Why is this?

Oh I echo your pain. I've had the house a few times lately and never seem to get anything done. After times passes in the forum and like you say other duties call. I too try to plan things out and then get ready to do some building and get distracted by other things. I've made it a goal to cut my forum time down until i get one of my three projects done. So far I've completed one kit this year and I had high goals set. I've also decided no more groupbuilds until I finish something. Then to further punish myself, no more kits until I get one on the shelf.

tiger..............man.......dont go overboard with the punishment friend........cutting back on forum time...................no kits...........................oh the agony of it!!! i mean those are drastic measures bubba!!LOL later.

Been suffering from somewhat the same thing lately...I am getting too lazy.

Or maybe too many distractions...

Same here bubba so it must be something in the air.

Mike

It's the heat!
I've been down for the last week with pneumonia. Not goin' back to work until Friday. I am, by God, gonna get my bench cleaned up tomorrow and am gonna spend tomorrow night and Thursday trying like heck to burn myself out on Hueys, an S-3 Viking and an A-37B Dragonfly!!!!!! That's for starters!!!!!!!

Randie

QUOTE: Originally posted by saltydog tiger..............man.......dont go overboard with the punishment friend........cutting back on forum time...................no kits...........................oh the agony of it!!! i mean those are drastic measures bubba!!LOL later.

Thanks Chris, but I think it's all for the best. My stock pile is growing and why is that? I've already ditched the t.v. for the forum, now I need to spend a little less time here and finish something. I'm in 3 G.B's now and overdue on two and will not be late for this third one. Also i have this Panzer III that is almost finished, but laying idily in the box.

I suffer from painting procrastination. One of the best bits of advice on modelling I ever disregarded was "Have a dedicated work area." Instead I have to unpack and repack everything when I do anything, that's a hassle when it comes to painting, whether by hand or by airbrush. I fixed a problem in the cockpit of the 1/48 F4U-4B I'm working on, and all it needs is a little paint touch up and I haven't done it. My 1/72 Spit MkV just needs the spinner and tires painted, and an overall clear flat coat, but it has sat on the shelf for weeks (I'm gonna have trouble with removing the cockpit masking, I know).

Al

QUOTE: Originally posted by saltydog do ya'll suffer from procrastination when it comes to modelling as i do? later.

in a word Chris......YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.............
and it ain't no biggie.......other than maybe a little frustrating with no progress to report........when i "had" a workbench & and devoted time........i'd find myselves sitting and starring @ some in work project and wind up fiddling with a book or an AM detail set or opening a new kit or straightening up the bench or adding to my wish list or..................anything but, what i sat down to do........
.......then i'd leave the workbench with noting really accomplished........and feeling just a tad guilty..........
another time i'd sit at the bench to fiddle with no real intention to accomplish anything and wind up there for 8 + hours having done all that didn't get done the previous sit down.........
it's catch as catch can....don't be too hard on yourselves.....it'll happen when it's supposed ta.......remember it's a hobby not a job.......

I know what your saying saltydog,i guess it happens to us all.......
after i get home from work the kids swarm on me and after they empty my fuel tank even further i just can't be stuffed doing anything but coming here and having a chat...
but on the other hand some days are different and i work on my models for hours on end.......
Bottom line i guess it all has to do with what sort of mood your in at the time,model when you feel like it and not when you plan to it seems to work for me, iv'e almost finished my 4th for the year with 3 more to go by the end of the year....
Cheers J.S............

Its a classic case of burnout,it happens to me too.To solve this problem find something else to do untill you get tired of it.You will then find that your building becomes a pleaser again.Digger

Hey Salty (or is it Mr Dog?),

Your symptoms are almost extactly like mine.

I thought it was laziness, but now I realize it's something different. A few months ago I began to notice that only on Sunday evening could I quit twiddling and really get down to building. Oh, I could do it maybe a couple of hours here and there during the month, but for the most part it was Sunday night or nothing. Any other time that I sat down I'd reorganize the bench, read Scale and Details, clean tools - just like cirikili said.

I realized that modeling uses a different side of my personality than anything else, and I have to be relatively at peace to use that side. After a week of work, it takes me until Sunday evening to chill enough for patient, careful, and (dare I say it?) artistic work. Then it's Monday morning and it starts again. Those few hours on Sunday have become the sweetest hours of the week. My models may not win contests, but they give me something to look forward to in those last weekend hours before I start another week at work.

[I like my work, but it's demanding.]

It happens now & then. I may build like a Demon for a Month & then kinda drift along for a while. It's a Hobby, so build when you're in the mood & take a break when you like. I'm in a bit of a drifting mode right now myself.

Regards, Rick

Man, you really hit the nail on the head. I suffer from this same problem. I get home and it seems other commitments made by the family or current projects that I lost interest in saps my willpower to want to model.

Unless I make it to the bench, then I'm not going to model. And then I go to bed dissatisfied with myself for not accomplishing something that I really want to do. If I can just get to the bench, once I'm there, I'm fine and can model away and then go to bed with a satisfied feeling of accomplishment.

Scott

I remember when my brother-in-law would tell me how he watched some movie he just bought at 11 o'clock at night. I used to say "Paul! You've got to be crazy!" But then I finally had a kid and now I realize why he used to watch movies at 11:00 or later. I hadn't worked on a kit in a year once my baby was born. But then not too long ago I tried his technique of doing things long after everyone else had gone to bed. I tried working on a plane starting at 11:00 PM and you know what? It worked! I hadn't been able to work on a kit in a year but once I starting working on them at my kitchen table (even though I do have a hobby bench downstairs) at 11:00 pm I was able to get my F-80 finished in about a week and a half or two weeks. I would try to just put in about an hour a night but some nights everything was clicking. Things were going so great that I figured I just HAD to keep on going and I wouldn't get to bed until 1:30 AM on a weeknight. Sure I would pay for it the next morning after four and a half hours of sleep but just thinking about how much I got accomplished and how giddy with excitement I felt (yes I know I need a life), it was soooo well worth it!

Salty, take it from one who feels your pain. Spend your time with the family. Play with your daughter. But at the end of the night after the Sandman has paid your household a visit, spend 30-60 minutes (or more!) tweeking with this and that. You'll get more done than you'll realize AND you'll go to bed happy. I think doing this myself kept me from feeling a "need" to get something done (that when it's no longer fun) to something I "wanted" to get done (I felt like a kid having fun again). I would just do one little step each night. It was just enough to make progress without feeling a sense of burn-out.

I know your situation deffers slightly from mine but I think taking tiny nibbles here and there at the hobby was better than trying to sit down for hours on end drowning in it.

I hope this made some sort of sense.

Best wishes,

Eric

digger i'm not burned out though, i get excited about building, but end up not doin' it from frolicking too much.LOL

Eric LOL, my daughter ain't old enough to attend school, and my wife is a stay at home mom, so my family sleeps in to about 9am everymorning while i'm getting up at 5:30/6am everymorning, so they stay up til i'm ready to hit the hay. besides, my daughter won't go to sleep without me in the room, so if i do get to work after they go to bed, i have to go and lay down with my daughter til' she gets to sleep, by that time, i'm usually about half asleep!!LOL later.

QUOTE: Originally posted by j.s.harrison I know what your saying saltydog,i guess it happens to us all....... after i get home from work the kids swarm on me and after they empty my fuel tank even further i just can't be stuffed doing anything but coming here and having a chat... but on the other hand some days are different and i work on my models for hours on end....... Bottom line i guess it all has to do with what sort of mood your in at the time,model when you feel like it and not when you plan to it seems to work for me, iv'e almost finished my 4th for the year with 3 more to go by the end of the year.... Cheers J.S............

Mate I know where you're coming from, by the time I get home from work I'm knackered and then once the kids are off to bed it's dinner and cleaning up the house time

By the time I get some time to myself it can be a real effort to drag myself into the model room. But I usually find that once I'm there I work for ages and yes I do try and plan out what I'm going to for the night.

It also helps if I can spend a little time on the forum while I'm at work (like now)

Cheers
Darren

How many of you do this? You start one project only to be derailed by the new arrival of another and start to research the new kit and basically leave the old one to hang out to dry. Then repeat the process with yet another.

i find myself with a strange feeling. i have a hobby desk now with a system on site. i have two rather intense builds going on. i worked hard on them until i could go no farther because of the lack of supplies. now i have the supplies and a three day weekend coming up. looks like 72 hour building marathon in my future.

joe

Man, I know all this too well . . . . I trudge through the work day, excited about all that I'm going to accomplish on my current project, then once I get home I can't drag myself to my work area. I either zone out in front of the TV, surf the net, start checking out the instructions for a new kit, etc. If I can get my butt to my bench, I can happily build for hours, but actually getting myself there is a challenge!

-Jonathan

I have the opposite problem...I want to build every day but have to force myself to not do it unless I can be calm, relaxed, and able to focus on what I'm doing for at least an hour. I've not touched my current project since Sunday as a result but I've got Friday and Monday off for the holiday so I'm not too worried.

I avoid tigerman's situation with fiendish passion...A new project does not get started unless the previous one is completed. Of course, I'm set to break that rule in 10 days as I plan to alternate days working on a GB T34 and my Leopold simultaneously, but I won't have any side projects going on with those two monsters in the works.

I do sometimes fall victim to salty's disease in that my workbench is right across from my computer desk...so if I'm waiting for some parts to dry or just taking a brief break, I'll pop over to the computer and check the forums or poke around a bit, then go back to work. This is double-edged, very handy for checking photos/resources but also a distraction if not carefully controlled.

LOL, this is funny!! you guys have made me feel better by your honest answers!! and with college football kicking off full blast Saturday, i'll really be challenged. i did get some work done tonight though, so i feel a little "revival" comin' on. once i get there, i can really turn some stuff out quickly, not that i'm in a hurry, but it just seems to go quickly for me.

tigerman i do that some too, but my thing is this, i like to get a kits cockpit and internal displays totally finished, then join the fuselage halves together. when this is done on one kit, i'll get that far with several more kits and box them all up. when this is done, i'll take one down and begin the construction, and then catch up the rest of the kits to this point. then go back and begin sanding and filling all of them, and usually one begins to pull out ahead of the others and i go ahead and finish that one. then, all of them seem to come off the bench in rapid succession!!LOL my favorite part of a build is painting/weathering. the rest is pretty cool, but i love to paint them and try different stuff with my airbrush. by getting a bunch of kits to the same point, i have several weeks of painting and fun scheduled in a row............now that is what i'm looking forward to!!
on the bench now, i have 1 "B" model stang from AM, (fuselage halves joined), 3 tamiya P-51Ds, 2 of them have True Details resin pits, the other is OOB with the exception of the TD resin seat (cockpits are ready to be installed and fuselage halves are about to be joined), an F4F wildcat with Aires resin and PE pit (got the pit painted and detailed, now i'm workin' on the PE seat harness), got the fuselage halves joined on a AM SBD-3 (about to start the engine detail), and finally, i have an F4U-5N with the TD resin pit painted and detailed with the fuselage halves joined and about to start on the engine detail. i'm trying to get them all to the "joined fuselage" stage. plus, i'm paintnig 4 resin ejection seats for an F/A-18E, and a F-15C. i'll just have 2 spare seats lying around for when i do another corresponding subject. anyway, i can't wait to get all the said subjects up to the painting stage, boy what some fun i'll be having then!!!LOL later.

Yeah, Chris,
I also suffer from the procrastination bug. There's work I should be doing right now, but instead, I'm sitting here on this computer........why?
I find both stimulating, but I prefer building.
One day I must actually finish a model...........actually I DID finish a model tonight - a 120mm Verlinden Waffen SS trooper - the new owner picks it up this saturday - and I get my money for the build.
And thanks to all those who wrote articles for FSM on painting figures with oils.

Just last night I got both kids to sleep (2 year old and a 3 mth old) and sat down at the desk for the first time in a week!!!! What did I do I clean up the desk then I looked around at my builds and didnt no where to start and can you believe it, I went to bed....
Im at work this morning asking myself WHY??????

Thad

LOL Thad!!! i've done the same thing more than one time myself!! later.

I just got my kids to sleep 20 minutes ago and here i am on the computer instead of building,i better hurry up if i want to do something cause the little ones only sleep a couple of hours during the day.......
Maybe i'll give the A/B a good clean after last nights work,iknow i should clean it straight after use but i find myself running a rinse through it and sticking it on the bench to be cleaned next time i want to use it,guess i'm just a lazy bugger.......

To me, it's just the time of the season. I figured out years ago that I ain't going to get much modeling done in the late spring, summer or early fall. There's all those things to do outside when the weather is nice (camping, fishing, flying etc not to mention it turns into a bummer when you're in the basement working on a model and the wifey is outside mowing the lawn). Winter weather is an excellent reason to stay inside and do something like modeling with out feeling guilty.

Quincy, i too feel a pang of guilt if the sun is shinning outside and i'm inside fartin' around with some plaskik. i love a nice, slow, rainy day with the wife and kid off shoppin' someplace!!LOL later.

QUOTE: Originally posted by tigerman How many of you do this? You start one project only to be derailed by the new arrival of another and start to research the new kit and basically leave the old one to hang out to dry. Then repeat the process with yet another.

Bwahahaha.......Story of my model time. Tho, so far this year - Thanks to all of you here on the forum, I've finished 4. The dark side of this is that I have six current and 2 that have suffered the anti-aircraft hammer.

Saltydog: Your not the only one in this boat. Have faith and keep pluggin' man - it'll get done sooner or later. I find that I'll putter/procrastinate months at a time (besides really working to 2 or 3 am), then I'll take 2 or 3 weeks - benefit of owning your own business - and do nothing but model - Those are my good days.

i have the workbench, the homework table and the computer all within rolling distance in my room so its a huge tussle between reading a novel, building, internetting and chatting online, and doing homework. sometimes the modelling gets shoveled aside cos i know once i start, i cant stop! my fave time ot build is at 3 am in the morning. no distractions and unlimited time. sleep in class, who needs a bed ?