Top 10 scale model boards on Pinterest

For a long time I ignored Pinterest. I had heard it was mostly used for "girly" stuff like wedding inspiration and fashion ideas (yeah, I know, that sounds ridiculous). About a year ago I started using it for photo references for my full-time work as an art director. Then one day I decided to look for scale model references on Pinterest. And you know what? It's chock full of amazing modelling ideas. If you are a modeller and you don't use Pinterest, you are missing out on some Good Stuff.

For any of you who don't use Pinterest (yep, another social media to have to keep track of!) I thought I would do you a favour and share with you my list, in no particular order, of the:

Top 10 scale model boards on Pinterest

#1 DAK
Over 6,000 images of the Afrika Korps during WW2. 6,000!  And they are all great images, and constantly added to.  If you model anything DAK, you will find useful reference photos here.

#2 Japanese "Things to try"
The title in Japanese translates to "Things to try". It is an amazing board full of images of built models and dioramas. What I love about this board is that they are really, really high quality builds. Nothing average here, they are all world-class models. Inspiring stuff.

#3 Rusted Models
Not a huge number of images, but if you want to build any kind of rusted model, there are wonderful references here to aspire to - if other modellers can do this, you can too. I found this helpful when I was building my rusted abandoned SU-122 tank diorama. Rusted models? Does what it says on the tin.

#4 Military dioramas
Over 1,000 images of military dioramas. Again, what I like about this board is that it is curated, you only get the really good stuff build by master modellers. And that is one of the reasons I really recommend Pinterest - all the wheat has been sorted from the chaff, people only pin images which are important to them, it's only the good stuff which tends to be pinned.

#5 Quality dioramas
A bit like the last one, it's only quality dioramas that make it onto this board. You want inspiration? You got it. Also, not everything is 1/35 military dioramas, there are some fantasy pieces, some planes, some figures, about 15% is unexpected. In my book, that's a good thing to expose yourself to inspiration from other fields of model building.

#6 Scale modelling techniques / references
Lots of "how to" guides linked to. The images give you an idea of what each tutorial is about, and you click on the link to take you to the original web page which gives the whole story. Easy.

#7 Knocked out tanks
Again, does what is says on the tin. If you want references of tanks which have been disabled, knocked out or brewed up, this board has lots of good quality references all curated in one place. Not the hugest number of images, but they are good ones.

#8 Apocalypse Model Ideas
A little left of centre here, but I really like this genre of models. Post-apocalyptic stuff, think "Mad Max" style vehicles and dioramas. Fun, interesting, diverse, and lots of inspiring stuff even if you are a rivet-counter and insist on historical accuracy in your own builds rather than flights of fancy (pfft, how boring are you, eh?) Nice.

#9 Infinity
Sci-fi, medieval, lots of WW2 models. Again, it's world-class stuff. Visit it and see.

#10 My own Dave's Model Workshop Pinterest boards
What, you didn't think I would leave out my own stuff, did you? Check them out. There are boards for weathering ideas, techniques and tips, diorama ideas and inspiration, figure painting, scratchbuilding scale models. It's the best of the best, if I do say so myself ;)

So there you have it. I guess it all boils down to this: Pinterest supplies a curated series of images to your eyeballs. Only the really good stuff gets in, compared to say a Google Images search for exactly the same term/s. It's visual heavy (I think most of us model builders are more visual than text people) and it is an amazing resource.

Try it. Add to it. Get out there. Let me know what you find in the comments below.

Cheers,

Dave