Model Forum / General / Models / September 2004

how big a deal is it? tell her one historian thinks
censoring history will trivialize it.

Hey! They rub the Holocaust in our faces at least once a week, "So we don't
ever forget". Then we need the Swastika also, so we don't forget. But if you
leave it off then "THEY" won didn't they.
Or you could build airliners like my friend who had the peacnik wife in the
70's. Last I heard she was working on Nuclear subs somewhere on the east coast.
Scott
There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Mental Illness."

Yes, revisionist history is worse than no history.

 Model kits are simply models of an object from some era, with the
correct coloring & other detail. Seeing a swastika has NOTHING to do
with whether some kid becomes an anti-semitist nazi or not. All kinds
of objects from the pre-war era from all over the world have swastikas
on them as decoration. Like many book covers. Should these books be
banned?
 Finnish war planes had the swastika symbol in 1918-45 as the
national marking. It had nothing to do with fascism, yet in many
modern model kits of those planes the swastika has been replaced with
the post-1945 round symbol. This is just stupid, and actually shows
ignorance of history.
 So, put the swastika on your Stuka and oppose fascism where it
actually shows.

Give her an option. Tell her you'll leave off the swastika if you can grow
yourself one of those little Adolf moustaches instead. My guess is she'll
let the swastikas ride...  and she'll probably keep one eye on you at all
times. ;-)

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there
HELLinhock@earthlink.net

Depends on whether you like being on the outs with the Mrs.  
I've never had this problem as the ex- had no hangups about it.  She's
always one for 'confronting' reality anyway (or turning over rocks as I
called it ;)).

Bill Banaszak, MFE

To hell with the politically correct faction that is sensitive to
everyone whom they believe has been wronged.  A swastica doesn't mean
you are glorifying Hitler or his agenda.  It simply means you are
depicting the aircraft in a certain era, nothing more or less.

Perhaps all WWII shows on the History channel should be banned because
they offend people when you see footage of Hitler or a flag from that
era...........  Its history, accept it!
Grandpa

You've got an issue with your wife and you want us to tell her off for
you? Good grief. Or maybe what you're really asking is whether applying
that decal or two is worth sleeping on the couch, or otherwise doing
penance to God knows what extent. Of course, there's always divorce.

Free speech in society at large is one thing, and in that context,
people who have a problem with models sporting swastikas or
hammers-'n'-sickles or nekkid nose art or Sponge Bob images ought not
look at said stuff and otherwise keep their complaining pie holes
slammed shut until pie shows up. When dealing with family members, and
especially spouses, the same rules are sometimes not practical, nor even
wise.

BTW, does your wife do the dusting? And if so, do you intend to keep
this model somewhere so secure that a cleaning accident won't destroy
it? It occurs to me that, all-in-all, you might be happier building RAF
subjects.

Mark Schynert

You don't need an opinion from this group.  You need to get to the root of why
your wife doesn't want a symbol of the Nazi party in your house.  Saying she
doesn't like it really does not address WHY she doesn't like it.  Once you have
that answer, you'll be able to address putting the decals in place.

You obviously don't have a problem with this, you want to include the
historical markings.  The Smithsonian and all other museums in the US have WWII
German items, all correctly marked, but your wife feels differently.  Does this
mean she would rather see all museum artifacts modified or would she find those
acceptable.  She is drawing the line somewhere, you need to discover where that
is and why its being drawn.

Scott
CaptCBoard@AOL.com

Thanks to all for their valuable inputs...the swastikas are going on.
And I did get to the bottom of it--she didn't have a big problem at
all, she was just making an alternate suggestion.  I think I was the
one who misunderstood her.  Thanks again

In the UK, the CBS documentory Hitler: Rise To Evil is about to be screened.
It contains Swastikas by the barrel load, including on trailers which are
being screened before and after the watershed.

How come there is such a big suppression of Swastikas on model aircraft yet
they are freely used in books, television and film (even new releases).

Apart from the fact that the Swastika pre-dates Nazi facism what is the idea
of the censorship anyway.  Is it that eventually, we will forget about the
Nazis and they and their attrocities will cease to exist like some form of
'doublespeak' from the book 1984.

Cheers,

Nigel

Does the simbol even hold the same meaning these days?

Isn't another "Let's split the group" thread overdue now?

Yes.  Build it like it was, if you're building to be accurate.

Anything else is either lying, or toymaking.

Use the Swastika, just don't salute it when the missis is around ;-)

Zardos
--

The all singing all dancing
   Crap of the world !

What were her reasons for suggesting that you leave it off?  As has
been pointed out here in the past (if I'm not
mistaken as well as in this thread) the use of the swastika predates
Nazi Germany.  And in many of those cultures it
was a good luck symbol.

Here are a few links to articles on the history:
http://www.fpscentral.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-73784
http://www.swastika-info.com/

And here is the link from the Google search itself:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=history+of+swa
stika&spell=1

Have you and your wife sat done and talked about why she feels that it
is better if you leave it off?