Shorter video length
After I’d finished filming the Leman Russ Strike Tank seres, I decided to do a “quick build” of a Maschinen Krieger Archelon. (See below.) I try to stay 6-8 weeks ahead in my filming so I’m not always scrambling against a deadline.
Normally the way I film is to start working, and just talk about whatever comes to mind with any aspect of a build. This approach (I hope) gives a load of detail into the thinking behind the process. Personally, I like that in my own video consumption. Tell me why you do it… the how and with what are almost secondary. Of course, doing it this way pretty much means the videos are long. And that has two major consequences. The first is YouTube simply ignores my videos, which I’m OK with really. (Well… mostly.) The second consequence is I end up either answering or even deleting comments chastising me for the length of my videos.
That aspect puzzles me. It’s not like you can’t determine ahead of time how long a video is. If long videos aren’t your thing… don’t watch them. But… I digress.
So as I started filming the Archelon video, I wasn’t much in a talking mood. And without really thinking about, and with no intended purpose in mind, I realized I’d made a short video, clocking in at just over 16 minutes.
Now as I look back, I realize it was one of those times where real life things had superimposed themselves into my model work to the extent that while I enjoyed the modeling, it wasn’t of primary importance. And doing the actual video was less than fun.
I also think that part of what was on my mind was essentially the thought of “why spend hours and hours and hours making a 45+ minute video that will be seen by 20-30 people in the first hour, and 150-220 in the first day?“
That is a bit of a harsh thought, because I’ve always said my intent is to be helpful, not popular. But on that day… those weeks really… with all the rest on my mind, I decided to just keep it simple.
You’ll see what I mean. That first Archelon video is 16:12, the second just 10:57. And I cover most all of the steps, but with much less of the “why”, and very little ramble.
As I continued into the next build – a Maschinen Krieger Falke – I continued that same approach, with part 1 (cockpit) being just shy of 20 minutes, and part 2 (assembly tips) being a bit over 22 minutes. I’m currently filming the third part (engine painting) and it’s looking like it may be less than 15, unless I go into a long ramble.
I plan to continue this pattern at least through the Falke, which looks like it will be five or even six videos. I’m treating it a bit like a “summer break”, though I have considered doing it more often that not when the focus is simply “paint this part this color and paint this other part this other color”. That would allow for longer format work on specific “how to” type things.
We’ll see. If you’ve kept up with my nonsense, you know I often jump about like a caffeinated kangaroo… hopping all over the place. If you are from Australia you can tell me if that is an apt comparison. The visual in my mind is quite funny though. 🤪
Archelon
Don’t ask me how to pronounce it, but the Archelon is a Ma. K armored fighting suit. I read up on the lore, but basically it’s “cool looking thing that looks like a walking turtle.” I know with Ma. K no matter what I say I’m probably at least partially wrong, if not fully wrong, so now I just call it like I see it and have fun with the little make believe plastic toys… and ignore the inevitable “nice work, but in actuality…” stuff. The lore is neat, and I do like it. But when it comes to my own work, I rarely pay any attention to it.
This one is fun. It’s a simple build, and the fit is quite good. Wave makes this kit. You just sort of build it, paint it, and weather it, and then make shooty pew-pew sounds.
The two part video series is complete, and has been uploaded to YouTube. Look for part 1 on June 6, and part 2 on June 20th.
Falke
I’d built a Falke Otsu back in 2019 before I started doing videos to any great extent. I really enjoyed it, and have had this kit in my stash for a few years, but just never slotted it in to the mix. I finally decided “now is the time”.
Part 1 (July 4 release) of the series covers the cockpit. It’s a decent cockpit from an aircraft builders perspective, but not great. A scratch builder can go to town on it. I built it mostly out of the box.
It’s funny… I got on the Googles to search for examples of the Falke cockpit for inspiration. I found one particular photo that actually got me a bit down. I thought “dang… why can’t I do work like that?” For a minute or so I was really bummed. Then I saw my name under it. 🤦♂️🤷♂️
And realized it was my own work. Turns out I can do work like that. And it also reminded me I need to stop comparing my work to others… even if that work happens to be my own.
(Although this example – not my work – shows how it should be done in my opinion.)
Part 2 (July 18 release) of the series was fun to do. When I’d built the Falke the first time, there were a few points in the assembly that I thought were problematic with regards to later painting, weathering, and alignment. So on this build, I decided to try and work through those.
It was actually a case where I turned the camera on not knowing if what I filmed would work, but figuring if it did – I’d have an episode. Happily, I was able to document ways employ with what I think are simple but effective approaches to mounting the cockpit, and handling the “inner lobster claw” details and engine to allow for mounting later in the process.
Now… before the comments roll in saying I’m not the first to do it… I’m not claiming that at all. I KNOW I can’t be the first, because these modifications are so simple. I’m simply not that bright to be the first. However, it was a discovery for me – and so I wanted to share them.
And somehow I managed to pack it all into a shorter video.
The third part, painting the engine, in in progress, and is scheduled for release Aug 1.
Circling Back…
So back to the video length stuff…
I’ve always marveled at how guys like Martin Kováč (Nightshift) and others in that rare air of master builders and content creators seem to be able to do such amazing work yet not make ultra-long videos. I think part of it is the fact that narration seems to be more efficient than live talking. But I think they have more focus, really. What is the focus of the video? Maybe that is an aspect I need to examine more as I evaluate it. Perhaps ramble isn’t bad – but it needs to be focused ramble.
But, then again… who knows? Six months from now I may be writing a newsletter justifying a shift to four hour videos with demonstrations of interpretive dance to “enhance the weathering experience.”
Whatever the case – thanks for hanging around, friends.
Happy day to you,
jon
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