BUILDING BURN OUT.....

Changing fields is a good idea. Sometimes I will pick up a 1/144th plane or a 1/24 car and just return to the sheer joy of building without sweating details and finish quality. Sometimes it helps to just break away form the same old subjects for a while.

A couple of years ago I had a similar problem, I had the kits, but not enough drive left to build them all. Thats when I learned that more is not better.

I carefully looked at all the kits I had and made some hard decisions on which ones I thought could keep enough of my intrest that I could see them through to completion. The rest I donated to a local thrift shop.

I'm almost finished what I kept and I'm much pickier now than I once was when I purchase kits. I decide before I put the money down what will keep my intrest long enough and I never keep more than five incomplete models around at once, that makes sure I don't spread myself too thin.

The thing that burns me out these days is the sheer redundancy in kit sibject matter out there. Its a kit subjects obscurity that catches my eye.

I can completely agree with jcarlberg that change is good. I've been in the hobby for a little over 20 years and within the past year, I built my first armour kit ever. I built it straight from the box, the only detailing I did was a bit of weathering. I love it. It was just the change I needed to get some enthusiasm back for the aircraft that I usually model. In all the super detailing that we can get ourselves caught up in, I think we often do ourselves a great diservice by allowing ourselves to forget the simple pleasure of just building it straight from the box for no other reason than our own pleasure and relaxation

Not every model you crank out has to be competition quality, it just has to be something you enjoyed building and can be proud of.

I have well over 200 kits so I know how you feel. When I get burned out on tanks I'll pick up a car model or a figure. I bounce around.
You'll get over it!
Pat

Hmm, I have 15 unbuilt kits, and I thought that was a lot. I generally avoid "burn out" by doing other things, like riding my bicycle (takes a lot of time in the hilly SF Bay Area) or practising the piano. When I get back to my modeling workbench, I have much more enthusiasm.

I know exactly how you feel. I got burnt out to on armor and aircraft. Im selling all my aircraft and armor on ebay, and just sticking to ships and helicopters. im tired of having 20 open and half finished stuff, yet then opening another and starting it. so to eleviate this problem, im selling out.

Patrick

There's no shame in saying "I gotta get away for a while".

Everything wears thin if you do it long enough without distancing yourself from it occaisionally.

I'll never understand how the superdetailers can do one kit after another with all that extra detail for years. I've got Revell's 1/32 MiG-21 on the go and I decided I'd have a go at this detailing stuff.

A lot of the extra detailing was essential due to shortcomings in the kit (the kit landing gear never would have stood up to the weight of the finished model, so I scratchbuilt new ones), but a lot of it has been sheerly cosmetic and only there because I wanted to see if I could do it.

Well, I can do it, but I still don't understand the super detailer's passion to do this over and over again. I'll probably put some aftermarket add ons into future kits, but I can't ever see myself going to this length again for detail.

I've had that MiG on the go for almost five years now and have had to take necessary breaks from it just to keep from giving up on it sometimes, I'll probably have it finished next year and probably turn a backflip when I do.

I often wonder how much this super detailing experience has had to do with my burning out a bit and deciding to scale back my modeling activities.

Boy do I know that feeling!... I have had a few loooooong droughts in my life. Twice I got rid of a lot of models, and practically started over.

But now I distract myself with these forums, and my own modeling web site naplak.com/modeling. Getting new ideas, and sharing keeps my mind more fresh... now there are too many things to do!

If building kits is something you do enjoy, the need to build will come back.

I do not know any modeler to whom that has never happened, James. For me, it can be a serious problem, because I build models for customers who do not have a lot of patience and therefore burn out is like the plague for me . But it does happen , and what I do then, is take a few days 'off' , then start a kit that's got nothing in common with what I normaly build (small scale AFVs). My burn out diet is a Ferrari , preferably from a really good manufacturer such as Tamiya or Fujimi or Hasegawa, or the odd Protar. Building those kits out of the box (I often do not even bother with building the engine if it's not going to show), spending a few hours painting and polishing the thing, and seeing it in my display cabinet within a week usualy does the trick.

During that time, I also open a lot of books and mags and read or re-read articles and if possible, visit a model show... Seeing new things renew my interest.

Try building something different to a plastic model, I build a paper 1/32 V1 and it work fine for me.

That is why I have more than one hobby. When I find myself not wanting to build, I just don't. I stop and get into one of my other hobbies. Now that the good weather is here my wife and I spend a lot of weekends with the Grandmunsters. After a while I am glad for the relaxing time I can spend building again.

I now have LOTS of back issues of various magazines. When I feel a little burn-out, I tend to pick up the magazines and start going through them again. I usually forget most of the articles after a couple of years, and reading them again is like reading a totally new magazine. I usually find that after re-reading or looking through 10 or 15 older magazines, I'm inspired to keep going.

M.

Been there James... I think we should all get T-shirts printed up with "I survived modelling burn-out" on them. What got me restarted was a friend who came by and had never really seen my full collection of built kits. He oowed and gooed over them for the better part of an hour and had me talking about them again. That's what got me out of the doldrums.....about 5 years without touching a kit except to move it out of the way. You never know what will restart the building bug, downsizing, changing area of focus, questions from a friend, getting loose at a museum packed full of military vehicles. Something, sometime, somewhere will work for you.... you're a modeller and sometimes the bug just lays in remission but then it comes back with a fury.

I've got quite a few things that all combine to keep burnout at bay.

One, my job requires travel and that FORCES some breaks - sometimes a week or two, sometimes a month, sometimes 6 months. Often by the time I get home again I'm anxious to build again.

Two, I've got lots of other hobbies. If the weather is decent, I'm as likely to be out riding the Harley, or camping, or fishing, or white whater rafting (or some combination thereof!). When my favorite sports are in season, I watch a lot of them. I'm also a pretty voracious reader. So I'm never just modelling at the exclusion of everything else for very long.... This is probably the single biggest thing that prevents burnout for me

Third, I make sure every "conversion" or detail project is followed by at least one "shake and bake" out of the box build - maybe in my normal subject field, maybe not. I just find it fun to follow up a project that took some work and extra effort with something that you can just put together. It's sort of taking a break without really taking a break.

Fourth is inspiration - whenever I pass through Seattle (I live 2 hours north of there) I stop by a hobby shop or two, see whats on sale, see what completed works are on display. Message boards and places like ARC and Hyperscale are great because you can see what everyone else is up to - they're part of my daily routine, like checking e-mail, so I'm never lacking for inspiration.

Just my $.02, but I'm very rarely totally burned out. If anything, I wish for more hours in the day to squeeze in a little more modelling!

Its been awhile since I wrote this post and some things have changed.I did finish a kit but it was a kitbash. so I am not tied down by accuricy details.I built a fantasy mig-21 with delta wing formation.Its cool.I feel releived to finally finish a kit. It almost feels like I was let out of a trap.I have gone nuts on building kits .Thanks for all of your encoragments........Have fun........

I have the perfect cure! Ship all your unbuilt kits to me...lol, just kidding! I went throught the same with HO Trains. My problem was not only burn out, but the wife and the amount of space it took up. Just step away, completely away! Don't look at magazines, put your kits out of sight, put your tools away. Go out in the yard and do some outdoor things for awhile. If the desire is truley just "burried" it will arise again. I find that the further away I am the quicker and more intense the urge returns, Now what to do about the wife?

Many times I've tried to move on to other types of modeling, but I never get them done. I always go back to armor. I just finished Tamiya's Wespe and I was going to try my Hasagawa Frank, but I moved onto yet another tank, Tamiya's Pz III. I've learned to stick to what works best. Someday maybe I will get my fighter plane built.

I know the feeling! I was really into building 1/24 NASCAR models. One day, I experienced burn-out and took a step away for a few weeks. I was browsing through the hobby store shortly after and my interest was peaked again, after seeing a few Tamiya Armor kits.

I picked them up and am now "back on track"

...... haha get it?

A break will work.
Doing something else for a while can be enough to shake the webs loose. Changing forums (cars to planes).
Rearrange your work space.
Setting a goal for yourself or making it an ongoing project. i,e, building all the variants of a tank or plane
Setting project before you, like super detailing something or doing a diorama of a large scene. Give yourself a goal.
Going to a show to see what others are doing.
I think it is all what we go through this no matter whta we do. It is one of my theories of why we all have had that break and can say "getting back into the hobby after 10 or 15 or 20 years". When we're younger we don't have the discipline to stay focused and like a raven, something else grabs our attention and we go after it with the exhuberance that comes with youth. Putting all our interest in one thing at the moment.

Hit your reset and shift gears. It will come to you.

Mike

Take the summer off. Go to motorraces, airshows and/or museums for inspiration! You are bound to see something that makes you thing "I want to make that!".
The good thing about the hobby is that models don't have a shelf life as such. They'll be ready when you are

Building burnout happens. I find that sometimes in the midst of a big, long, drawn-out project replete with photo-etch, resin accessories, etc. sometimes I feel like I'm just not getting anything done for the amount of time I spend on it.
My solution is to bang out a quick 1/72 aircraft - it makes me feel like I've accomplished something. Then I can get back to work on the other project with
a better outlook on it.

get up put up in storage everything that deal with model building(but where it can be retrived) don't be involved with anything relating to model building(reading etc stay away from hobby shops for a while. if you have a family or if you have close friends , do things with them and become part of the world for awhile. try another hobby or just get out and take one day @ a time @ come what may. I have had burnout with model railroading & ship modeling & just backing away from it for awhile can be a great help. I am back @ modeling but in the meantime I also expanded my interests & that helped alot