Lambert is home to a vast amount of artistic endeavors expressed through a multitude of mediums including music, dance, film, performance and crafts. These artistic endeavors are often combined with aspects of engineering, science, mathematics and technology, exemplified through school outlets like classes, extracurriculars and student-led clubs.
The Lambert Scale Model Club is one such outlet that expresses the art of scale models, which can encompass everything from Gundams to tanks to dioramas and more. Founded last year, the club offers a space for like-minded enjoyers of scale models to come together and interact, often to present their latest models or discuss upcoming model kits.
“We’ll just talk about our process of building each new model,” Club President and Lambert junior Seth King said. “We don’t do a lot of [group] project work at this moment because we’re still in the process of organizing, but usually at the end of meetings we will discuss finances or just where the club is going.”
Being a relatively new club, the officer team is working hard to grow their total membership and establish their club’s overall presence at Lambert. Students with a background in engineering or art may especially enjoy the club. Although, absolute beginners are also welcome to join and learn about the world of scale models.
“I usually like to send our new members basic videos on how to assemble kits,” Seth said. “I give them some recommendations on lower-level kits that look really cool, but maybe don’t take too much time and effort to build.”
Effort, the commitment or capacity one has to spend long amounts of time and fortitude on often meticulous projects, is a key factor to determining how drawn-out or tedious the process of building a scale model will be. Some less demanding models can be built quickly from simple consumer kits, while others can take days of 3D printing parts and weeks of applying finishing touches.
“Scale modeling certainly requires a sense of commitment to finish the project you’re working on,” Club Officer and Lambert sophomore Bob Lam said. “It took me 6 days to complete my last project.”
Two years ago, Bob entered the world of scale models when he saw his brother assembling model kits and was immediately intrigued. Owning a 3D printer, Bob is often delegated to printing much of the custom parts needed for the club’s scale model projects.
“It’s usually me who brings the unfinished models, and then we paint them, we work on them,” Bob said. “Not everything can be done by 3D printing.”
With the advantages of 3D printing in streamlining the production process of scale models, the Lambert Scale Model Club plans on selling fully-finished models to raise money and awareness for a new annual charity fundraiser.
“We’re thinking of doing that [fundraiser] 2-3 months from now,” Seth said. “We have a lot of our products printed and painted, we just need to get other stuff organized.”
Though the artistic endeavor of scale models may seem too niche or effort-intensive to some, the club’s officer team passionately urges other students to always give new experiences a try, regardless of any preconceived notions.
“Maybe you’ll find something you really like,” Seth said. “Maybe you’ll find a hobby that you will carry on for the rest of your life.”
