Kugai wrote: |
I'm talking about starting on a kit and something happens that you end up putting it aside and don't get back to it until much later than you planned. Modeler's block? Some technique issue? Lost or missing parts? My worst case is a ST:TNG Enterprise-D I started on years ago. I had a grand scheme for lighting it like one I'd seen in FSM years before, but using lightsheet instead of the mini-fluorescent lantern lights used in the article, properly opened windows instead of the pinpoint lights of the fiber optic kit. Do you have any idea how many windows are on that thing? Now imagine going frame-by-frame on the movies to mark which ones are lit ( about 60% of all the ones on the kit ) and drilling an average of 3 holes per window ( by hand, with a pin vise ) to prepare them for carving to the right shape. I think it added up to about 4000 holes drilled and by then I was so sick of dealing with the thing, I put it in storage and still haven't gotten back to it. I still plan to once I get the supplies and electronics design together. Anyone else? |
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Absolutely I have. I had a dozen or so kits that I had started over the past few years, then put aside to start the next one, in a running stream of Short-Attention-Span-Modeling.
I tried a new tack for this year and made a New Years modeling resolution. I identified 12 started but unfinished kits and resolved not to buy any new ones, or start any unstarted kits in my stash, until I had finished those 12 kits.
It hasn't been perfect--I've only completed 2 of them, though another 3 are further along than they might otherwise have been. I had signed up for a group build in my club, too, before making the resolution, so I worked on that kit and finished it. And I finally broke down and bought a new kit in July (couldn't pass up a Monogram B-24D for $9 on eBay!).
But I don't look at those things as failures. It's kept me motivated, I've spent more time at the bench because of it, and I went 7 whole months without buying any new kits for the stash. I'm pleased with the result.
Participating in online forums helps, too, I've found. I'm motivated to make some kind of progress, no matter how small, just to be able to share it with the gang online.
I have a thread around here somewhere, showing all of my resolution kits, by the way. At the end of the year, I'll put up shots of the ones I finished.
In any event, don't give up! You'll get the bug again and start up with new gusto!
Regards,
Brad