SPA Modeler

All the time my friend! I cannot seem to get past the basecoat painting stage of my Space Shuttle or Aurora Jet Commando. Both are white and every time I try to shoot a good, smooth white coat, something comes along to mar the finish; either while I'm painting or afterward when I'm preparing to apply a protective clearcoat on it to keep these stupid issues from happening! I have shot at least nine coats of primer and paint on the Shuttle at least in an attempt to move forward on these and instead have taken two steps back each time.

My SCUDs are turning out the same. I basecoated both in green and when IO went back over them to determine which one would be painted in sand for the Iraqi vehicle, I saw that neither green coat was complete! So. once again, I need to shoot these two SCUDs again. I swear, ever since finishing the C-46, the Abrams and the M-103; I have been completely unable to move forward on anything left on the bench... period! It's as if all of a sudden something changed and nothing works anymore....including me!

I just don't know what to do anymore.

This is kind of where I am currently with the Double Eagle F-15E build I've got going. When I started the build things were going great and I was looking forward to seeing the finished project, I still am, I've just reached the point of not wanting to deal with the fine details. I've found if I make myself sit down at the bench I can sit and work on the kit for long periods of time and I'm extremely pleased with the results. Then other times I have things that frustrate me to no end! I did finally get one of them almost completed. I've added all of the decals and the stencils. I purchased the Hasegawa Weapons set D and added guided bombs to the underside and attached the canopy. Now for a final dull coat to seal everything in and I'll be finished with one of the birds. The second one has been giving me random fits and its lucky that I'm not building a severely battle damaged aircraft, because it's been close to crashing into a hard surface a couple of times!!!
Another thing that I've been finding is that I will start looking at something else in the stash and want to start building it. Fortunately, my common sense will kick in and I'll tell myself that I need to finish the others I've started before starting something new.
That is one of my goals for this year is to complete more than I did last year.

I don't get stalled by any stage of the kit. That is not because I am such a great modeler, though. I walk around all day and night knowing what I am going to do the next time I sit down at the bench.

But, actually getting to sit down at that bench is something that I don't seem to have control over most of the time. That means that if you look at my bench right now, it appears that I am stalled on a Phantom, a Hellcat, and two Skyhawks. One example of a thing that keeps me away from the bench is that we don't have a huge house, but, we opened our home to two friends that got stuck between the apartment they were renting, and the unfinished house they are buying. He's working on the final interior bits of the house, and then they can move in and be our neighbors. Right now, there are two couches in the space that we normally only have one, and the workbench chair is pushed up under the desk with stuff stacked in the "chair space" that I would be sitting in. Since she is even more allergic to "modeling fumes" than Anne is,,,,,,building is on hold until they can move into their place.

I guess you could say we have the opposite problem, but the result is the same,,,,,,,,,unfinished models. The bright side is that when I get to sit down, 4 models will "suddenly" pop out as finished and in the display case.

They way I model, the "detail stuff" stalls a kit's start until I have everything gathered up for any given build,,,,,,,,,so I build the same way I write, whichever of my planned models gets all of it's stuff accumulated first is the next one to get started. That might explain why I appear to be so "Skyhawk focused" right now, those are the models that I have all the little nit-picky add-ons for, such as aftermarket decals and weapons to hang on them.

Stikpusher wrote:just wanting to be done with a project? There is a little detail, two, or three, that you have holding you up, have been for quite some time, and you either can let it sit and eventually you can possibly get it done with a future better degree of skill, or you can get it done now with lesser finesse and move on to other projects you are more fired up to work on...

Ooh, yes... Right about the decal stage.

That's a double edged sword for me. I'm a slow builder with turnout times ranging from 4 - 10 months and there are a lot of times when I just want it all to end in regards to the current builds. Like a lot of us, I've always got that next project that I want to do so I try to choose a build that's going to keep my interest that long because I do know that I'm going to reach "that point" in the build where it just seems to drag on and on. The problem with wanting it to end is that I really don't want it to in some regards because I love the challenges that pop up. It's just fun to negotiate that kind of stuff and a lot of times I end up surprising myself with the ideas that seem to just "pop" in my head. You know the one where the light bulb comes on and you just take off from there. I do like figuring out what I'm going to build next just as much.
So yeah.....I reach "that point" and you'll even see me comment about it sometimes...but deep down....I'm having a total blast.

Yes. I have two (the Revell Jaguar and the Italeri Tornado ADV) that I just want gone!! They're beasts (ill fitting nightmares) that I just wish I could finish and get them the hell off my bench. Someday............someday.