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In the process of getting materials together for some new product launches, my brain went and decided to connect a bunch of dots that have been rattling around for years. And clocking how seemingly disconnected things connect is pretty much mental crack for me.

In this case it’s been…why am I drawn to the stuff I’m drawn to? Music. Books. History. Modeling subjects. Vehicles. Places. Product development targets. Hell, even exercise. Why do I love mountain biking but hate road cycling?

I’ve had a multitude of answers to this in the past. I like stories. I like when function dictates form in part because that means there’s a story behind why a thing is the way that it is. I like weathered vehicles for a similar reason. There’s a story behind how they got that way.

But that’s not it. Not exactly. I don’t prefer mountain biking for story. There’s no story behind a song doing a little swerve toward the end. And yeah there may be a story behind the way a wing is chipped and scuffed, but let’s face it – pretty obvious story. There’s a connection for sure. I think a good story might be the deeper appreciation, perhaps? Or maybe it’s just something I’ve latched onto to seem more profound.

Get On With It!

So why am I drawn to what I’m drawn to?

Irregularity.

Irregularity explains my love of that song doing that little swerve just as well as it does my love of mismatched road wheels, weird one-off conversions, hell, even offroading and mountain biking.

I’m not talking about flaws here so much as incongruousness, asymmetry, rough edges, textures. At least to my brain, they’re what give things (and let’s face it – people) character. And sometimes understanding why they’re irregular can also help explain why the regular thing is the way it is.

Is This Why I Dislike Link-And-Length Track?

Since this clicked into place, I’ve been noticing that many of the modeling things I veer away from at a near-instinctual level are regularizing:

“Iconic” schemes. Jolly Rogers F-14s. The Memphis Belle. Red Five. You know exactly the schemes I’m talking about. No shade on them, or anyone who wants to do them, but personally I just can’t.

Standard base shapes. Rectangle? Oval? My brain recoils. And yeah I know there are arguments that the base should fade away, like the frame around a painting, but as often as not, it seems to me like the base shape ends up shaping the scene that sits on it, rather than vice versa.

Link-and-length track. Better than rubber bands? I guess? But it leads to a bunch of builds that look too samey even if they’re wearing wildly different schemes and finish styles. All the sprockets at the same point of rotation. All the top run draped (or not draped) the same way. Even for tanks on planks, a slight variation from the standard can have a lot of impact. Hell – especially for tanks on planks.