Silly question, but at what point do you fix the model... or drive on?

It's not a silly question, but the answer depends on your tolerance level for mistakes and knowing when to say when.

I once repainted and weathered a tank three times in preparation for a contest in which it placed 3rd...  working with acrylic paints makes stripping and repainting so much easier than with enamels.

Will have to keep that in mind.  This is just a model to learn new skills and improve on what I know.

I agree with Dre.  I have a kit for a GB that I have stripped multiple times.  The first time was due to an exploding paint marker but the other times were simply because I was not satisfied with the paint results.  Unfortunately I use enamels so it is not as easy to start over with. 

That said, I have been working on this kit going on 6 months.  There is a lot of modifications and scratch-building most of which I trash and start all over.  This has turned into a model to try out new skills on. 

Fortunately , I have plenty of patience.   I will finish it one day.

Then I take it I am in good company!

Mustang8376

Then I take it I am in good company!

No. DANGEROUS company. (This thread was laced with subtle phrases to seduce and to ensnare the unwary mind.)

Some great and valid points made by all.........      Stripping and repainting is a taks for sure,,

My personal opinion (and trust me, I do not always hold to it)

If I am seriously laboring with a build (taking too long, multiple things going wrong, generally pissed off)...  I will stop,,

I will put it away and move on to something else.           I don't want to put time into a build that has me torqued.     My hopes (always) are that it will be rejuvinatied in the future.

As stated before,, I don't always hold to this though,, I am stubborn and I will plow through an "issues" build and finish thinking,, ahh there I finished it.            But I inevitably know I could have done better and will never really be happy with it.

Good luck in your deciision

When you really feel frustrated and annoyed with the thing, and unhappy with your results, it is time to just dump it into the circular file and start something new- that's what I do, and I can only remember doing it twice in the last 40 years.

What I usually do is put it up on my "unfinished" shelves, thinking I will get back to it later, and for most of them I never do.  I have only "started over" on two kits in the past ten years or so.  One was a very expensive kit (Hellers large Soleil Royale) when they had a fantastically good sale price on the kit.  I guess in thinking about it, it is the finding of a really good sale that influences me to buy another kit and start over.

For me it depends on a few factors.  How rare is the kit?  How much did it cost? Do I have a spare of the kit?  How many other projects am I working on at the time that restarting this one will delay?

Several times I've ended up putting the kit in a "to be finished someday" section of the stash.  Some of these have now been moved to a "priority" stash to finally get done after years in storage.

Then there are the ones that I'm just not up to fixing and know I never will be.  Most of these go into a spare parts box for possible use later ( and one of those has now had parts used for a kitbash I'm wrapping up this weekend ).  One kit, a Millennium Falcon that someone gave me half-done and missing too many parts for me to want to bother salvaging has ended up in what I call the "crash test dummy" role, used to test and practice techniques or effects ideas without risking a "good" kit.

I guess what I'm saying is that even if you don't restart that particular model now, it can still be restarted or used for something different later, anything from your own "crash test dummy" to a model of the USS Constellation after it got hit by the Doomsday Machine to something else that you see potential for someday.

Just a little note on the stripping enamels being hard.... This is not true. I have proven with a little experiment on another website that, using spraycan oven cleaner on a model (it helps to put the generously treated model in a closed shut plastic bag for several hours). The brand i have had most luck with is SC Johnsons. Overhere it is called "muscle".

The model i stripped was revells HMS Victory. It sat on a shelf for more than half a year before i attempted my experiment and all the paint came off pretty easily using an old toothbrush at some places. The paint did shade the plastic but with new primer the model was perfectly usable again without any damage whatsoever.

It can only be easier on a model with freshly cured paint.

And as far as the models go... I was about to bin a cheap 1/72 aircraft model last week but fellow modelers on here urged me to still finish it, despite the flaws and i must say now that i am about to finish it i still feel satisfied for both not giving up and for finishing the 5 euro monstrosity. That is reward enough for me

Richard

I use to "strive for perfection". The end result was that I finished very little, got frustrated and because the builds would be very slow (3 a year) my skills (like airbrushing or decalling) got worse instead of better. Nowadays I juist focus on the proces of building and try to enjoy that instead of a perfect end result.

Funny thing is, I now finish more builds my build quality has become better because I build more...

Kugai

For me it depends on a few factors.  How rare is the kit?  How much did it cost? Do I have a spare of the kit?  How many other projects am I working on at the time that restarting this one will delay?

As far as stripping, you SHOULD try to strip the paint because that is in itself a learning process, and a good thing to have experience in when you screw up an expensive model and need to know that you can recover it. I do agree, however, that enamels are harder and more tedious to strip than acrylics--and forget about stripping lacquers. You just can't do it.That's one reason that I prefer to paint with acrylics for Armor and other miscellaneous-type models.. However, I AM using lacquers for cars much more.

I once stripped a car model 8 or 9 times because I had issues with paint type compatibility on a two-color scheme I was using. Eventually, I gave up the colors I was using and went to a different scheme--which I wound up liking much better anyway--of the same paint types.

As far as saving a model for future building instead of laboring onward and trying to save the paint job-in my experience, don't do it. Because you'll never do it. And the model will always be there, taunting you, reminding you of your failure. (I'm only half serious about that!) But seriously---strip it of any parts you might be able to use later, and trash it. Start on something fresh, and apply the things you've learned.I generally will take engine parts, wheels, and things like rear view mirrors, side mirrors, etc, from car models, and tools and spare tracks and small details form tanks. You would be surprise dhow often you'll think--"Hey I have that part from that model I trashed; I could use that here!"