What happened to my skill??

[Harrier/Viper Fan]

I find my self sitting here with a lot of half finished projects, which I keep adding too but never finish. I thought I pick one up the other day and found that my skills seemed to have become rusty. I know it's been at least 3 years since I finished anything or even done any real modelling. I started a 1/48 Hawkeye the other month which I stopped due to my skills just not up to it anymore. Has anyone else had this? I thought I do a simple 1/72 kit to try and get some skills back but I scared I ruin the kit right now but I also know that I need to get my skills back too.

Sorry for the self pity post but just thought I get off my chest and see if this has happened to others.

[beingthehero]

Sometimes I've lost my skill right after completing a model I'm proud of. Like, the very next day I seem to make a bunch of amateur errors. It comes and goes, but it's just helpful to build in incremental steps a day at a time instead of going at the usual pace. Measure twice, cut once, and all that. Also, it helps to have a model that's cheap or you don't care about (those ancient 1/144 fighter jet reboxes or Nakotne/Berkut 1/72 stuff usually does the trick for me) in the stash in case you feel like you're too rusty and need to 'rediscover' your skills, so to speak.

[AX 365]

So what if you ruin a cheap 1/72 scale kit. It's not the end of the world. When I find myself in a bit of a rut, I just glue one or two parts together or paint a couple of pieces and say, 'That's enough for today.' Before you know it, although it may take a while, you've got a finished kit. As Jack Donohue, the late Canadian Mens Olympic Basketball Team coach said in a presentation once, 'Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.' Try your skills on something until you become comfortable with it and get progressively better at it. You may find it repetitive but in the end you may find it's what you need to help you break out of your funk and finish those half done projects you have lying around.

[MacStingy]

Lost your MOJO?Sounds like you could use an EggPlane. No stress, fun, quick easy. Pick something fun and hang it on the Christmas tree.If symptoms persist, seek professional help.WARNING- side effects may include sudden irrational purchases, hours of solitude, bleeding fingers, lack of storage and stash envy.

Good luckPaul

[Unglued]

IMHO, skill in anything waxes and wanes.

For example, I play Boggle on the Pogo Web site daily. Having loved word games and played them all my life, I'm an "above average" player. Some days, I can beat almost everyone. My fingers just fly over the keys. Other days, I can't get going. Almost anyone can beat me. Though I always wonder why this is so, I've never been able to figure out the reason. It's just the way it is. And sometimes these hot/cold spells continue for weeks.

The same thing is true in my modeling. Sometimes I wonder if it's mainly attitude. If I open a kit and see a lot of flash, sink marks and so on, I sometimes take a lackadaisical approach to building it.

More than likely, what's happening is a combination of factors.

Whatever.

When it happens, I just tell myself, "This too shall pass," and it always does. Things either get better, or they get worse.

Cheers,

Les

[Jinxter13]

You haven't lost your skill, it's still there and will serve you well. Sometime back the same happened to me, and plagued me daily; until I gave it some deep thought and found there was an underlying reason that disrupted my will, and desire to build; kickback away from the modeling bench and examine your hobby from kit purchase to displaying on the shelf, including the intangibles such as outside influences once you get it sorted you'll soon find that your mo-jo is still there waiting to be thrown into action ;) . Unlike me skill is something I can't lose; ya can't lose something you never had :) .

Edited December 18, 2014 by #1 Greywolf

[falcon20driver]

I've found my skills to be proportionate to my level of passion for a particular build. I haven't been in the hobby that long and its taken some wandering but I've found my niche and its made my modeling that much more enjoyable. And when I'm having fun, I'm working that much harder to build a better model.

[Joel_W]

Sounds more like a case of lost Mojo then lost skills. It's really hard to loose mechanical skills unless there is a physical reason. Fading eye sight, loss of coordination, hand shaking, etc. But you don't mention anything along those lines. Picking up a model from years ago, and just not being able to get back into the build is lack of concentration, and to some extent, lack of confidence in your current abilities.

1st and foremost is being honest with yourself, and the 1st question to ask is do I really want to start to build and complete models? If it's yes, the rest is easy. If it's I really don't know, then wait until you do know. Reading ARC should get your Mojo juices flowing, but if the desire and the passion isn't there right now, then just don't push it. All you do is end up with more shelf Queens or tossed models. If your answer is yes, then the best advice I can offer is to start a new kit. One in a preferred scale that has gotten solid reviews, and just as important is that it of interest to you. Just focus on building the best OOB model you can for personal display. One model at a time. Relax, enjoy the build, and don't stress.

Joel

[phantom]

Could be worse. I think I hit my peak two or three years ago. My eyes are starting to go as I keep missing small mistakes I never used to make.

[ikar]

Oh it can happen. I've been building since I was five, With the exception of two tours during Vietnam, large base not many models.

These periods come and go. I'm just coming out of my latest one after our contest. Now it's compounded by a unusual eye problem that forces me to put drops of sodium chloride in my eyes a couple times a day in an attempt to avoid eye surgery. That will get your attention. It gets harder to see details as they get blurrier, even with glasses. The prescription is constantly changing little by little which doesn't help, but I keep on building. By the way, I also have a store of partly built kits that I have to get back to but right now I'm working on a Hasegawa T-33 and a F-94 for my 5th F.I.S. collection.

[SERNAK]

It has also happened to me quite a few times. This occurs especially when you have a look at previous finished or semi-finished builds and you see the quality you had achieved.

My advice is, start building again and your skills will come back eventually. Just keep some notes on what you're doing or if you have kept some from the past have another look at them. I have a sketchbook from the late 90s and whenever I get into some kind of trouble with one of my builds I always have a look at it for some help.

[Unglued]

Could be worse. I think I hit my peak two or three years ago. My eyes are starting to go as I keep missing small mistakes I never used to make.

I'm almost 78, and thought I was having the same problem, but after thinking about it, I realized that I wasn't "missing" mistakes, but purposely ignoring things that were no longer important. If I can no longer see mistakes, there are none. I like to think of it as another advantage to getting old. As time goes by, it just gets better and better.

On the same subject, (which is getting older, in case you've forgotten) a recent study found that older people aren't as forgetful as previously thought. It turns out that our brains — which are pretty much computers made of meat — have accumulated so much data, our disk drives take longer to find and process the load. This explains why we sometimes find ourselves in a room and can't seem to remember why we're there.

Now, where was I when I came across this thread ... ?

[phantom]

If ARC forums had a "like" button, Mr Unglued would get a "like" for that last post.

[Joel_W]

If ARC forums had a "like" button, Mr Unglued would get a "like" for that last post.

Phantom,

Agreed.

I'm nearing 68, and while it's not considered old like it once was, believe me, it's no where near what middle age is. I've lost count of the number of times I go some where, to do some thing, but can't remember why I went there when I get there.

I find modeling a excellent mental stimulation. Although, I do forget things during a build that at times comes back to haunt me. I've taken to checking off each step on the instructions as I complete them, and making notes of details I want to add.

Joel

Edited December 21, 2014 by Joel_W