Agincajun, as many other’s mentioned life’s up’s & down’s can really disrupt time for modeling. Personally, I’ve discovered over 50+ year’s of modeling staring down an unfun to build project saps motivation faster than practically anything else. The subect can be the most fascinating to me in the world but that doesn’t necessarily translate into an enjoyable build experience. Difficulty also isn’t necessarily related to making an unfun build.
I had a hiatus of over 10 years between finishing models at one point. While life events (divorce, 3x moves, new company, new relationships) had a role, ultimately mojo eating termites were the key reason.
Mojo Termites - Extermination List
Work area became disorganized with bad ergonomics. Mine required a fresh reorganization, raising my desk 6 inches on milk crates to comfortable height plus a new chair without arms to slide under desk.
Vision changes. New glasses required. Hard to enjoy working on models with eye strain. Seeing is believing…wink.
Carpal Tunnel is more common than realized. It will steal the joy of building. Address with treatment and surgery as needed. For me this was the difference in max 15 minute sessions with a two hour break and a old school four hour non stop session.
If old project on worktable has emotional baggage, time for a new shelf queen. Move to a new project. Only return to the old project when you feel motivated to do so.
Eliminate interactions with corrossive negative people to maximum extent possible. Increase interactions with positive people to help stoke a good healthy mind set.
Time Bandits, like other hobbies, internet useage, social media may need revision.
Forgetting to break a big project and building a 1/35 scale AFV is a big project into small mini-projects. Often just spending a few 10 minute sessions over the course of a week or two cleaninga couple of road wheels, tools, tow shackles etc will help kick start the motivational fires
Best wishes with kick starting the build & finish processes!
Wade I love you man, you have a very systematic and analytical approach to your responses, you don’t start typing unless you’ve thought it out, I like thinkers.
Yeah the 2nd divorce really did a number on me, falling out with my son caused me to shut down and withdraw completely. Self esteem - 0
Was thinking earlier about rearrangeing my hobby room just to get fresh perspective.
3.Time for new eyeglass prescription and tabletop magnifier.
4.Emotional baggage . . . talking to Jesus bout that one.
5.Negative corrosive peeps, I’m already a Troglodite, I’d have to quit work to accomplish that. Too many models to buy to quit work.
Time bandit- TV /DVD’s and the recliner. See #'s1 & 4.
Well I’ve shared more than I should but not to worry, something will break loose and I’ll get with the program.
Well, Cajun,…yep, been there too. One cure would be to paint 10 Tartans in a row, that’ll cure ya right quick, HA! No, just kiddin, it’s a recipe for disaster, forget what I said
I watch a lot of war movies when I’m building and listen to some podcasts as well, so that also motivates me. My goal is to perfect my figure work, so I’m not in much of a slump for long. It’s the end result I’m after, no matter how long it takes me. But then again, I’ve been known to be anal retentive at times and if I left something unfinished it would drive me bonkers.
It’ll pass, Bro, it has too. This hobby is just too much fun to let go for too long, IMHO.
In discussions with other modelers who no longer post (for many years) and probably quit the hobby (I can’t tell because I’ve no communications with them any longer), I have picked up on a few bits of wisdom.
Modeling is a form of art. Not all artists have the inspiration to build and paint. Perhaps another form of art such as drawing, painting, computer graphics, doodling, comic booking, or sketching might work.
Models are “personal value.” Many will get thrown in the trash when we pass away, but you’ll be surprised how many people out there want things for free.
Models are worth money…yes they are, built or unbuilt. Many people are surprised at how patient modelers are. Like art, even abstract, art is worth money even if it’s a dot on white paper.
Art requires time, effort, investment, interest, skill, talent, and patience. Modeling is a higher-level of artwork as the kit is in pieces. If a thief steals the kits, they are still in unpainted pieces! They are like LEGOs that have no meaning or purpose until built into something. No two kits, once built, will ever look the same to you or someone else in the universe as YOU are unique . As such, it does pay to invest in filters, washes, pigments, brushes, inks, and paints that you won’t find at the local art store because not all artists are modelers, but all modelers are artists. As time passes, you might accumulate these supplies.
Remedies:
Have more than one hobby in a creative outlet, be it poetry, short stories, art, painting, reading, games, etc. You need a hobby that progresses and modeling can be slow progress. Even simple sketches can gain praise and some wealth in a museum years later (like abstract art).
Avoid the flamers and the trolls. Life is too short for (online) tricksters and bad rappers that pull you down.
I find that the “Group Campaign Builds” do help as one has months to a year to complete. Modeling can be anti-social, so participating in a Group Build helps gain support and praise and love from other modelers. Practically all my recent builds have been for Campaigns and at least I get a ribbon and praise in return. I have a year to complete so no rush and before I know it, time flies.
If you don’t have a dedicated modeling desk, putting everything away helps to show that you didn’t just quit on your build
You have to have interest in the subject matter such as Star Wars, Star Trek, armor, figures, police, ladies, planes, ships, military, or cars. Models represent something so why build something if you’re not interested in it?
Buy 4-5-star “winning kits” and not lemons or problematic kits. If you can afford it, you will buy a new house and a new car…why buy a “fixer-upper?”
Nothing in life is really clean. It’s not the painting that modelers often enjoy…it is the weathering of the kit.
Figures help. Tired of long instructions and complex assemblies? A simple figure will do wonders sometimes.
Sci-Fi also helps. If you mess up, then “Sci-Fi it” where anything goes such as a hovertank or a Sci-Fi soldier. There are Group Campaigns dedicated to these topics so you can get praise and a ribbon.
Models capture time. If you want…date them with little pieces of paper or ink to show your progress and the year. I now sign my figure plinths and bases’ bottoms with my name and the year I finished them. I am a skilled artist so I sign my completed builds now. I progressed enough and am skilled enough that my builds are worth something now.
Don’t let the naysayers say that model kits are “Toys” and make you all depressed, childish, and outcast. George Lucas (Star Wars) built an empire on his model kits. Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek) did too. PIXAR (3D animation like “Toy Story” and “NEMO”) did too. So did Peter Jackson (“Lord of the Rings”) and his models and James Cameron with AVATAR. Steven Spielberg is another movie director who collects toy soldiers (and he shopped at Michigan Toy Soldier). As Arnold Schwarzenegger once said at a graduation ceremony motivation speech about the naysayers and the critics trying to pull people down, “BLEEP them! What the BLEEP do they know?”
Here is my entry for the StarshipModeler Star Wars contest. It is a 1/16 SOL MODELS of Korea WW2 Tank Commander outfitted with Shapeways 1/16 Star Wars Blastec rifle and Rebel Star Wars 3D printed gear. I didn’t win anything, but I tell you…no one else on Earth has this in their display case!
I second the notion that you need a second outlet. Modeling is mostly a solitary pursuit. We build by ourselves in the basement, workroom, or wherever. Modeling for me is a quiet time. The only distraction that I will allow is in the summer I like to listen to baseball games on the radio. The game is slow and methodical just like building. My other outlet is much more physical and fast paced and been doing it just about as long as I have been modelling. I play racquetball. There was a time when I played in tournaments almost one per month and in leagues 3X a week. Now its just leagues and pickup but still 3x a week. I think one helps to balance the other. Modeling is almost Zen like whereas RB is an outlet for my aggression.
To break the pace of late (that’s been going on several years of late) I have been trying to finish some OLD shelf queens that were originally intended as OOB. In finishing them I might do some interesting AM decals or some enjoyable weathering to personalize the finished model.
This has been sort of the “low impact” version of modeling for me. Just a little stock building to finish them off and then add somethings different right at the end.
I came back to the hobby during the pandemic. At that time i became very anxious and found the concentration required took me out of the endless news reports telling of doom and gloom. Now that we are (hopefully) clear of all that, i find that my concentration and focus is even greater than it was before. I have tackled more difficult and complicated projects, which i believe has maintained my interest in the hobby. My main interest is axis AFV and aircraft of WW2 but, of late I have tackled other subjects and I think this has also helped to keep the challenges coming. Go for something that you wouldnt normally think if doing.
I have had that problem too! I changed it up a little. Read a couple books and changed my genre. Tanks to planes,to construction equipment. If it still bad you may have seasonal depression then see the doctor.
I would suggest that taking a break isn’t a bad idea. Even it that break lasts a couple of years. I’m a Facility Engineer/Safety Officer for healthcare, part of the job now includes being an Incident Command for our Emergency Preparedness responses and incidents. With COVID, I didn’t finish a model for 2 years. Instead, I spent my time on the COVID response for the community. I used my nervous energy to sand, stain, paint, varnish, etc. bases for future models. I now have too many bases and will build some models to put on them this year.
I got a lot of inspiration these past two years from television reality shows featuring car restorers and builders. After watching what they go through I told myself, “Hey, that’s just like building a model.” I think I’m getting the mojo back now. I take a week off next week and will try to bang out a model or two that I have at the 90% completion phase.
Good luck!
Funny you should ask . . . I’ve been spending a few minutes or so the last few weekends just working on minor assemblies for this M578, tedious trials of making brackets for the work lights, lift rings on the operators turret, trying to get different parts attached and so on, sometimes I’m successful sometimes it fails and I have to just put it down and walk away and come back to try again later. For every part I get attached another snaps off. I spent three hours this morning attaching the pulley stowage bracket to the lifting boom and noticed the boom’s top plate and bottom plate weren’t joined because handling the boom had cracked the CA, dropped a teardrop of Xtra-thin CA into the boom and it went everywhere . . . . well kinda what I wanted . . . then I realised it wicked into the pivoting pins of the elevating piston rods (not the right nomenclature for these parts but my brain is totally fragged right now I’m so pissed), okay . . . ya sumb1+ch . . . seriously considered throwing this thing across the room, wondered how long it would take to get PSM’s conversion and just 86 this peice of junk but nope, I aint gonna let this thing whip me. Retreated to the recliner and channel surfing the idiot box when decided to check what’s happening in KM world and saw your post . . hmm, thanks for thinking about me that’s pretty darn cool.
I spend at least 3-5 months to comple a kit. I average only a few hours a week. My freinds laugh at how long it takes me to finish. No burn out for me. I try to balance it with outside fun.
Maybe watch a few long videos on the type of build you are doing. Either by another builder or a documentary style of it being used in conflict or development in the background as you build it. something that you dont have to visually keep focused on to keep distraction down. Watch a lot of plasmo or some of inner nerd.
An hour here a half hour there, I thought I had done some tedious builds before but this one has taken my skills to a new level and developed a higher degree of patience I never epected . . .
I’m very late to this thread but I will throw in my 2 cents worth on mojo. As others have said, we all go through the loss of mojo phase. What helps me is to organize my build into small steps that I can accomplish in 10 to 20 minutes. Then keep my desk clean enough that I can accomplish that task. I try to do this everyday. Some days I can go for more than an hour. What doesn’t work for me is spending all day or even several hours unless it is something that absolutely takes that amount of time.
When I was building my wooden cabin cruiser, it was a major project that took me 10 years to complete. There were many days when it was difficult to bring myself to do something, especially if it was dirty, tedious, or similar. But what I always tried to do every day was 10 to 30 minutes of work even if it was only cutting a few pieces of lumber or sanding one side of a board. It got done and I was able to mostly stay focused on the construction during that time.
So I know it works and I continue to use that approach now with model building. I have several projects in work and I pick up whichever one interests me that day and do the 10 to 30 minutes. Some days, the mojo is better and I get two hours in. So it works.
. As such, it does pay to invest in filters, washes, pigments, brushes, inks, and paints that you won’t find at the local art store because not all artists are modelers, but all modelers are artists. As time passes, you might accumulate these supplies.
