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 I'm stalled right now because for the last 6+ weeks I've been "flipping" an apartment I'm moving into. If I donate my time the owner will keep my rent the same and he's covering material costs. And it's an end apartment so I have windows-plus, it's above my workshop. I won't be able to make noise in there anymore if another tenant moves into that apartment.

 

 But most of my builds stall because I hit something that's beyond my skill level at the time. My latest one is a JG54 BF-109F in white winter camo over grays, and the white has worn away around the panel lines. When I paint, it looks like someone painted up to the lines and stopped instead of looking like the paint wore off. But there's no rush to finish these things, is there? I'll get it one day.

 

 My favorite stalled project is a 1/48 Revell B-17F. I opened up the waist windows and was filling the interior with framework when the idea hit me-"I could make up this framework and then cut up soda cans for skin and glue it on...". With that bit of absurdity in mind I packed the build away and moved on. I've built both 1/48 Fort kits (F & G) since then but every time I pick this one up I'm reminded of the idea of scratch building a 1/48 B-17 of Evergreen strip styrene and Pepsi cans and I just put it away again.

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I think I developed the attention span of a gnat as I got older. I often get all fired up for a build, collect references and materials, begin the build, then...

Image result for Ryan Reynolds distracted gif

...some other subject catches my attention and the cycle repeats. Eventually things come full circle and after repeated starts and stops over many years builds do get done. But it's frustrating.

 

To be even more honest, I've been going back and building older and simpler  kits, like older Tamiya and Italeri armor kits (heck I'm almost done a Lindberg T-55 after only two weeks... SHOCK :coolio:). Fewer parts with more then enough detail for me OOB or with a few AM or scratch additions thrown on. I find the simpler kits help minimize the stalling. The newer kits, as wonderful and fantastic as they are, just have far too many parts that often times I find unnecessary, complicated, and lead to fit problems. Related, in regards the track links, it sounds sacrilege in this day and age but I've stopped using the multi-piece aftermarket track links that frustrate the life out of me and stick with the kit tracks now (yes...I love the "rubber band" tracks. Simple, easy, and quick). This is especially true if the vehicle has side skirts where track droop won't be seen so its a non-issue.

 

Anyways, happy modeling all and have a great weekend!

 

Don

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  • 2 weeks later...

My builds are always stagnating 😥 or should I say build, because I only have one. I am based in Hong Kong where the apartments are on the tiny side. Very. Tiny. I do not have a dedicated hobby room (jealousy overflow to those of you that do 😂) so I have to settle for my designated corner of the living room dining table. An A4 cutting mat is my area plus boxes where I keep random shtuff like resin bits. 

 

That's issue 1.  Issue 2, wifey not a fan, of me long concentrating on builds and/or anything fumey. This restricts me to very very slow progress and rattlecan sprays on the balcony for the portions of projects I could resort to rattleys. As many of you may agree, sometimes airbrush work is very desirable, which is why I have one and a large compressor. It's hidden inside my bed on the non drawer side. wifey doesn't know.  hence slow paintwork😂

 

Rant over a bit of steam blown. Back to browsing new kits for my beloved stash. Its so big now additions dont stick out. 

 

 

Konbini

 

 

Edited by konbini
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When I feel like I'm not making any progress I get overwhelmed and it gets harder for me to continue.  The build goes on for too long and I feel like others are getting bored by my thread and I start losing interest too.   It will be months before I post a small update until I can't update anymore because others might say it's a necro post.   Also, I compare my work to other modellers'  here and if it's not at par with theirs I give up.      

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I usually have to wait for after market orders, decals, weapons etc. or in my case most of the

time I build out of production kits and when a part is missing or breaks I have to look all over

the internet to try to find replacement parts for a 30 to 40 year old kit. Then I find parts or decals

and they are defective, such as the decals that were 30 plus years old and broke into a gazillion

pieces. About then general apathy sets in and I start another subject only to have the same problem

repeat itself.It's not a hobby anymore, it's a never ending circle of "calamities". I need a new hobby.---John

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  • 4 weeks later...

I had builds recently stall because my airbrush died.

 

So I started a couple more until I had the funds to get a new airbrush. Picked it up yesterday. Now 4 builds should be done in the next couple weeks.

 

Put the family first, then your job. The hobby is when nothing else is going on. Unfortunately I have a lot of not much going on time lately.

 

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  • 2 months later...

This is an older thread, I know, but I thought I'd add some thoughts...

 

My builds stall when I reach a point where I'm up against parts of the build that looked appealing at first, but then got scarier as they got closer.  I have a Meng Merkava 4M tank that is about 80% done, and I put it aside when I got to the point of having to create scratch built aspects (the tank is going to be an IDF training tank, and as such, has a lot of electronic training parts and wiring harnesses, etc. that sounded fun in the beginning, but got really frightening as it got closer, not sure if my skills are good enough to do it, etc.)  Secondly, I was just starting to think about getting back into building airplanes, and a plane model was calling me...  Third, I have a tank that that had reached the stage where masking was needed for the camouflage.  At that point, I had not had experience in masking, so my fear of doing that simply stopped me from continuing.  I'm sure there are more reasons why I stopped building some models, as I have about 10-12 kits that are in various stages of completion, and I probably should analyze each one for the reasons why I stopped them, but I do plan, at some point, to restart and finish every one of them, because there isn't a single one of them that I've lost interest in, in terms of wanting that completed model on my finished shelf.  So, they all need to be finished.  I just need to get them there.

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  • 1 month later...

Lots of great, real life reasons brought up by everyone! Many of which I can identify with. A short modeling attention span is definitely one of my issues. I also tend to build kits in groups. As an example, earlier this year I started a "MiG Killers" group build consisting of 2 Hasegawa  F-16s, 2 Hasegawa F-4s, and a Academy F-8E backdated to an F-8C, all in 72nd scale. I move right along until I get to the point where I have to start rescribing lost panel lines, then on the shelf it goes! I eventually pick the kit back up and finish it off (I've just restarted the two F-16s), but it might sit for awhile. In the meantime, I feel buried by all of my unfinished builds, and don't build much of anything, until it gets interesting again.

 

Another issue for me is that when I get into something, I'm all in. I have a passion for tiger musky fishing, and during May through October, it is all consuming. I hardly touch a model during those months as all of my free time is spent on the water. Anyone who has seriously fished muskies can tell you that spending ten hours fishing per trip, and not seeing a fish, is not unusual. The fish are notoriously difficult to catch, and so a huge time investment is needed to be successful, but therein lies the challenge. Before I got into it, I used to finish about two 1/72nd kits a month. Now I'm lucky if I get 6 in a year! I figure that once I retire I will have much more free time to spend modeling........ and fishing ;0) Fred K.

 

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This is old, BUT I noticed Phantom, you posted in this thread? So you took a week longer than normal to build 4 MODELS! I don't think you understand "stalled" 😀

 

That's like someone saying "don't you hate it when you bomb out on an exam?" and someone replies, "yeah, once I only got a 100 because I forgot to turn it over and work the bonus problem, that sucked." Sorry, just had to point that out.  :cheers:

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We all have our stalls, true mine (as of now) are not THAT long.........I have had 2 Phantoms sitting on the desk untouched almost a WEEK now. For me that's a while.

 

Dumb work and life getting in the way.

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3 minutes ago, phantom said:

We all have our stalls, true mine (as of now) are not THAT long.........I have had 2 Phantoms sitting on the desk untouched almost a WEEK now. For me that's a while.

 

Dumb work and life getting in the way.

I know, just messing with cha. I think your production rate is phenomenal. And not only do you produce a lot, you produce a lot of high quality builds. I'm amazed actually. I have this mental image when I see your post of you building a model sitting in traffic, maybe at the doctor's office waiting room gluing wings together, doing a morning jog with an airbrush hose dragging behind you....:woot.gif:

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5 hours ago, niart17 said:

I know, just messing with cha. I think your production rate is phenomenal. And not only do you produce a lot, you produce a lot of high quality builds. I'm amazed actually. I have this mental image when I see your post of you building a model sitting in traffic, maybe at the doctor's office waiting room gluing wings together, doing a morning jog with an airbrush hose dragging behind you....:woot.gif:

 

 

 

Its dropped off of late. When I did night shifts still my output was MUCH higher!

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Like a child, I'm much too easily distracted, and for the last few years, seem to have the attention span of a gnat, so I start dozens and finish very few. I'm working to improve that this coming year though, by concentrating on just three projects, no matter what. So far, for the last six weeks or so, I've worked on nothing but those three, and I intend to follow that idea. We'll see how it goes, I guess, but I am determined to enter all three in our local event in September 2020, perhaps regionally as well.

Edited by Jagdtiger46
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A long time ago, I decided that I will only do one model at a time and not dabble in parallel builds. This was to impose some restraint on what I think was inevitable: getting bored and jumping onto the next project. Once that becomes an option, you get caught in an infinite loop, I thought. What I have seen online has only reinforced this view. Same thing with building up a stash. I thought that was a sign of weak self-discipline. Anyway, while I am happy to report that I have never done parallel builds, and have only 5 kits in the stash, I am becoming increasingly less impressed by this achievement and unwarranted pride! I think I have been using it as a tangible evidence of my self-control and determination, while I am lacking in other discipline-requiring aspects of life! There you go. 

 

So with that, my builds don't stall per se, but they slow down dramatically. Usually, the best remedy for it is browsing my reference pics and watching a few YT videos to work up the appetite. It doesn't always work, but most of the time it does. 

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I have to add a new one to this list of reasons why build stall.  I am (was) working on my Eduard Tempest, and I finished my pre-shade panel lines with my new airbrush.  I wanted to put a protective spray regulator on the airbrush to protect that tiny needle...and the airbrush part was made wrong and messed up my airbrush (I have a thread going on that).  So, now, I'm dead in the water.  I could work on another model, but I'd been so focused on this Tempest, and I don't want to work on anything else, but I'm completely dead stopped until I get my airbrush fixed.  Silly reason, I know, but that's how I"m feeling about it.  I have some parts laid out for another build that I COULD work on, but I'm just not into it.  I hope that when the new parts come that I'll still want to work on the build that stalled...but knowing myself, that might not happen...

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have enjoyed reading all the wisdom and humor here. And reality, really. 

 

Generally, my projects "stall" when I don't have all the items (AM, masks, decals, PE) I might need for the project (drag), thus forward progress (thrust) is insufficient to maintain my interest level (lift), and rapidly overcomes my guilt at not having finished a kit in several months (stall warning horn), and I begin to make excuses or tackle other projects (flat or tail spin), until i find a new model project to capture my attention (level off at a much much lower altitude), whereupon, I begin to build a new kit until I "rediscover" the old one and begin to build a new air castle with it (start climbing again, but more slowly). That about sums it up. 

Edited by Dutch
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20 minutes ago, Dutch said:

I have enjoyed reading all the wisdom and humor here. And reality, really. 

 

Generally, my projects "stall" when forward progress (speed) is insufficient to maintain my interest level (lift), and rapidly overcomes my guilt at not having finished a kit in several months (stall warning horn), and I begin to make ecuses or tackle other projects (tail spin), until i find a new model project to capture my attention (level off at a much lower altitude), whereupon, I begin to build a new air castle with it. (start climbing again). That about sums it up. 

 

😊😊😊

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11 hours ago, habu2 said:

Sounds like a (drag)......

Oh, thanks for reminding me about that aspect.  I forgot to include the part where I don't have all the items (AM, masks, decals, PE) I might need for the project (drag). Insert this at the beginning. 😉😎

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As many have pointed out my main reason(s) for stalling my builds are the kits and their poor quality (some of them), various materials and processes like paint/thinner ratios and continuous sanding, at least during the first years/ decade of my avocation with our hobby. Now, in my third decade in scale modelling it is health issues unfortunately that don't want to "go away" and let me to at least enjoy my favourite hobby.

 

Word of advice: Never create a stock of kits (mainly) because some parts will definitely show signs of wrapping. Even models that are half-build and kept in boxes will show such signs of wear and tear.

 

 

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