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what make you decide to????????

Paulw

Well-known member
Deep thought time, or at least in my minuscule mind. What makes you decide to shelve a project?
I guess you can identify a few things like I do but I think it really comes town to pride in completing a project that it as close to top quality as you can.

For me getting some distance into a build and then deciding to shelve it because of the difficulty of the kit or you just loose interest, hitting the wall so-to-speak. I try to put them up to avoid me making one monumental mistake and then instead of the shelf it winds up in the bin.

I have a couple like that, actually most of my stash is in that mess. I have quite a few started projects sitting on the shelf waiting for the time when I get the urge to bring them out again and attacking it with a fresh prospective.

I think this is a good practice because it limits me from really hacking a kit up by trying to get it done in a hurry. When I started this hobby 7 years ago I was putting them out one or two a week. Something to do with my time as I recuperated from extensive open heart. With no income for almost four years the modeling community sent me kits and all the necessary gear to get started. About three years ago I began to think on how many builds I am actually thrashing just to get something out.

I do have kits where I am stumped on where to continue and how to make it look like it is supposed to. I'll be damned if I can even get my builds to look as good as some of the other builders do. But see, there's the rub, I am not supposed to. I am building for me and no one else. Weather or not the finished build is correct or not just as long as I can make it look good to me and if it has to wait on the shelf for some months until I am satisfied I can finish it looking something like it is supposed to.

So, in retrospect to this article, I hold no shame in putting something on the shelf to further ripen, so-to-speak, until I am ready to continue. Maybe one day I can come out with a build that is 100% the way I intended it to look. Patience.
 
(y) (y) (y)

At times it has been because I did not know or have the proper items or just not knowing how to create it.

A good example was an Airfix Hudson that sat in the box for years before reemerging to be finished in what looks like a C-60 .

I have plans for another Hudson someday with the early engines and the Brit turret .

I have others that have pushed my patience to the edge and are awaiting a new supply before pressing on.

Still others are started and still in the box , just because I saw a squirrel :frantic

Cheers, Christian :rotf
 
What generally shelves mine is huge blunders. Massive gaps when it's supposed to fit. Trying to modify something and it looks like crap. Tracks that have like 5 pieces per link...or a massive screw up with alcladII right next to the cockpit canopy.

The Korean Bulldozer will be picked up again one day, gotta finish that one but there's a lot of them that won't see daylight again.

Biggest problem I've had lately is time.
 
I'm glad you wrote this because it actually made me think about my process and it may lead to a change.

My normal Mo is simple hunting and gathering: Stalk a kit online, buy it, track it, snatch it form the porch and proceed to rip the box open. Wash the sprues and dive in feasting for a short while. After a short time of building, I sense a whiff of another kit in the air and repeat the process.

With AC, it's usually when I get to the wing root. I work consistently through the cockpit, IP, etc, assemble the fuse, add the wings and putty the root. Stop.

With figures, it's primer. I build it, putty, work the seams, rework some of the sculpt (deepen ears, fabric folds, etc.), prime it to find areas that could use attention. Stop.

Another stumbling block is working out a new process. I was blasting through a 1/72 Fujimi kit, love it, decided to remove and use clear sprue for the nav lights ala Christian's wonderful builds. I do one side, drilling out a tiny hole for the simulated light bulb, glue in place, shape and sand and really surprised myself how nice it came out. Okay, other side...Stop.

And finally, it's over complicating things with LEDs or servos. I love figuring things out, I love designing things, but only once. Once I get something right, I seem to avoid the tedium of finishing.
 
I seem to always have a dozen or more kits in various stages of completion and the reasons are many.

I have several that are ready for paint but I either can't decide on paint and markings or the paint scheme is one I don't feel competent to pull off to my satisfaction.

Some are there because they have reached a point where the next step is something I really don't like doing.

Some are waiting for references that I can't find.

Some have had parts disappear or canopies that have yellowed that I don't think I can reproduce or don't want to.

Some get set aside because I know the amount of work to finish it due to fit or inaccuracies is more than what I want to deal with at the time.

Some I have just lost interest in or a newer better kit has come along that I would rather do instead.

And some I have forgotten why I side lined them.

I have been making good progress over the past several months in clearing the backlog and have two that I should have done in the next month. I one case I binned a kit that I decided wasn't worth finishing.
 
I have a couple of kits that are decades old that were shelved. One which had chrome side pipes (a Tamiya motorcycle) that the chrome was aweful and at the time there was no good way to do chrome. Another (an ENTEX Bugatti Royal) that had some really odd issues with the fit of the body. Both are at least 75% built and fully painted. Both carefully packed away. The Bugatti the white paint (clearcoat)ha yellowes to an ivory color but that is still good. Both should see the light of day again soon as I now have the tools and skills to finish them up.

Others like the Me323 are just such BAD kits that they get shelved from frustration and getting tired of reworking EVERYTHING.

Am currently working on a shelved kit (the Trumpeter Ju87A) that is another complete screwup of a kit in how wrong everything was made. Am mostly over the hump of BAD in it now though and it should really come out nice and will be quite a bit different from every other Ju87A out there.
 
I'm good at starting and bad at finishing lately. A lot of reasons.
I lose interest in the kit.
I hit a minor hiccup which seems like a major mountain to climb and shelve until its manageable.
I hurt too much and I decide I don't want to do the tiny work.
And the popular one SQUIRREL lol.

James
 
h15a48da.jpg

:rotf
 
HUGE blunders/goofups I spent hard ona DML SDKFZ with the 75mm anti-tank gun, and screwed it up so bad I just stopped. I actually have been considering buying the old tamiya sdkfz and kitbshing/scratch building the two into one usable kit.
 
I am glad that this makes you guys think and consider all the ins and outs of modeling. I see a lot of things that really describes the reasons why I shelve a kit. One of my big ones is getting all excited about finishing a kit and... Oh look, at all the pretty birdies la ti dah ti dah. Oh, a new kit... I bet that would work out well in such and such a campaign... So you see, it's all Bob's fault... ( where is that T shirt? )
 
I AM NOT Alone!! :yipee

I usually will work until its IT or me- - - then IT wins and I go home, to the stash, to find a more willing subject :blush:
 
In my case, 98% of the time I shelve something because of a missing part or decals. The rest of the percentage is something I run into that I'm not sure how to handle. Almost all of the time it's a lost part or decals. The Shuttle is one I shelved because I lost my frisket film. Now that I found it, that will be coming off the shelf again soon.
 
For me, I usually hit a "wall" (the wall usually being a point in the build where the next step is something I don't enjoy or is particularly difficult or it is something that I haven't done before and am a little intimidated to try).

I usually have to shelve them until I get in the right frame of mind to tackle them again.

Some of the reasons have been:

difficult areas to fill and sand
difficult paint jobs
modifications
 
I will have 4 or 5 kits going at one time. The "Shelving" occurs while I wait for paint/glue to cure. In the case of the Hawk RC3-2, it was rigging. I've got the cool Usci elastic rigging string, I just got befuddled while trying to run it through my teensy holes.

When my "model mojo" need a boost, I stop by Chuck Sterns' grave. Clean off the headstone, arrange the flowers, and sit for a few minutes. That usually helps.
Sometimes I get an idea, and want a part I haven't found yet. Sometimes there's a Squirrel! :rotf

In the case of 1/350 USS Georgia SSGN, I grew weary of the endless paint/fill/sand/repaint and took a hiatus.

I have dozens of great fitting, well engineered, Tamiya/Academy/Italeri/new Airfix kits, but for a reason that defies explanation, I'll get into an old Frog clunker, or classic Revell kit and fight the rivets & gaps. :bang head :facepalm :smack

Sometimes I just want to dance with my Sweetheart. Sometimes I fall asleep. Sometimes I dink around on-line too much.

Some of the most admired qualities of a model kit are; Models eat nothing. They never poop behind the couch. They never toddle off to find another modeler to pay better attention to them. They don't get jealous if you bring home a newer, cooler kit. They care little about your personal hygiene. Models never worry if you stay up too late.

One of my favorite movie quotes comes from the film "The High Road to China". "The Ox (rhino) is slow, but the Earth (model) is patient".

That's enough for now.
 
The squirrel is strong. :rotf

Which conveniently corresponds with all you hooligans suggesting GBs that I can't say no to. :drinks

Though occasionally a tedious task may push me away for a while (rivet filling on the RA-5).
 
The squirrel is strong. :rotf

Which conveniently corresponds with all you hooligans suggesting GBs that I can't say no to. :drinks

Though occasionally a tedious task may push me away for a while (rivet filling on the RA-5).


I agree about the time frames on the GB . I have decided to pretty much ignre them since having to shelve something to to start something else kills my mojo. :sick:

Anyhow, trophies or ribbons have no appeal to me . It's just anoying when I have to scroll through pages of it and it mostly means someone participated in something :idonno .

Cheers, Christian B)
 
As long as you're building, git'er done. Building for yourself or for a campaign, just share what you got. (y)
 
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