How Do You Cure A Modelling Slump?

[Brian da Basher]

Well folks, as the title suggests, I'm in the midst of a major modelling slump. I haven't built anything for the last two months. I get a small urge every few days to start a new project, but then real life gets in the way. Do you have any ideas how I can overcome this modelling malaise and get back at the workbench again?

Thanks in advance,
Brian da Basher

[Archibald]

Well folks, as the title suggests, I'm in the midst of a major modelling slump. I haven't built anything for the last two months. I get a small urge every few days to start a new project, but then real life gets in the way. Do you have any ideas how I can overcome this modelling malaise and get back at the workbench again?

Thanks in advance,
Brian da Basher

Check your stash and select the most desirable kit  

Read the "alt history" section from the beginning (December 2004!).  

Browse the name of an aircraft on the forum, and look what members imagined
(works quite well with CF-105, Bombcorde and F-19    )

Try the CGI section

Read "TBO verse history" board
Register at the secret projects board

Check your LHS to find a desirable model (in the case you have no inspiration scanning your stash, which I suppose to be huge)

Browse the name of an aircraft you like  on google, and watch carefully the result of the search.

PM the list of models in your stash and let me imagine what to do with them

buy a pair of spats (it is a proven fact...)



We need your spatted projects !!!

[B777LR]

Buy battlefield 2 or battlefield 2142, and play it until you grow bored of it. Then you will itch for modelling  

[Daryl J.]

Nothing wrong w/ that!      

The best thing I've ever done hobby-wise is to actually let real-life get in the way.  This is a bonus for my real life, isn't it.


One could grab a Hobby Boss P-40, a rattle can of Tamiya Silver Leaf, and have something done in an afternoon if that would help...........................





Daryl J.

[Jennings]

Inject Micro Sol under your skin.... NO!!  WAIT...  don't do that

I wish I had an answer.  I've been in one for several years now.  No wait, that was nursing school.

J

[Hobbes]

Depends.
If the slump is purely due to real life getting in the way (ie no time): build something simple. Get a 1:144 jet fighter, build it gear-up. That way you can assemble it in two hours, paint it in another two hours.
If you don't have any inspiration: don't push things. Take some time off modeling, and let the urge return on its own. Building when you don't feel like it will backfire.  

[John Howling Mouse]

Build something.

Seriously, doesn't matter if it gets done, either.  It is quite common for hobbyists to let real life (or even a nice vacation    ) pull them away from their craft just long enough that returning to it seems too daunting a thing.  My wife goes through this with her sewing even more often than I do with model-building.

I went through my own version of this awhile back: some part of me seemed to still want to build models but no one subject seemed intriguing-yet-doable enough to inspire me back to the bench.  And there never seemed to be any time except weekends.

For me, though, I realized what I was truly facing was mild internal anxiety about not being able to do full enough justice to this or that subject.  Coupled with that was just being so tired from "real life" and the awareness that modelling time simply goes by soooooo fast that I feared evenings would seem to disappear too quick, leaving me with a sense of absolutely no free time.

So, I started writing just a single, realistic modelling goal on the fridge's white-board for the next day.  Very basic, like "PSR P-40" or "Primer Tucara" etc.  The idea was that I had made a promise to myself that, no matter what, that single simple objective would be met that night.  I started looking forward to getting home from the long drive from work and picking up my daughter, knowing that I would get at least one little sign of progress accomplished.

Within a week, I started realizing that I was getting ahead on five or six projects and loving every minute of it!  Even though we're currently swamped with final stages of the new house's construction and selling the old one, I'm still making considerable progress on multiple projects.  One actually got done (gasp!) a week ago but the weather's been just terrible for the outdoor pics I need to take.

As long as you still want to model and can recall past enjoyment derived from that activity, use that memory to simply shrug off any reluctance/malaise and literally dive right into any project.  But you have to give yourself the opportunity to re-live that activity to see if it's still enjoyable.

If you find yourself NOT wanting to model anymore because the hobby just doesn't do it for you; I would consider that our loss but not too unusual since a lot of us went through that earlier in our lives.  Many of us returned to the hobby after a decade or more of absence.  It might simply be time for a change in activity.

However, if you've been finding that pretty much everything that used to intrigue you before is no longer interesting and that said lack of interest has been consistent for more than a few weeks, I would seriously suggest you seek counseling as (a shrink told me once) that is supposedly a potential sign of depression.

HTH

[cthulhu77]

You could always help me paint the damned figures I promised for that wargamer in vegas...talk about a rut.

  What's worked for me the best is a short build...something you can crank out quickly, and just have fun with...so, no spatted german gotha bombers right now!

[Archibald]

A good-old-cheap-crap-1/72-scale  Heller kit (Me 109, Fouga Magister or something like that). Built-painted-decalled in some hours, no need for details. Paint it as you like (what bloody  RLM ? never heard about this thing nor understood it...?)

Dang, got a similar problem with this Zvezda MiG 1.44... on the stash for so long, and no hope of building it soon...  

[Leigh]

Build the Airfix Wallace and Gromit or something else as equally silly

[Radish]

Build anything.

A Hobby boss quick Easy Build" is a good start, in something daft....and the rattle-can silver is a good idea, as I did a Wildcat from HobbyBoss in 24 hours including decals....German, by the way!

Or tanks are different!
Sparay black, then add all colour by drybrushing. Looks effective and is quick.

Or go for a clip together spaceship or car?
Do them WW2 Luftwaffe or Belgian 1930s?

Go for ANYTHING and have fun!  

[dragon]

Dang, got a similar problem with this Zvezda MiG 1.44... on the stash for so long, and no hope of building it soon...

Archibald:

I have the Revell version of this kit.  I am planning on putting Peruvian decals and camouflage on it, although painting FLANKER styled camo also seems appealing.  Cuban camo just seemed too colorful for my tastes.

Brian:

Don't concentrate on the slump.  Don't concentrate at all.  Keep your mind open until something grabs your imagination and doesn't want to let go.  Let the muse, mania, or compulsion take over after that.  Just think: "What if ______ was (circle one or more) a) painted differently b ) was built differently c) was the core for something completely different ?"  Do try to supress the giggles when thinking like this otherwise you will end up on Dr. Phil's couch.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

1. Purchase one snap-together kit.  

2. Purchase large quantities of your favorite fermented/distilled beverages.  

3. Purchase or rent a good war movie.  

4. Set up build table to face television and place your snap-together kit on the table.  

5. Ensure that the mass quantities of favorite beverage are with easy reacy of your seat and table.  

6. Using the remote, turn on the television, VCR/DVD player, open beverage and open up the kit.  

Drink favorite beverage repeatedly until you are feeling no pain while watching movie and fondling the model.  Repeat as often as needed to keep the no-pain/no care sensation.  At some point during the consumption of mass quantities and playing with the model and watching the movie you will hopefully become inspired to at the very least snap the kit together before falling asleep in the chair.  This may not get you out of the slump but it will surely make you forget it for a while.  

I attended the Seattle IPMS Spring Show today.  It was good to be around other modelers and hit the vendor tables.  I saw a lot of old friends that I have not seen in several years and that too felt good.  It was also good to see what other people have been building and get some ideas for future projects.  It was also good to see the WHIF F-106 in JASDF markings from Internet Modeler there on the table in real life.  

[Mossie]

Bri, a simple build as others have mentiond is a good idea if you just don't seem to have the time.  Something easy, built oob (or at least as near as damn-it) with a simple scheme.  If it has to be a whiff, there are a fair few kits out there, Revell's Luft 46 kits are easy to get hold off among others.

If your having trouble getting inspiration, go find it.  Kind of an addition to Dragons suggestion, let your mind take over, but feed it.  Books, DVD's, web sources, kits.  Re-visit the old sources as there might be something you'd forgotten about or had not thought about before, as well as getting hold of new ones to add fresh material to your brains supply of plastic madness.  Also, try & think back to all those old ideas you thought about building but never did because another idea came to the forefront.

PS, Nowt to do with the big four-oh approaching is it???

[matrixone]

Been through many slumps before, the best thing to do is nothing.
The urge to build will return before you know it and you will be back building models full speed again.

Real life is keeping me away from building at the present time and I hate it but it is helping me restore my urge to build and get out of my own slump.

Matrixone