I have lost the will to continue building. I have no inspiration to compleate my prodjects. And the worst thing is that I have an IPMS model competion september the 11th that I want to enter. For that contest I am building the Lady Be Good using the Monogram 1/48 B-24D kit, but I have not worked on it for about a month and a half, due to the fact all of my enthusiasm has been sucked out by this daunting task. Can any of you give me inspiration to keep going because I fear I may stop for an extended period of time, and miss the contest deadline.
The last time this happened I was workin on a 1/48 B-17, and I didnt work on anything fo 3 months.
Sounds like you may need to try something quick and easy to get yourself back on track. Hang in there, this happens to all at one time or another. Good Luck!
Sometimes you just have to get a breath of fresh air and look at the flowers and the sunshine. Not literally, but occasionally you just have to do something else for a little while.
Two things you can try … 1) Watch a war flick or the Wings channel for a while. Seeing them fly always kicks me back into gear. 2) Do something small on your model. A single piece. One piece leads to two, which leads to three, and so on.
Do some research on the chosen a/c…that always gets me excited. Or research the next thing in your pile, that usually spurs me on to get my current project finished (which is why my pile continues ot grow exponentially). [:D]
Any particular reason for your loss of enthusiasm? The Lady Be Good is certainly an interesting (and unfortunate) piece of history. How about posting some progress photos for all of us to oooh and aaaah over and maybe that will give you some motivation. I’m certainly a big fan of the heavies and would like to see how your project is coming along.
One other question, are you building her as a diorama in her crashed state, or intact. Just curious.
OK, one more post. Like I said, I really like the heavy bombers and love seeing other peoples work. Here is a link that I found on the Hyperscale site of a very nice B-24D Pleosti Raider. Maybe this will help inspire you as it is a very nice model.
http://www.student.suu.edu/~matthews/index.html
Hang in there bro, these things usually pass. Try getting something really simple, like a snap kit or one for younger modelers. That works for me.
Hey kdappen I am doing her crashed, nice perfect airplanes are so boaring. I too think it is a very cool subject, but I am just worn out. See almost all of my current prodects and some past ones are Monograms 1/48 bombers, so Im just worn out with them. And as with you I am also a huge fan of the heavy and Belive it is extramly underrepresented in the model building community, and at shows.
Oh and I lost enthusiasm because It was so hard to find any reference material on her, I just gave up and to give you a taste of just how difficult of a prodjuect it can truly become, I scratch built the entire assembally behind the engin and made it look virtually identical to photographs of B-24Js engins. And that took me about a month of work in itself. And just the shear amount of scratch building required is overwhelming. Especially in the rear portion of the bomber at the break in the feusalage. So you can see how it can overwhelm a person. Note this is my first major scratch building prodject, it is the most ambitious thing I have ever done. But I have the patiants to get it done, and the ability to shrug mistakes off and come back and fix them. It also combines alot of the scratchbuilding skills I have already mastered. Like the frame work in the rear half, I have done this when converting a Monogram DC-3 into a C-47.
Also Shepard pains Lady Be Good it grosely inacurate, when compared to photos of the real thing. So I could not use that as a referance point. Oh and to give you an Idea of how accurate this is going to be It will blow away any of sheps bomber dios.
If you want to see pics of it I will have some posted in the Bomber Group Build, shortly.
Hey me typing this is getting me slightly more motivated, I guess talking about it helps, cus where I live I am literaly the only person in my town that builds models, so I cant talk to people often.
Oh and thanks for the advice and support from everyone that has tried to help me so far, it is greatly appriciated.
That’s one heck of a project you have there! I have had a simular problem in the past. I watched some documentries and went to a couple of competitions. Looking at what other folks are building always gives me plenty of inspiration.
If you can’t get to any shows, why not look up some model galleries on the web, maybe it’ll help.
Good luck with your build,
Darren.
We are all knowing how you feel. I also just drop out of the project that is giving me greif and move into something that sounds “fun”. That is why I build so many differnt things at the same time. What is tough is when you get builders block and you are working on a commission , or for a big contest. Then I too have tried to do research from a different angle, or just go on-line and chat with other builders and try to get my enthusiasm charged up that way.
I feel your pain. I’ve been in your place so many times I can’t count 'em. The only tonic for me, if giving it a rest for a few months isn’t an option, is to take a kit of an airplane I really don’t feel too excited about or too turned off by, and just build it OOB. I build it as if I were 11 years old again and am doing it for no other reason than to satisfy my need to glue one part to another until it turns into an airplane. It works. It really does. It’s just that we have got to the point where very few of us on this site have any “cheap” models lying around. We’re so invested in our hobby we can’t afford to build things just for the hell of sticking parts together. Not at $30-plus a kit. Got out and buy something Monogram or old Hobbycraft and just do it.
Best wishes,
Tom
Don’t give up… Try to build something else but more easy project. A few month ago, I started to build a 1/48 C-130 Hercules. It is so BIG! To make it worse, I decided to put some lights in it. That’s a big project. I still don’t have electrical plan and hardware, but, I re-painted an old F-4J found in my mom’s attic. (15years ago I wasn’t using putty and I was applying decals without painting models.) So it was an F-4 “Monogram Grey”. Now It looks like an USN airplane with crystal clear canopy… Look at your older models and compare them with the one in progress. You will see that you are a better builder now. If you beleive in yourself your project will look easy.
I am also bored with the hobby. Need something interesting!
We all burn out now & then, Vintage, but most of us come back. Personally, when I get tired of a particular project, I set it aside for a few days & paint a Figure or a Fantasy Miniature. No particular research involved in getting a Lizardman or Dragon the correct color, thats for sure. Then I go back to the Aircraft project with renewed vigor.
Buy another model kit… that always gets me motivated. Or maybe a small research project if you don’t want to spend the $$$. Turn on the History Channel or better yet, Discover Wings if you get it. I remember spending one rainy October Sunday from 7am to 10pm pretty much modelling away watching those two channels in the background. Darn productive Sunday I thought. What else was I gonna do? Watch da’ Bears? Pffffttt! We’re looking for motivation here, not frustration.
Do something for a change…like a tank for example?
Hang in there.
Vintage,
I was out of modelling for almost 12 years, and it really sucked. I never got burned out before, but I was in HS…and I guess it’s my personality to get into really tricky stuff… Take a break… get a 1/144 DML kit and do it in like an hour or two…I have a few retired AF pilot friends who could possibly give me (and you) a hand getting good ref materilal from Wright Patterson AFB… they tend to help out retired colonels and general officers more than the average “Joe Schmoe”… Anything I can do to help and get you outta the funk let me know… I’ll do it. [tup]
Hang in there buddy! I agree with the above comments - watch some History channel and Discovery Wings. Maybe take a day or two off, and then come back with some easier sub-assembly and progress to the tougher stuff.
Hey bro. man ya gotta mix it up. Doing a build like that will add like 500 years to you. Go buy a nice hase. kit that goes together perfectly and oob it. then take a day off and look at things. It works trust me.