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What kills a project for you?


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Oh yeah, I have lots of valid reasons why my projects get pushed to the back of the bench!

This one had me stumped for a grille, along with bodywork burnout... Figured out how I want to do the grille, just never picked it up again, beyond a few half-hearted attempts to start again :oops:

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Wasn't happy with the paint job quality... I've since decided that it needs some primer patches and rust, along with a for sale sign.

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Simple curbside that got stalled trying to find Chevy rallye stripes that would fit it. Found the stripe, but not the inspiration to pick it up again... :cry:

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I started this as an all-out, Salt Lake show effort and stalled out waiting for custom machined wheels. To be honest, I haven't had the time or patience since to start it up again. Since it was to be a SLC entry, it deserves both to be done right. :roll:

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Of course, there's always the excuse of Adult Onset ADD... Or Too Many Projects, Too Little Time...

Then again, Maybe this post is my way of convincing myself to pick one up and finish it! :?

There's lots more projects where those came from!

http://public.fotki.com/ModelCarGuy2003/corvette_gs_roadste/

http://public.fotki.com/ModelCarGuy2003/cu...model_projects/

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I have maybe 40 or more projects that are/were started and to this point are still awaiting completion. However, think if it this way: you actually learned something while doing what ever and... if nothing else it kept your skills sharp just working on what you did accomplish.

Not everything needs to be seen through to its final result! Some projects can simply be written off, as a playground for future projects, is how I see it. Many times the unfinished project (for me anyway) is parted out many years down the road.

Sometimes I am simply awaiting further inspiration or the chance to aquire more advanced skills in order to accomplish a final product. Some of my best projects were started in one decade and finished the next.

Most times our hobby can be seen not so much ABOUT the final result as it is about the pathway TO that goal!

8)

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I have a couple reasons for me, but the biggest one is a blunder on it, usually self inflicted...I have a whole album of Projects I will Probably Never Finish and also the Hall of Shame, which is similar but not the same. (If you go to the Hall of shame, that means that the Projects is dead, never going to be touched again, where I MAY finish the others)

Many of my Probably Not builds, are that was due to the paint job, done poorly..I don't strip anything.

http://public.fotki.com/ElCaminoBilly/neverfinishprojects/

This Elliott Sadler car was the first time I ever used Slixx decals...but, the original plan was to use kit decals...unfortunatly, I didn't know the kit decals were garbage so I had to use Slixx...But...Slixx did not provide the nose brown, where Revell did, so, that was pretty much what killed this one. The yellow is also too light, I should have used Testors yellow, as the car is a little bit darker then my build...

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There are a couple that I brush painted the bodys on, when that was all I knew how to do, but now I don't want to finish them because they are not up to my current standards...Took pictures of some of them but are blurry.

http://public.fotki.com/ElCaminoBilly/the_hall_of_shame/

This Studebaker Avanti is actually pretty far along, but it has been fighting me the ENTIRE time I worked on it...I started in in 2000 or 01 (I have it written down somewhere, it was before I kept track of my projects on Excel!) I just gave up on this one afer all the trouble it gave me, so it's done.

I was originally going for factory stock, but that didn't work so I tried drag. That didn't work, either.

Note the brush painted gold body, too...

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Of cource, the real answer as to why I don't finish a model: Time & Other Projects!

I have about 150-200 projects in progress, varying from painted bodys, painted and decaled bodys, all the way up to cars that are near complete. I'm trying to focus on just a few though, instead of working on and doing a little tiny bit on a bunch of diffrent models, therefore making no progress on any of them, really. The only time I am going to do that is when I have to do puttying, which I don't really enjoy but have to do...

I am also trying to start less projects...(and buy less)...I just love spray painting so much!

Summer will kill both painting and building for me though, I can't stand heat and humidity, so AC doesn't go off in the summer.

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I gotta agree with Rex. Some of those models could be real easily resurrected with a trip to the CSC tank, a decent paint job and some BMF. The Imperial convert strikes me as a likely candidate.

What kills a project for me is not being able to decide what to do next. I get to a certain point and my mind sorta goes blank. I have to wait until the course of action gels in my mind again.

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I guess frustration stops me once in a while. I was building an M551 Sheridan for a friend of mine who drove one in Vietnam and just quit on it for a while because I'd been working on it off and on for five months. I started a couple cars to see if that would help. Well, it did and the tank is done, but now I've got to go back to work on the cars.

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I think there is a simple inspiration to work ratio in play with this hobby. When you get a brilliant idea you just jump into it and start the motor tool. Then as the project goes together you either see a good result or the mountain of work that lies ahead.

This is especially dangerous when there are dozens of other kits at arms length. (By the way, how many of us were told by our mother not to start another model until the last one was finished.)

I find it very hard to redo something that dose not come out right the first time.

I do agree with Jairus, if you only measure yourself by the stuff that gets done, you miss out on all the learning and relaxation that goes into every minute you spend with the hobby.

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what can kill a build for me is burning through the paint. When I'm that close to finish and it happens it's done. Other than that my own Over complicating of a project and a project burnout. This is where I'm at on my 40 Ford Sedan I've been working on it for so long now I'm looking for something else. Good news is I now have a couple of shelves that I use for my In Progress models so they don't get lost in the shuffle of boxes. Then I can pull them out to work on every so often.

Chuck

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Rex, Ray, you guys are too kind. That Imperial is actually much worse then it looks in the pictures...sometimes, poor lighting works well! :)If I took it out into the sunlight, you would be able to see the problems with it...

The others in there are the paint rejects...Thing is, I don't strip anything...I have enough other things to build, I don't need to worry about them!

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Both Jairus and James make good points... It is about the building part and improving skills! I've made it a goal to do something new on everything I build, for the last 5 yrs or so. I've always enjoyed being in "The Zone", working on something new and interesting. I've had many little projects that were just intended to try out new ideas, usually with no complete model in mind.

That said, I still get frustrated with dropping a project that I have quite a bit of time invested in. I only build 3-4 models a year, and that time feels wasted (no, its not... just feels that way!) Of course, the old projects never get picked up again, because I'm an ADD model builder and theres always another killer project waiting in the wings!

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Rex, Ray, you guys are too kind. That Imperial is actually much worse then it looks in the pictures...sometimes, poor lighting works well! :)If I took it out into the sunlight, you would be able to see the problems with it...

The others in there are the paint rejects...Thing is, I don't strip anything...I have enough other things to build, I don't need to worry about them!

Well, if you ever run out of things to build, you might end up rebuilding some of the rejects. Just a thought.

I've found something else that's just about brought my building to a standstill: summer. At least at the moment, I've been taking my Ugly Truck (64 C10) to cruise nites and going to local car shows (there's one Saturday [6/24] in a town about 45 miles away and I'll probably go there) and working on my main 1:1 project, a 29 Ford Model A pickup. I got that one last year and it was a "field find" (as opposed to a "barn find")...that is, it'd been sitting out in a field for quite a while. It's needed a lot of work and still needs a lot more before I'll even be able to try to start it. I just found out this morning that its radiator is junk. Bah, humbug!

There are pics of the current state of the project on my website...the url's in my sig.

But I'll get more model building time as the days get shorter (we're on the downhill side now) and the weather gets colder.

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To many ideas goin' at once , repainted this one so many times and almost got 'er done then just moved on

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then I thought it needed some white

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then maybe in black

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then take off all the trim and strip again repaint flat blue

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lets try the same thought with a Plymouth

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and then theres the tuner saga

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and so on and so on , I think it all boils down to the luxury of having way to many kits and its easy to put it aside to start another rather than owning a few kits and having to get them done...

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for me, the 'building' is what i really like....

kinda like the trip not the destination....

i start with the body, if it comes out as planned, then, onward and upward...

now, if the body ^%$& up for many different reasons, well, it might be 'punished' and put back in the box and put on the 'bad model' shelf....

Tom Geiger has a novel idea called his 'Amensty Program', pick the oldest thing on the bench, and FINISH it.... as is..... no more detail.....just put it together.....

how many projects are within an hour of being done????

i'v got a couple........

as Bob Downie said, the cure for modellers ADD is decals and final assembly!!!!

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P1010001-vi.jpg

That one looks really kool to me ! :lol: May be it's just because i've planned something very similar for my 40 delivery, kinda hardtop delivery, but with kustom treatment !

May be you could pull a early Vette grille in that mouth just like i did on my 'vert ... but V-ed to follow the mouth..

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Sometimes, what kill a project, it's when you think of a very sweet '40 , something with coatchcrafting spirit, sectionned, with strongly reworked fenders , something may be Westergard could have done, and you ended with....a goofy 40 :shock: ! something that don't look kool from any angle ! :cry:

fortyprofile.jpg

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I've been working on a 1929 a-v8 for about 3-1/2 years, through 2 moves and no other projects- I just decided to git'er done, no matter what..... but I attempted more scratch building and parts altering than any other project, so that has kept it going- I just have to finish the fold down windshield...... my projects bog down when I encounter a problem I don't know how to fix, or when I can"t dream up a fabrication method to get a shape I need. So, I have few on the shelf like anyone else. How about, at the big car shows, we have a stalled projects table and ask everyone for an idea on how to proceed.....

http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h18/Paul...nnls2006004.jpg

http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h18/Paul...ne/my29av83.jpg

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Most of my stalled builds are the result of a screwup, usually paint. Some I put back in the box simply because they aren't turning out to be what I wanted them to be.

I used to worry a lot about the unfinished projects, but I'm starting to agree with Jairus. I've learned something on nearly every one of them!

At this point, I have a LOT of projects I will never finish. Not that they're bad projects, just not something that appeals to me anymore. I'm thinking that there may be someone else that will like them more than I do, so I'm planning to list a bunch of them on eModelCars. Then I can use the proceeds to buy someone elses cast off projects!

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