It’s the second to last Featured Artist Award winner selection of the year, and we’ve brought you a new dynamic this time with an artist that has a knack for building bridges… literally. Peter Budai orchestrates 116 Models, where all of his wonderful work will be available to purchase in due time. We’re proud to enter Peter into the talented selection of artists that we hold in the highest esteem.
So how long have you been in this hobby?
Peter: I was about five when I got the first kit from my parents. It was a MIG-21 fighter jet and we built it together with my father. The concept worked and I continued building these kits for many years afterwards, making sure we both had something to do on them, to continue the common fun.
What got you fascinated with building scale-model bridges?
Peter: I have liked tanks ever since my childhood, which led me buying my first RC tank eight years ago. I did not like some of its features, so I started the mods right away. When you spend enough time on something that cheers you up, you try to extend the fun factor and look around for new items that fit the original thing. I thought about some diorama elements, and bridges were the most attractive of all, so I looked around on the market for what’s available. Surprise surprise, didn’t find a thing that would be satisfying enough, so I decided to build one. As I like photography, I had a good time taking pics with the tank afterwards and this thing actually exploded. 🙂
Can you describe your work environment? Do you work in solitude, or do you have some sort of media playing in the background?
Peter: I have the pleasure to have enough space around me in the garage, where music either plays, or not. Building these things is entertaining enough for me not to miss any music. I love to organize the tools within my instant reach — wasting time on looking for them can significantly decrease fun.
Can you tell us about your tank club, and the theme of your battlefield?
Peter: We have quite an active community in Hungary, where almost everyone is busy building something. Some members take active effort in organizing events, like our participation in military and other festivals. We have a FB webpage and a web-based forum, both stored in the Fun4change website RC tank club map. Other than that, the community is active on a daily basis via active networking. If you visit the web-based forum, you’ll see all the topics, the builds/mods/events/tutorial stuff/advertisements and so on, that the folks started long, long before I joined them. All is in Hungarian but so many pics are posted, which are self-explaining and can also motivate those who do not speak our language. I am proud to be part of this creative community where I think we all learn from each other. The level of knowledge and the top-notch work quality of some professionals here is truly motivating all of us. As for the themes, most topics are around WWII builds focusing on European areas. Perhaps the biggest crowd is around the Kursk battle “compatible items.”
Your page on Facebook, 116 Models, hosts all of your awesome builds. Can people expect to find more than just bridge kits there?
Peter: The original concept of that page was to display built items, but in the meantime it is expanding, so not only my bridges can be seen there. A friend of mine is building a tank transporter and storage houses, along with professional stone diorama elements like city buildings and bridges. Another friend is developing his third-generation tank-control electronics with battle capability, barrel stabilizer for modern tanks, or a conversion kit for a WWII Russian type. Let me not reveal the type at this moment – surprise brings happiness. 🙂 Other diorama elements are also in the pipeline. We can say slowly, but surely, the site is developing and the goal is to bring variety of the available items on the market, even if that is-small scale in terms of volume.
We are about setting up a web shop (116models.com), but that is still in the early development phase. You will see the members of this small group there.
How long does assembly of your kits usually take?
Peter: That depends on some factors, e.g., the size of the kit, the level of experience of the builder, or the available tools. In general, I would say a week is enough for the more difficult ones. Developing a new type certainly takes much more time. The biggest one took me about six months due to a low amount of free time.
What is the most tedious aspect building these bridges?
Peter: What I learned ever since I started is that working with wood is a great feeling – no wonder there are so many people doing that in many forms. Like other builds, this helps improve your capabilities; however, the tools are somewhat different vs. with traditional model building exercises, so it enrichens the color of your experience. Finally, we all need to find our solution for daily stress and I think I found mine via working on timber things like bridges. It switches me completely off.
How did your very first bridge build go? Were there any issues or lessons?
Peter: We all remember our first love, right? 🙂 The original concept was fairly simple and as I progressed with it, I said I should extend it. I decided to use lap joints all made by hand, which required very high level of precision and made the build way too long.
Now for colouring instead of wood paint, I used vinegar and steel. It does look good, can have unwanted effects on glued bonds, so need to be careful with it.
Aspiring hobbyists often wish they could achieve the level of detail that you put into your work. Do you have any advice for those just starting out, or for those who are struggling with their projects?
Peter: I believe it really makes sense to go step-by-step and start with an easier build. We all learn the basic steps at the beginning and it is important to be able to feel positive about the outcome. If the required level of the build is way above our proficiency level, struggling is guaranteed, and that can demotivate anyone. Thus my advice is to match these two so that we can serve the basic reason that we are into this hobby: to have fun and improve our capabilities. 🙂
Ever consider doing a drawbridge?
Peter: Was looking into that, but the material should be metal rather than timber. I think the variety of the builds is just inexhaustible.
Do you recommend a particular stain, or paint scheme for these builds?
Peter: My favourite is the worn appearance; this is what I usually try to model. To achieve this is somewhat different vs. on a plastic or metal build, since we have different materials and techniques. I am also fairly new into weathering wood, so I am very much interested to see how far the appearance can go if a real paintwork master does the job.
What is your favorite aspect of this hobby?
Peter: I think releasing stress was a major one previously, but now it changed to improving capabilities and increasing the fun factor of our meetings (also for our visitors). I love to see if people are “blown away” by the complex appearance of a nice tanking field, thus I try to contribute to that.
Anything else that you would like to add?
Peter: Up till now, you could see only timber bridges from my side. The only reason is that I found it so entertaining and challenging that I simply could not resist building them as ideas of new designs raised. From now on there will be other items too, e.g., at this moment I am working on a GAZ64 conversion, where I deliberately chose a rare material in the RC world: paper. 🙂
Some other builds are in the pipeline, but wood definitely stays on the desk. The other thing I wanted to mention is motivation: I can see great many excellent and inspiring builds every day on FB. I just want to say thanks to all the folks out there to be so active, sharing their work and motivating all of us. 🙂
End of Interview.
Thank you Peter, for sharing your work with us, and for your contribution to the arts.
Don’t forget to check out Peter’s Gallery, show him some love on social media, and bookmark his site so you can be among the first to place an order on one of these awesome kits when they debut.
Copyright 2018, Fun4Change and Peter Budai, all rights reserved.
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