Ever get in a rut with modeling that you can't...

I have a close up shot of the engines. I look tonight and see what kind they are and post those up. Semper Fi, Do or die, I love blazing saddles and it was hard to keep from cracking up when I said it. :)

That's the spirit!
The quote comes from Blazing saddles, one of the all time best films.
I forgot to mention, on the aircraft picture earlier. The CASA was a licence built Heinkel, made in Spain, as used in the film, 'battle of Britain'. The main difference to the real thing is the fact that it has Rolls Royce merlin engines!
Okay, lets try 'Semper Fi!'

Me neither, but I did actually tell someone once I didn't need no stinking badge while I was a deputy sheriff in KS.

I actally spent a few hours working on my vacuum former over the weekend.

Family first, marine1. we're all rooting for you, you'll get there in the end, One day you'll find you have a few spare minutes, or even an hour where you have no demands on your time, 'maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow' but it will come.
Good luck, and,'Keep the Faith' or is that recon?, can't remember

I have often felt like I am pushing myself and never quite figured out why. As it seems you never get there any faster.

Must be the taxes, bills, taxes, :)

I don' want to sound like Sigmound Frued but I think that perhaps you are pushing yourself to hard.It is not easy to build when their are so many things to do.I have been down that road and botched many a good kits in the process.I have started to put my modeling in turn with all of the other things in life.Opening day for trout season is starting this saturday so I will take alittle time to catch up on my fishing.Soon I will get sick of being freezing cold and wet and not catch anything but a cold.Thus a return to the model table(until camping season starts).So for me it works ok but everyone is different.I work 40 hours a week.I have a (very supportive ) wife and two model bashers(,I mean kids)several animals and other hobby.I know that I am lucky to have things working out so well but its not allways easy. Like I said before I was stumped for nearly two years before I got things to work out.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope it works out well for you..............



SEMPER FI MARINE 1

QUOTE: Originally posted by shermanfreak Hey Ray....how's Saskatoon.....they got a great club there.

Hey shermanfreak,

Saskatoon is great. I've only been to two meetings so far but they do seem like a great bunch of guys. We're just getting ready for our annual model contest and I'm trying to get one finished here so that I can enter. It will be the first contest I've ever entered so it should be interesting.

Ray

I think it is just learning to slow down too that I must master. I feel like I have to be doing everything all the time.

Yeah, paint camo patterns!

just buy snap kits. i also do acrylic(tamiya and model master) paintings on paper, try to throw my knifes into a block of styro, and i try to airbrush paterns onto paper when im bored

Shouldn't be a problem there. I have like a hundred kits.

I have had a spell or 2 that i just had no vision on what i wanted to build, then I see a movie or a race and the wheels start spinning again. having my daughter and nephew get into building also helps. I'm the "uncle" all the other family members fear because they never know what's going to happen as soon as i come in the room. I also try not to say " we'll do that later" later to a kid means never gonna happen and i'd rather have the kids find something in our hobby room to do than turn on the PS2 any day. The other tip for getting out of a rut I read somewhere was to get a kit, open the box and start glueing, no paint no added parts nothing but what came in the box,and just glue it together. blowing it up or setting it on fire afterwards is optional, kids don't try this at home.

So far seem to be working.

Here's some advice that works for me. (my schedule is very tight too and there isn't much time I have for the hobby):
1. I keep a stack of magazines handy that I flip through when I can.
2. I spend about 10-15 minutes at my bench every day, even if it's just cleaning up or cutting parts off of trees.
3. I've started to 'plan' my kits out (ie. write a gameplan). Not sure how this is gonna work out yet, but after one day it is really promising. I accomplished more in 20 minutes tonight than I have in the last week...)
4. get onto the forum for a short time each day. I can't read everything, so I just hit the threads that look interesting to me and contribute what I can.)

So far that's kept me fresh as a daisy!

M.

Maybe think of it this way - if you're in a bit of a funk (for whatever reason) and can't get out, maybe have a look through some old model mags - look at the photos of models and think "I can do a better job than that"! Then go for it and put it into practice.
Or think of the folks who CAN'T model, and think even ordinary efforts look fantastic. We're our own harshest critics, you know.
As the commercial says, "Just Do It".

Adapt, overcome, improvise, survive. I am getting there. I guess the biggest problem is that I work 8-10 hours a day, then have a total of about 2 hours in car commuting, and little time actually at the ranch. So I feel like I have to cram everything I do into a space of about 2 hours before bed. It just feels like whatever I am doing, whether it is fun or not, that I could be doing something else so I don't relax and end up running from one thing to the next. It is like I don't want to waste time doing just one thing, when really it isn't wasting time. Can you follow that logic?

What is it you marines say in tough situations? Learn ,adapt ,and overcome? (Or something like that) I my self have just pulled out of a slump that lasted about two years. What I did is pick two kits out of my collection that will never be contest quality and bashed them together and now I have a really cool looking mig-21 with phantom wings in 1/32 scale.This prodject has brought me back to the table like a bat out of hell.My problem was(and still is)that I tried to put that 100% in to every kit that I built and that burn't me out.The kit bash prodject has brought me back to the basics of building and I had forgotten how much fun the basics can be.The model does not have to be perfect to be fun.
Hang tough. You will break through soon.




SEMPER FI............

Here is another view of the first pic I posted. Like I said the chart said HE-111. It looks like it.

looks the same as a fw 200 but...

Well it belongs to the Arizona wing of the Confederate Airforce in Mesa AZ. They labeled it an HE-111. I have lost most of my aircraft identifying skills over the years, so I just go for the name card on the craft till time to research it. I'll post up a different shot of it tonight. An overall one.

Yeah, I like that, but I figure one hour of yard work 2 at the table. :)

marine1, try this, two hours yard work earns you one hour at the model table. Even if you just sit & stare at the pieces, eventually you'll pick up two bit's and dry fit them together, then you'll look for the glue, and with a bit of luck, you'll be away!
sorry to be pedantic, but the aircraft featured earlier, Isn't it actually a CASA C-2111, with the Confederate ( Or nowadays Commemorative) Airforce.
Me, I'm working in Riyadh, 3000 miles from home (UK) even with satellite TV there's not much on and there's always something on the model desk to do. With all this spare time, my problem is stopping modelling!

I still get like that. I'll leave a kit or 2 for a couple of months while I'm off doing other things.
I usually get stuck during the sanding stage.

2 things usually get me back into it - a trip to the history section of the bookstore or my monthly copy of FSM (unabashed plug- naaaahhhhhh) - this is also assuming I don't have clients crawling up my backside for work to be done.

It is an HE-111. I am looking for a club at here in AZ. Living 20 mile from civilization has its drawbacks :) I am gonna see who at work is into modeling. Several are into photography.

When I was in Wichita, a friend of mine and I used to get together at least 3 or 4 times a week to work on models. It was really cool and he was real good. I'll make it. Just gets ya bummed now and then.

I really like this forum and FSM has come a long way from when I first read their magezine back in the 80's

All I know Marine1 is what it's not...it's not a Sherman Tank and Ray's right above clubs too. Be with modellers and see what they're doing and it will help get over them blues.
Hey Ray....how's Saskatoon.....they got a great club there.

P.S. my real guess would be a German long range recon aircraft..the name escapes me but Condor comes to mind

Yeah, I have my own site, I just have to actually set up the format that I want. I got gobs of reasearch photos that I would like to for people to have access to. Can anyone guess the photo above? It was taken in Mesa, AZ at Falcon Field.

I hear ya marine1. I know exactly what you mean by being a perfectionist and getting discouraged because the finished models are not what you had imagined. It took me awhile to get my head around that but finally I just said to myself, They may not be exactly what you envisioned but you'll never get any better if you don't keep building. Just try and concentrate on the one sub-assembly or the one aspect that really turned out better than you expected and that may just give you the push to keep going. There are a lot of good tips in this thread and there is also another thread on this site that deals with the same topic (I don't recall where just at the moment, sorry). This site had a lot to do with me getting excited about the hobby again. Also, going to a couple of meetings of the local modelling club really got the juices flowing. Bottom line is, you've got to want to and if you don't feel like it that may mean packing everything up and putting it completely out of sight and out of mind for awhile and then one day when you least expect it, you'll get bit again and nothing will be able to stop you.
Keep hangin' in there. We're all behind you, cause we've all been there too.

Ray

Some hosts will work here, some won't. That's why I made my own little site, so much easier that way and I have no problems posting anywhere.

Ahhhh, I remember those days. Been used to just uploading pics to the webserver hosting the forum.! :)

Use either "reply to topic" or "post new topic"
Find the insert image icon, it kind of looks like an arrow head pointing at a pic
click on it and you will get this on your screen
insert your url for the pic on your site between those two symbols like this

please note tha there is no space between the g and the ] when you go to post a pic, I had to do this to show the sequence on screen.
Hope this helps