Unfinished work in progress

[plastic-stasher]

I have used this website, and others, for a number of years and have settled down numerous times to follow the progress of another modeller's work on a project that interested me only to find that updates petered out before the model was finished. If the model did, in fact, get finished, there was no evidence of this, and I was left wondering what had happened. Had the project stalled for some reason, or had it been superseded by another kit that had taken the modeller's interest?

Then I considered my own modelling projects. Time after time, my project has been abandoned as the results were not up to the standards I had set myself, I had let myself get bogged down with minor detail in the cockpit or elsewhere that my lack of skill did not allow me to recreate or some similar reason. Perhaps too much research had resulted in me deciding that the kit would never be an accurate enough recreation of the real thing. Then I thought how lucky are those model makers who just get on with it and produce finished models without undue worry that every knob or cable has been faithfully recreated or that the paint colours are 100% accurate.

I don't suppose for one minute that I am the only model maker who has spent more than the cost of the original kit on after-market products to help make my model that little bit more accurate. Again, I don't suppose I would be the first person to discover that the so-called super detailed after-market part still bore little resemblance to the real thing anyway or was really no better than the original kit part.

How many tins of grey(gray) paint does a model maker need in the collection anyway? I have seen some very long and erudite threads on here discussing the merits of various manufacturers' versions of this or that paint colour, even though it has been said more than once that there are so many reasons why paint colours could vary considerably in real life.

I think I will join the ranks of those, perhaps more naive modellers who don't really care if their chosen kit is one scale millimetre shorter in wingspan than the real thing, or if parts of the interior that can't be seen on the finished model anyway do not include all the wiring and various lumps and bumps of the original. Instead I will concentrate on just getting the thing completed to a standard that suits me. Then all I need worry about is where to store all the darned things afterwards.

Of course I will still follow interesting projects on this forum as I can still admire the skill of others even if I can't recreate it myself.

Derek

[Mitch K]

It's a fair point. I know I've got one or two builds that just stalled. In my case it was largely because I realised I couldn't see any obvious use for them. The English Civil War mortar and Pictish curragh seemed like great ideas until I was well along with builds and worked out there wasn't a cat in hell's chance of ever getting them on the table!

Edited June 21, 2014 by Mitch K

[Biggles87]

I came to more or less the same conclusions some time ago, still don't finish much though!

[Old Man]

A good way to get over that hump, Sir, is to pick a subject you like, but which is outside your greatest area of interest. I am more interested in Great War and Golden Age subjects and will go to great pains to get an R.E. 8 or a Curtiss Hawk just right, but it is not as if I have no interest at all in later periods. The first model I managed to build straight out of the box, and pretty much in a weekend, was an Academy P-40N, something I have some interest in but no fascination with. It was something of a breakthrough, and I have since found it a lot easier to get a model done, and keep my focus on how it will look over-all once complete.

[Winenut]

Great post Derek.

I totally understand what you mean.

I guess it somewhat reflects that this great hobby of ours is very broad and approached in many different and equally valid ways.

For some the sublime goal of a technically correct rudder profile is paramount.....others love the camo and livery of a particular unit. Some have a particular interest in a subject because of family or personal reasons.

Some like building, accuracy, the technical aspects...... and some love getting out the paints, the brush, the airbrush, the decals and making a piece of art.

Some love the learning, research, history, politics......... the sense of "time" around many of the subjects we choose to build.

Some of us just happened to fall in love with flying and aircraft, enjoyed the hobby as youngsters (when $2 pocket money bought you a box full of dreams) and are coming back into it with our own kids just for fun...... away from computers....... and screens........ and ipads.

So thanks so much for the post.....All I will add is there is no unfinished model in this world.......just a slightly longer term work in progress

[toms111s]

I share your sentiments entirely Winenut. The amount of unfinished kits that have ended up in the bin as I couldn't get them to the standard my brain thought I could get them to is into double figures.

With my latest couple of builds I have decided to say so what, it is what it is and I use each one as a learning experience.

Good luck with your projects.

Tom

[plasmahal]

I know where the OP is coming from. As someone who has been a long time lurker on many forums and making a stash that's every growing, I now feel I can get on with a kit and not really care if it turns out OK or not. I too set my personal bar to high. But now i have my semi dedicated modelling area set up have just produced my first finished aircraft kit since being a kid......

Technically, I didn't even build this, my daughter did at an Airfix event. I just wanted to finish it of for her (and me) so I can I could get to grips with airbrushing.

[perdu]

Airbrushing.

I reckon you have gripped it nicely.

I get bogged down,often.

Then I stubbornly refuse to move along onto something more attractive until...

I don't make many models any more.

[tomprobert]

I think I will join the ranks of those, perhaps more naive modellers who don't really care if their chosen kit is one scale millimetre shorter in wingspan than the real thing, or if parts of the interior that can't be seen on the finished model anyway do not include all the wiring and various lumps and bumps of the original. Instead I will concentrate on just getting the thing completed to a standard that suits me. Then all I need worry about is where to store all the darned things afterwards.

I am certainly one of the above - I wouldn't say 'naive' as such, but I certainly don't lose sleep over accuracy issues. To me, making models is my hobby, my enjoyment, and for me life is simply too short to worry about the odd millimetre here or there or a fuselage profile being slightly off. This way, I get a lot of models finished, as I don't tend to get bogged down correcting everything to the nth degree and lose steam. My big vacform buillds are far from 100% accurate, if I wanted them built that way I'd never get anything completed.

My philosophy is to build what takes my fancy, when it takes my fancy. I rarely enter competitions and to be honest couldn't give two hoots what people think about my builds and whether they're 'accurate' or not, although I do enjoy sharing them with folks on here and have often gratefully received constructive critisism. Therefore I stay interested and often manage to keep going on a project even if it's a year or longer in the making.

Tom

[plastic-stasher]

Thank you to those fellow modellers who have taken the time to contribute to this thread.

First of all I should emphasise that absolutely no disrespect was intended by my use of the word "naive". It was used by me to perhaps describe those younger or more inexperienced modellers who derive a more simple and uncomplicated pleasure from the hobby or, indeed, people like me, who often wishes that I could stop counting rivets and just get on with the damned thing!

In the past, I have managed to complete various models up to the painting stage and then fallen at the final hurdle, perhaps because such modest skills as I have are used so infrequently that I seem incapable of producing a paint finish that I can be satisfied with.

Over the last few days, I have been thinking a lot about this subject, and it occurs to me that I will never enter a model in a competition, so just who am I trying to impress? What is the point in accumulating more and more kits that take my fancy if there is little chance that I will build them? My loft is sufficiently well insulated now and I have no need of any further contributions to my "stash"

I intend now to build models to the best of my ability but without agonising over the details that really just don't matter all that much. I will continue to look at and admire the work of other modellers and hope that I can learn from them. I hope my skills do improve, but if they don't, then the world will not exactly be a poorer place, and I hope I can still carry on making models just for the pleasure of it.

Derek

[Winenut]

spot on Derek....same for me and it makes it makes the whole journey a heap of fun.

Chocks away!