Modelers Block

It is not a one-time thing. I find it happens maybe several times a year.  Sometimes the problem is that the shop has become a mess and I just don't want to clean it up, so I avoid it by staying completely out of shop.  Sometimes it is just simple burn-out and I need to take a break for a week or so.  But I have always managed to get over it during my 65+ years of model building.

I'm 2+ months into model burnout, so I know what you're saying Tankerbuilder.

I'll get back to the bench, just can't say when...

Yup, everyone goes through it.

Listen here , Youngster :

 You ain't kidding there ,  Don . I believe there's been times where I have avoided the shop for months on end . Especially after finishing a commission and promising to do one for me .Then I just draw one big blank . I have been known to sit in the shop trying to come up with something and somehow that's how it gets cleaned too . I know the frustration .I have been there and just sat and wondered " Why did I do this to myself ? " .

  Funny how we get re-started , though isn't it ? I once got a re-start after going to the Emergency Room (I broke a Toe ) and The picture on the wall by the nurses desk was a deep sea drilling rig support ship .Aha ! problem solved .The ideas were overflowing through even the pain meds ! I remembered all of them the next day .

    The ship I built came out perfect and I gave her to a friend who was a  "crew manager" on such a vessel ( as you know , ships crew and rig crew guys are seperate entities .) He still has her on his  desk in his now fancy general offices location in Norway .

  Hey , Model On  ! !       Tanker - Builder

my model  block tends to be model specific or process specific.  i get into a problem with a kit and put it aside or i don't like to piant so a lot of kits are primed awaiting to paint.

Hi Wayne.. As you know, I usually have 1or 3 new models done for show and tell, at the club meetings, yet zippo done for last nite.  Not exactly nothing done this month, but just nothing finished up.  I had lots of distractions, people visiting, more work than usual, just not in the model building mood when I had time.  I should be back on track this month, I hope.  I almost got the Gamma Goat finished that Fred at Colpar gave me to build for the store.  Not high on my list, but a fun build, but I didn't want to show it yet.

Doug

Been there and done that.

Jim 

Hey Fox :

I wish you luck with that .I have a question to ask though .Do you know anyone like yourself that is doing large models that is interested in a set of five 1/8 scale Jaguar wheels ( The wire wheels from the MONOGRAM kit ) I have a set I would like to find a home for .

I think we'll need to distinguish between a modeler's block (running out of ideas) and a modeler's rut (just cant get that groove to build).  A block may result from being a little too competitive --- you may have gone out of the box (literally and figuratively for us modelers) so many times for competitions that you've basically stretched the envelope as far as it can possibly go.

A rut happens when youre just too lazy or too busy to build.  You might have a ton of ideas and plans but just don't have enough drive to actually begin that new project.

I tend to build ala Marvel movies, i.e., each model is a part of a bigger picture.  For example:  Ill build a 1/700 Arleigh Burke class destroyer and its going to be a part of a battle group I plan to complete in several years.  Theres no rush, but everything is part of a bigger picture. Its like managing a real military.

So Ive built a CVN, 2 CGs, an LHA, a number of DDs, FFGs and SSNs and even an AOE.  Same thing with planes; Ill build a fighter and Im looking at building a cargo plane, an AWACs, and so on and so forth.

So even as Im finishing up on the Arleigh Burke Im already looking at and planning for the next ship.  I guess I have as many plans as I have models on my stash. It doesn't guarantee that the next kit on your mental drawing board will get started, but it more or less assures you you wont run out of ideas.  Simply put, you wont get into a modelers block. Works for me.

Don, 65+ years?  Wow.  I thought the 30 years under my belt was something.  Hahaha!

Here is what you have to do. Pack everything up and put it away. Out of sight out of mind. This will get it out of your mind and will allow the block to pass. Later on the urge will hit you and you'll have one of your best builds ever.

I'm just now coming out of one of these ruts.

Our sump pump quit a while back, while I was on night work, and I came home to 4 inches of water in the basement.

In all the hubbub, everything that could be saved was stacked, floor to ceiling, in my fort. Even after things had gone back to normal a few months later, I just couldn't get rolling.

It was actually a blessing in disguise, because with my fort 'stuff' being recently shuffled, it gave me an opportunity to do some streamlining and rearranging.

The wife suggested painting and putting some curtains up, but I told her...it's a fort, not a dollhouse. Cinder block walls and concrete floor.

So, the smell of paint and glue are once again permeating from my little corner of the house. (all the way downstairs, all the way in the back)

Sorry,

writers' block kicked in... 

Modellers' block     Used where I work.... Oh wait... I'll go lie down now! 

It's a hobby,

If the 'Fu' doesn't, do something else for a while, then get a kit with fewer parts than your age, or a totally different genre, build it without reading any reviews, etc.,

I consider it good going if (if!) I finish one a year....  

i have had several of both rut and block. lazy is not really a word i would use with a hobby like ours.  I will find sometimes after a great build/dio or just a fun and challenging build that afterwards i just can not bring myself to start a new kit. Or even worse it is a kit of a tank or afv or soft skin that i just don't like but need it for a diorama, i find that i delay a bit on those or rush threw them (and get mad at myself for not taking my time).

I go through between one and three month ruts where i will buy models but just can't get on the bench and work on them.  I am in that position now as i look across the room at a half finished dio.  well when the time is right I will finish it until then my collection will grow.

hi doug not to worry you got credited with some of mine in the last newsletter.

The kind of block I experience is trying something new that could potentially turn my imaginary masterpiece into a quivering pile of styrene-jello.  It often takes me a few days or more before I'm willing to finally step off that ledge.

Now :

See ? There you go . I had the Block/Lazy thing hit me just recently . Being involved in a real Train museum and a LEGO Adult fan group piles up the ideas though . Now , where do I start ? Hmmm . I think I'll work on my client's project and then work on the New SULLIVANS I have . Gee , working on that Oldsmobile model broke the wall . YaaaY !

  Bye  - - -  Tanker-Builder