General observations on modeling and growing older.

Good point. it does help to know where the pitfalls are and how to overcome them, yessir can't argue that.

There are good things, too, about becoming an old modeler. I've gained a lot of experience with modeling disasters. So now, when something goes wrong during assembly or painting, I usually know how to fix it and continue on toward completion.

My F-15 Strike Eagle has been ready for paint for 3 weeks and counting. Just can't find the energy to set up the airbrush in the garage to get it done! Now I've missed all the nice spring weather and am faced with summer sauna temps out there - yikes!

Don't worry about missing the memo, I build up to the major painting then I seem to hit a block, maybe cause I've "seasoned" ( read aged) up to know the difference between the four shades mimimum of OD Lol, I do seem to finish in spurts  should have a DST (dang small tank) and a U.S. halftrack done tonight or tomorrow. Just figured out how to et my resume attached to my applications so SOMEDAY I'll figure out how to post pix.

armornut

Your supposed to finish? Mmmmm, maybe I'm getting old cause I've noticed the same thing.

guess i missed the memo on finishing. i do get quite a bit done but still ihave a dozen shelf queens. actually base coated one yesterday. and i have to finish up my LCVP and 2 subs for 2 GBs. all 3 are at painting stage.

Your supposed to finish? Mmmmm, maybe I'm getting old cause I've noticed the same thing.

Newest observation - it takes me a whole lot longer to finish a kit than it did when I was younger.

tankerbuilder

Hello Fellow :

I have a very important question for you .Why do you stand ? Since I stopped drinking years , and years ago , I found a solution to that little problem  . I kept my favorite personal Bar stool ( from my home bar .) And now it works even better . The thing is , with that , the floor is definitely further away !

hey tankerbuilder

congratulations on stopping drinking.

my home made work bench was build to work st standing up and my drafting table and one other work area are standing height. i do have a drafting chair i use sometimes for that and will probably look for a used bar stool. my other 3 work tables are regular sitting tables. i never gave it any serious thought, it just happened. i like to think i am burning more calories than sitting. seems most work benches for doing woodwork and repairs are standing height. it could also be because i used to sit all day doing computer graphics.

Hello Fellow :

I have a very important question for you .Why do you stand ? Since I stopped drinking years , and years ago , I found a solution to that little problem  . I kept my favorite personal Bar stool ( from my home bar .) And now it works even better . The thing is , with that , the floor is definitely further away !

Sure lets keep telling ourselves that LOL.

I'm going to do a bare metal kit. One of these days. Yup. Can't be all that hard, right?

Glad to have ya back waynec, white paint period gloss or flat is my arch nemesis, I will avoid it like the plague. Primers do help and keep in mind the lighter the primer color the easier it is to cover with white, yellow, international orange,.......the one thing I've yet to muster up the fortatude to do is a bare metal acft. I have a few in my stash  civil airliners and a 104 but that shiny finish just looks good on the box art.

my first all white model was a 1/35 canadian LAV-III 8x8 in un colors. think i used TAMIYA. airbrushed out great. than i  read that white is hard to airbrush and my next un vehicle, canadian COUGAR 6x6, was a disaster. third, un UNIMOG was ok. i primed it in whote which was bad. i know better than to prime in the base color of the vehicle..

on another note, i hurt my knee hiking  early april in the blue ridge. doctor said not serious just no high impact or twisting for a while. i have flat feet but standing on a concrete floor in the bunker for hours doesn't bother it or my lower back. knee hurts worse when i sit. i airbrush standing, surf the net on the bunker computer standing and do a lot of base building standing. just interesting.

Tarasdad

I have rediscovered that I hate - HATE!! - painting with gloss white. Stinks worse than any other color in my inventory!

I hear ya!  I'm doing a T-38 for the Trainer GB and I have lost my patients with gloss white!  I'm thinking flat white with a couple of coats of clear gloss from now on! 

Eagle90

I have rediscovered that I hate - HATE!! - painting with gloss white. Stinks worse than any other color in my inventory!

Heck TB you guys may have served together, my friend talks all the time about being a bosun on the ark (more like Gilligan on that crazy island LOL ) . Kinda sad about kids these days forgetting history and periods of time when stuff got done and machines where not only functional but works of art crafted by folks who knew how to make it last. Whoa to deep for this thread waynec hasn't been here for a bit.... wonder if he forgot his resperator while using super glue, maybe he stuck his fingers together ( hope not).as for talking to yourself...turn on the radio...everyone will think your confused about your location, may stave off the really clean fellas with that new coat that has all those fancy buckles on it. Does it mean I'm getting old if I think ya'll know how to party?  LOL   until I check in again.

Hi ;

  Hey , I was accused the other day of having that SSN . Seems someone told a kidding friend that I had served on WW1 ships .I just told the respondent I was NOAH'S damage control chief petty officer . That got more laughs .You know your old when a kid in his teens looks at your fifty -six chevy model and asks what kind of old car is that ? Or , when he looks at an F-4 phantom model and asks how many of the enemy did they shoot down in WW-2 ? The beauty of getting to be an older modeler is you can have a lot of intelligent conversations while building - With Yourself ! Now that is scary because no one seems to worry much !

LOL, ya know if we actually spent more time modelling we may make a dent in our stashes..... naa, like you said earlier I've meet my best friend almost 13yrs ago,( a year after my wife just to clarify), at a model contest our lies and stories get bigger every time we get together. He's really old his SSN is 2 (can't prove it though) so maybe this whole thread makes all of us grumpy old men. Well at least I'm in good company. Now I'm gonna study for a test then take a chance and sniff some glue and live on the wild side by maybe painting some camo without opening the window, and for gooness sakes msn be careful.LOL catch ya later

hey armornut

in fun? i am crushed, devastated beyond mere words.

like your tagline. desktop back from the shop and picked up big squadron purchase from club: JGSDF spa, 4x4 rcn vehicle (cute little thing), a TUNGUSKA spaa, and the revel 3 in one ada system which means i have 1 scout 2 radars and 2 launchers do travel and combat mode for both. but i digress

i work sans glasses and magnifiers so i am rather close. i will work with an xacto than flip it around in my hand to sand and therein is the danger. i have dropped an xacto and caught it as it fell PARALLEL TO THE GROUND. just sat there watching it quiver as most of the blade was in my left thigh. my frau was less than supportive even after she stopped laughing.

if the zombie apocalypse comes and styrene is the "monetary unit" i am rich and i am mmortal if i have to build half of them before i die. already have fixes for the "soon to be found or replaced" part and i can build the rest of the truck and add it later. 

in all seriousness because of the way i work i put on a respirator if i have to use CYA on more than 2 pieces.

Amen to you tankbuilder I know of some who has just a defib he told me when it hits him hard he sure fells good afterwerds mabe all us old farts on here could use a good jolt of electrisaty once a month hahahahah    ACESES5

Hello :

   I have one of those " Ticker Trainers " If you don't mind a lump in your chest ,you'll do fine .It is only supposed to go off or pace if you need it . Otherwise it just sits there from the time you get it till you need it . It won't make you go faster , BUT , it will remind you of your mortality .Start getting those kits built my friend !

Hey waynec, try putting a pencil eraser on the pointy end of your xacto, keep the optivisor down for good measure, and remember shave away from you, might keep ya from carving an extra wrinkle someplace ya can't explain without eye rolls from others. Also them parts that jump off the table... ya don't need them trust me if ya can't see it on the floor you'll never see it on the model save your knees for better things like bellyrubbing the pooch or smelling flowers( so lng as its from this side of the dirt), and don't panic about that huge stash, with modern medicine, obamacare and preservatives we'll all out live our stashes. Please understand all of above post is in fun, ya gave me a chuckle and hopefully I returned the favor.

You know Don your right since I had my two heart attacks in January and Feburary and quit smoking I feel different inside. Now I find out I need to have a pacemaker and defibrilator inplanted, will this make this old body go faster? Maby I can assemble a kit faster?

It is also fingers with me.  Although my vision is degrading, I find I can always buy vision aids, like powerful reading glasses, magnifiers,and better lamps, I do have arthritis in my hands that give me less manual dexterity than I used to have.

I had started building larger scale models, as it seemed easier.  But I quickly became overwhelmed with models with no more room to display them!  I also build a lot of ship models which take a lot of display space.

I kept remembering that old saying about "use it or lose it," and decided that avoiding the small scale stuff may not be the answer. I have started working on my smaller scale models now.  I figure that may delay the degradation.

And another one for the list:

• Progress is variable. Some days there's a lot, some days there's not.
• Case in point, yesterday I managed to get a whole 2 parts put on the Revell Strike Eagle I'm working on. Specifically I managed to glue 2 afterburner nozzle actuators in place. That makes a grand total of 5 out of 30 in place now.

That reminds me:

• Teeny parts, arthritic hands and old eyes make for interesting times. In the Chinese proverb way.

Back to the Optivisor, tweezers and really bright work light I go....

armornut

I've noticed that as a young modelerni couldn't get enough models, tools and such, now 30yrs later I have more kits than I know what to do with, more tools than hands to use them, and even though I'm currently a student time seems to be at a premium. I think that the early onset of GOMS. Thanks for the foresight ya old grumps LOL.

i'll reply to you but it applies to all of us. i have enough tools to literally equip 3 modelers. if  life span was counted in kits i'm good for another 200 years just with the kits in the bunker  i really want to build. oh and since at least 50 are ships add another 50 years. not counting the wood ships and the 230 in the garage.

i am 62. i have found my detail painting skills have improved. i can't use an optivisor or too lazy to work with it long enough but, as my eyeballs are VERY close to the model i wear safety glasses so i don't literally stab myself in the eye with an xacto. my tolerance for mistakes and dropped parts has increased with my confidence. usually i am figuring out how to make one as i creak down on my knees to search for the part. i take good criticism so much better. i do know after a long modeling session i shouldn't drive for an hour. really bad when you use closed captioning on the tv and can't see or hear for an hour or so.

all in all these are worth the satisfaction and serenity i get building. and the research and swapping techniques and lies over breakfast or club meetings just gets better.

The parts weren't larger, your fingers were smaller.  Did you have shoes and sox when you walked uphill both ways to school? I didn't. That's why I have flat feet now. 

Jim 

The worst part of becoming and "older" modeler, is they keep making the parts smaller and smaller! I blame the metric system. I am sure, when I had to walk up hill both ways to school. the parts in a kit where much larger in any given scale.

I just love the fact that when I pull up to the bench each time I can't remember what I did the last time I was there nor what I was planning on doing next. Not to mention trying to do something unusual and saying to myself,"Man, I wish I had such and such tool to do this". Only to find out weeks latter that I had that exact tool on my bench all along. Just lovely.