have collected over the years. I don't have 100s of kits but it looks to be about 58 kits that I have that are 48 scale. I don't see any chance of my near vision problems clearing up due to my age and I'm not too certain if there is a simple solution to focusing on detail work such as the cockpit fiddly bits without getting driven insane by all the small work needed. To give you an idea, if I hold a small figure at any point less than 3/4 of a foot away from my eyes the detail on the figure degenerates into a blur. So if I am to work on a 1/48 fiddly bit I'm going to have to get a magnifier somewhere in the neighborhood of 10x-20x magnification. It's either that or sell the majority of my 1/48 scale kits and switch to 1/32. Maybe being able to actually see what the hell I'm doing may get me back to the model-bench. :bandhead2:

Edited by The_Animal
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I hear ya..my eyesight has always been awful. I had abliopia (lazy eye) as a child and by the time I got glasses at age five I was irreparably farisghted. I had to go to bifocals nine years ago when I turned 40..I hate them, and even though I need to update my precription I've been putting it off because I'm sure the optometrist will went to put me in trifocals. As it is, I can't do any modeling at all without an Optivisor..but I'm stubbornly sticking with 1/72 scale. I've got too many unfinished projects, as well as a stash of some 600 kits and Lord knows how many decals.

SN

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I hear ya..my eyesight has always been awful. I had abliopia (lazy eye) as a child and by the time I got glasses at age five I was irreparably farisghted. I had to go to bifocals nine years ago when I turned 40..I hate them, and even though I need to update my precription I've been putting it off because I'm sure the optometrist will went to put me in trifocals. As it is, I can't do any modeling at all without an Optivisor..but I'm stubbornly sticking with 1/72 scale. I've got too many unfinished projects, as well as a stash of some 600 kits and Lord knows how many decals.

SN

Considering my start to finish ratio... 0% in the past 6 years, I need some sort of kick in the gluteous maximus to get me to start working on something. Detail work frustrates the living daylights out of me to no end, but the OCD part of me figures that it doesn't do anything for a model if you put in a half-baked, half finished cockpit into a model that you do well...on the outside. So I want to do well on the cockpits too...and the smaller the pieces the more problem with seeing and the more frustrated I get. I guess that's probably why in the past 2 years I haven't wanted to work on anything because of the vision problems. And at one point in my lifetime, I had 20/20 in one eye and 20/10 in the other.

The young guys need to appreciate their visual acuity while they still have it. <_< ...because all too soon...

Edited by The_Animal
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I have come to the realization that the only time the cockpit will be seen is when someone is up close and personal. That would be for a contest and if I bring the model to my local IPMS meeting. My favorite part of the build is also painting and decaling, so doing all the fiddly cockpit work just slows me down. The answer to all that is Eduard colored PE. It makes life so much simpler! I'd really love it if someone came out with some nice sets of cockpit decals that matched the specific kit. It would be just like the colored PE, but you would retain the 3D aspect. Until then, though, the colored PE is the way to go.

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I have come to the realization that the only time the cockpit will be seen is when someone is up close and personal. That would be for a contest and if I bring the model to my local IPMS meeting. My favorite part of the build is also painting and decaling, so doing all the fiddly cockpit work just slows me down. The answer to all that is Eduard colored PE. It makes life so much simpler! I'd really love it if someone came out with some nice sets of cockpit decals that matched the specific kit. It would be just like the colored PE, but you would retain the 3D aspect. Until then, though, the colored PE is the way to go.

Darren, maybe they'll come up with that when they come up with personal 3D printers. :)

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Have you tried drugstore reading glasses? Try them out at the store rack, and see what you can focus on at typical ranges. I have needed reading glasses for close-up work since I turned about 44; at first I had no idea why I was having a hard time changing focus from close to far until I visited an optometrist and complained about my perfect (20/20 and 20/15) eyes were betraying me. He put a slide rule on the bridge of my nose, said to tell him when the card got fuzzy as he slid it in toward my eyes... and when I said "when", he pulled it off and showed me the number 44 on the rule. "Normal for your age", he said.

I have a couple pairs I keep around for reading and modelling. I also find a bright light helps (to increase contrast), and finally I have a magnifying lamp I used for tiny details like 1/48 cockpit panels.

I sympathise with you - I find I far prefer 1/32 scale now!

ALF

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yep, picked up a pair last week. I cant believe how much of a difference they make.

Fortunately these work for me too. I can’t see anything up close without them I’m using 1.75mag right now I think

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Cataracts were the best thing that ever happened to me! :rolleyes:

At 52 (three years ago) I had cataract removal/lens replacement surgery for both eyes. Went from 20/400 with correction to 20/200 w/c. After a period of adjustment and learning to use various optical aids (Opti-Visor, stereo jeweler's loupe etc etc) I am now doing the best close work of my modeling life, which stretches back nearly fifty years. The doctor I worked with very specifically customized my new lens implants for model-building/miniature work, since driving is still out of the question.

While I no longer have the amazing ability to use the naked eye as a natural magnifier, getting up close and personal with my work; the ability to use powerful optical aids (which didn't work before) and maintain more constant focus is more than a fair trade-off in my estimation.

cheers

Old Blind Dog

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