Modeler's Block - Perspective from the past...
About five years ago, after I got back into modeling, my Dad gave me all of his model stuff he had laying around.
Part of that was old issues of the IPMS Quarterly and Update journals from the mid to late 70's.
They've been sitting in a box or on a shelf since then and now I've been paging through cataloging the articles, so in the future I can look up a plane or vehicle and see what information I may have on hand.
Any way, back to my subject, Modeler's Block. While leafing through one of them, I came across an editorial by David A. Anderton from 1978. In it he tells of making the "discovery" of over 300 un-built kits in his basement and trying to figure out how he changed from being a modeler into a collector. His conclusion was that he was intimidated by his own fear of mistakes. He didn't want to get a color scheme wrong, or put impossible markings on it.
He remembered how he used to model, just slapping the things together, not worrying about the extra details, or the seams, or if it would win a contest.
He prescribed himself a "cold turkey" treatment. He went to his collection and picked out one of the oldest kits (a Mosquito) and decided to just put it together as is. Painting would be by eyeballing the box art with whatever paint was available (and by hand).
He ended with two paragraphs I would like to quote:
We used to have a saying, when working with full-size aircraft on a production line and one needed a quick slam with a leather mallet to make a mating joint match: "At 10,000 feet, you'll never notice it!"
As for the Mosquito, from halfway across the room, you'll never notice it, and it will look pretty good. Besides, it will remind me of the elegant airplane itself, its history, noble lineage, and accomplishments, and of the kids who strapped themselves into that balsa-and-plywood wonder to carry the fight to the enemy. And that, after all, is what modeling also ought to be about.
- David A. Anderton, The Plastic Recliner, IPMS Update Vol. 14, No. 1, 1978
I read that and looked over at my modeling table. I don't have a lot of un-built kits, less than 20 I would say, but I see the beginnings of that intimidation creeping into my own work. Yes I am still going to try and improve my skills, but not at the expense of becoming frozen and unable to finish anything because I'm not that good. And I'm definitely not going to do better by doing nothing.