No, I dont mean a creep doing upgrades. I meant it like mission creep; you plan to do some upgrades/detailing on the model project on your bench, but end up cramming far more upgrades than you originally intended.
Im currently building a 14-year old hangar queen helicopter. I plucked the kit intending to finish it finally and show my wife it wasnt money down the drain (it was actually a very cheap kit but I purchased about a dozen of them — really — and to date I havent built a single one).
So I told myself Ill just upgrade the parts that are grossly oversized/inaccurate/etc., and spice up the seats or so. So Id finish this kit up quickly, prove myself it wasnt a bad investment, and get back to, err, scheduled programming.
Along the way Ive basically upgraded the whole cabin — seats, walls and all — added a ceiling, completely modified the exhaust systems, added rivet marks on the fuselage. I also made homemade tools/templates for future builds (remember, I bought about a dozen of this). And now Im looking at the rotor heads. At the rate Im going this may take another 14 years.
Ive had projects shelved, pulled out and shelved again because of upgrade creep. You guys want to share your experiences?
Been there, done that - almost all my modelling projects look like that nowadays. My Mack Superliner rebuild turned this way some time ago, had to put it on hold due to a move and on hold it is since then. Also my M728 CEV took that turn when I decided to build at least some of the turret interior - and that’s a lot of scratchbuilding. I still hope I can complete most of my projects, but they sure take a lot of time. At the same time I’m happy, because they all are SPECIAL!
Good luck with your modelling projects and have a nice day
Happens all the time. Start out to build a kit OOB, but gee, it would look better if I added this and this, and corrected this miss-shaped area here, and … it grows with time. Several of my modeling buddies and I commiserate about this frequently.
Agree with you all. For as long as youre having fun, its all good. I guess the only problem is when the build stops because an upgrade has run into problems that cant be overcome. Thats why my helo got shelved 14 years ago.
GM,
Im currently building a 1/72 UH-60. The kit is a dirt cheap Chinese knock-off of the Hasegawa HH-60D kit. Bought this (and its dozen sisters) in 2002 for about 30 cents (today’s dollar) each. Yeah, that cheap! The mold has issues, but I figured with about a dozen boxes I should be able to build even 4. As you can imagine it wasnt just the oversized parts, engineering is a nightmare too. But I think Im getting there, somehow. lol
Guilty as charged. That’s how it goes: I intend to build something OOB, but then maybe a part doesn’t fit right, or I just want to add something because it looks a bit too bare, or whatever, so I end up making new parts.
I dont go all the way with aftermarket stuff. A set of canopy paint masks for aircraft, aftermarket decals if the originals are rubbish, and maybe extra tools for armour, some PE railing for a ship if the kit doesnt have it. Thats about it. Visitors to my house wouldnt know OOB additions if it leapt off the shelf and bit them, and personally, I can live without most of it. I do enjoy scratchbuilding tho…
PS: Allan, that interior looks fantastic- well done man!
That’s why I usually don’t mind spending some extra money on a kit that’s going to save me a lot of work. Or, to put it another way, the extra work I put in that more expensive kit is going to make it even better.
Your Blackhawk is creeping very nicely, I’d recommend putting up a build thread in the helicopters section, I’d be glad to follow your build there.
I am quite familiar with that . I started a LINDBERG Bismark model , figuring to use it as an example of cleaning up a somewhat muddled attempt and wound up totally correcting all the deficiencies and doing the full photoetched job too .
My Bismark build , Instead of being a weekend project , took a full ten months to finish ! It does look good though ! Tanker - Builder
I was in Gary’s shop yesterday and found a plane that caught my eye . It’s one of your models of distinction .The Company took the " Winnie Mae " and did her up as a Shell Oil Company bird .Thought you should know . Tanker - Builder
It does happen to a lot of people. I picked up a H.B. M-706 so I could make it into the Air Force version, figuring that all I would have to do is make the parapit armor we had instead of the Army’s gun turret. Then something went horribly wrong, I open the box and looked at the parts and instructions. Although it could be built aa the Army’s V-100, it also had parts for other variants included. I compounded the problem when I decided to build it with the blast doors open which means that I would have to make an entire enterior which was stamped for the V-150 and pretty vacant. It was almost as if they meant it to be displayed sealed up. If I hadn’t driven these things I most likely would have just mounted the armor shields and closed the hatches.
But I didn’t and this was the result:
I still haven’t learned my lesson, I’m working on the interior for a 1/48th Nate fighter, just because for some reason I like the aircraft.
Id probably post a full set of pics, finished, WIP and all, once I finish. Or should I say, IF I finish. Ugrade creeps can stop projects, you know. Haha.
Ikar,
Fantastic work! Pics like that do remind me that its all worth while.
If I could get the hang of the picture thing , you would have it . Suffice it to say one thing I did include was the Armor belt that was missing on both sides .
Thankfully not that often on models though I’ve spent six months on the cockpit of the big Tamiya 1/32nd Zero following an online article on accurizing the kit.
On the other hand I’ve got a dozen or so dioramas that I kept adding stuff to till they ended up so elaborate I never finished them.
