Sailing_Dutchman
Does anyone else have trouble finishing models, or is it just me? I have 5-6 waiting on the painting-weathering. Some have been 6 months to a year.
Absolutely. And I've got you beat-6 months to a year? I have builds that I started maybe 15 years ago, that I haven't abandoned officially, but which are at the long end of the Shelf of Doom.
I think I approached builds in the same way that I approached buying kits. I have bought a lot of kits, thinking excitedly about how cool it would look when I build it. I have some theme collections, too, and I would buy kits according to those themes (like, "All US aircraft types used in the Battle of Midway", or "USN Yellow Wings"). In the same way, I would get fired up for a particular build, get into it, get stuck, set it aside, and then get fired up for a new build.
Group builds also contributed to accumulating a lot of stalled builds.
I've tried a couple of things over the years, to jump-start some builds and finish what I started.
For 2009, for example, I identified twelve stalled builds and made a resolution to work on those builds till I finished them, not starting any new builds, or buying any new kits. I made it to July, before I broke down and bought a new kit, which was one little victory. I finished four of my "resolution builds" that year, those since then, I've finished a couple more.
A year or two after that, we had a theme in the Agape Forum, called, "Finish What You Started". Joining that group build helped motivate me to finish some other stalled builds. In between, I was able to start some other builds and focus on them and complete them.
And in 2016 and 2017, in our club, the Delaware Valley Scale Modelers, we chose as an annual theme, "Shelf of Doom". In January, we each presented a build or builds and agreed to work on them to finish them by our December meeting. I had three in 2016, but I didn't hop on last year. Again, though, the theme helped me focus and work specifically on those builds.
I've sworn off group builds, in any forum. I also don't participate in our club's monthly themed builds. A kit a month is just a little too fast of a pace for me, on average. A good number of builds remaining on my SoD are from group builds or club theme builds.
I'm not buying any new kits, either (ie, new to my stash). I have more kits than I will ever finish, even though I'm only 53, and I have practically no room to display my finished models, either. Most of my finished builds are in storage. I may wind up selling off most of my accumulated kits, for those reasons. One exception is my Maschinen Krieger kits. They're easier to display; they don't take up that much room.