Ideas vrs. talent

[cobraman]

I wonder if any of my fellow model builders have the same problem I have. That problem being I have many build ideas that I believe would be cool but just don't have the talent to pull them off. I see so many great builders here that they make me want to be a better builder but I just seem to have hit a wall as far as talent comes into play. I guess what Clint says may be true..... a man has to know his limitations. I guess I just need to realize that I can only do so much and so good and be happy with that. I do love to build and just do the best I can and I guess that's enough.

[Brett Barrow]

I wish I could build 50's customs like Steve Boutte, but I don't have the talent or the deep parts box that he does, so I stick to replica stock. Maybe one day I'll have it. It is inspiring to think I'll be there one day.

[Drake69]

There's an old joke that I fall back on when I come across something that I think I might not be able to handle...... and it's pretty apropos to this situation.

"So how do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

"Practice, son. Practice."

When I got back into the hobby (when I built my '84 Toyota Supra, don't remember how far back exactly...), I looked at...

1: Bare Metal Foil

2: Photo-Etch

3: Decal handling

4: Clean, even layers of spray paint

5: Scratch-building

6: Customization

And thought "There is no HUMAN WAY I'm ever going to figure out how to use that stuff!"....

And now I try to work a little bit of everything into each new build. It's all about learning what others are doing here and trying it out... by practicing.

I'm no expert, and many of my builds aren't award winners, but I'm pretty satisfied with how the majority of them turned out. And there's still more to learn.

I'm still waiting for the "modelling fairy" to come visit me and delicately tap me on the back of my head with her glitter-covered ball-peen hammer and grant me the ancient wisdom of airbrushing.

[Petetrucker07]

I'm in the same boat. There are many, many things I want to do. I know at that moment I don't have the talent. Whatever build I have in mind for my "beyond my talent" build, I wait. Start acquiring the parts for it and let sit. I will try some "more than I did before" stuff on other builds and work my up to it. I build mainly trucks. I'd love to do a fully detailed, plumbed and wired, build. But I don't have the skills to do it, yet. I did my first detailed engine a few months back, it came out pretty nice. Next, when I don't know, I'll do a chassis. Someday I'll be able to do a fully detailed truck.

I say don't think of yourself unable or not good enough. Think of it as nor yet. Try a little at a time, eventually you will have the talent and not even realize it till your doing it.

[Jantrix]

A tourist in New York asked a street musician how to get to Carnagie Hall. The musician smiled at him and said, "Practice man, practice."

You have talent. You need skills. Those can be learned.

[sjordan2]

As an ad agency creative director, my job was often to come up with ideas that more talented writers and artists would execute. I wish I could sit over the shoulder of a master modeler and tell him/her how I wanted my model built.

[Drake69]

A tourist in New York asked a street musician how to get to Carnagie Hall. The musician smiled at him and said, "Practice man, practice."

You have talent. You need skills. Those can be learned.

I think I beat you by 6 minutes on that...

[bobthehobbyguy]

Ray you have to be willing to push your limits and accept that you may fail. If you do you fall short then figure out why and do it beter the next time. That is how you can improve.

[b-body fan]

I do the best I can. I try to push it a little further with each build. This is a great forum to get ideas on how to make things easier to do. Maybe better put a better way. Anyhow I just have fun with it. I'm not entering any contests. (I did buy a bunch of parts kits off of eBay to practice on.Can't hurt and was fairly inexpensive.)

[High octane]

I know that I won't ever build as good as some people I know or have met, however I do push myself at times, and other times I don't. I DO build for myself and try to keep it fun as it is a HOBBY to me. I'm not a "trophy hound" and I build for myself, and mostly stay in my "comfort zone."

[Dave Ambrose]

I feel your pain. I have a lot of want-to-do projects where I currently lack the talent to complete them, But the wonderful part is that you can set stretch goals for yourself, and have fun while you're improving your skills. Willingness to re-do things helps a lot.

[wayne swayze]

Back in the day, I entered contests, and have won a number of awards over the years. I know that if my health and eyesight were as good now as they were when I was younger, I'd be getting lots more built. And I find it frustrating to feel I used to be able to build O.K. stuff, but now I just can't seem to pull off the builds I want . So, I guess I'll just do what I can, when I can, and hope for the best. Bottom line, I still love ALL aspects of building model cars! And this is a great place to show stuff, and get support from others.

[Tom Geiger]

I'd rather see a model described as a "Great idea, marginal execution" than no model at all. If you have an idea, why not just give it a shot? It's certainly worth the $20-50 in plastic to have that model, and you'll gain skills in the process. And with the miracle of the Internet, you can get advise through the entire process.

There will be those times when we do bite off more than we can chew. I've packed those back in their boxes for another day. There's a few models that I later found I had since gained that skill, and finished it.

And for those really grandiose ideas, I've found procrastination to work well. If I wait long enough someone will come out with a kit or resin.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Building models is not a God given talent.

It's not one of those things that you either "have" or not.

It all takes time & practice.

I've been building models for over 40 years & have never really learned the "art" of custom building & never will, because it doesn't interest me.

I've learned other aspects of the hobby that I take interest in & have tried to hone those skills over the years.

You can never be all things.

So just because you can't build customs or whatever other genre, doesn't mean you have no talent.

I don't necessarily consider an excellent carpenter "talented".

He's just become very good at "what he does" over time.

Same applies to any hobby.

Steve

Edited June 11, 2015 by StevenGuthmiller

[Tom Geiger]

I have to agree with Steve... I built models as a kid and got kid-like results. I attempted to build models in my 20s and got the very same results. Why? Because I was applying the same (lack of) skill set to the issue. Each time I'd get to the point of major fail on a project, put it away and give up again. I felt that I just didn't possess those talents!

Then I found a model club. I showed up at my first meeting with my "hardware store white paint over black plastic poor attempt", and guys in the club immediately took me under their wing. I soon found that most of my previous failures were because I didn't know some fairly easy to master techniques, rather than some insurmountable talent I lacked. My models took a major leap ahead in a very short time.

And as Steve said, there are things I have mastered and there are things I have no interest in learning. As I've found things I wanted to learn and incorporate in my models, people in my clubs and on these boards have been very happy to help me learn a technique or recommend some material I just hadn't discovered on my own. And still 28 years into building models as an adult, I still am reaching out and learning a little something with every build.

[Dragline]

I think the great George Carlin said it best.

"I have a lot of great ideas. Problem is, most of them suck"

[Ace-Garageguy]

I feel your pain. I have a lot of want-to-do projects where I currently lack the talent skills to complete them, But the wonderful part is that you can set stretch goals for yourself, and have fun while you're improving your skills. Willingness to re-do things helps a lot.

Sounds exactly like me in 2005 when I started thinking about getting back into this. There are STILL a lot of techniques I haven't even begun to master, but my work has improved considerably over the years.

Key words here (for me, at least): " Willingness to re-do things helps a lot."

And the talent to to do this stuff IS god-given, just like musical or mechanical aptitude. Some people are born with more of a particular talent than others.

But SKILL is what you make of whatever talent you have, and practice and commitment will very often outperform talent that isn't disciplined...in every field.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[Jon Haigwood]

If I can't improve on my work (at least in my mind) on most every build its time to stop and find something else to do.

So far at 64 I'm still learning

[ChrisBcritter]

I think the great George Carlin said it best.

"I have a lot of great ideas. Problem is, most of them suck"

A corollary to that from the great-but-eccentric Canadian aircraft builder Bob Diemert: "It was a great idea; it just didn't work."

Seriously, I'm doing all my builds right now practicing my strengths - carving/whittling/filing/sanding - and trying to work up the nerve to start painting again. Case in point - a '61 Comet on which I've whiled away hours reshaping Opel GT wheels to look like four-lug Cragar mags, realigned the axle blocks to get the stance and wheelbase just right, and now carving the dual exhausts out of a Ranchero chassis to adapt to the Comet chassis. But when it comes time to paint...

Edited June 11, 2015 by ChrisBcritter

[Harry P.]

I guess what Clint says may be true..... a man has to know his limitations.

That may be true in certain situations, but not in every situation.

As far as model building goes, like with many other pursuits, the more you do it, the better you get at it. You will constantly raise your personal bar simply by keeping on building, keeping on trying new things, new ideas, new techniques. Sure, you're going to mess up at times, and fail at times. But the more you try, despite the occasional setback, ultimately the better you'll get.

Don't ever think that you've reached your limit and there's nothing left in the tank... that you can't possibly get any better. Because that's false. You can get better, and you will get better, if you keep on forging ahead and trying.

I know this for a very simple reason... I just proved it to myself! For many years I wanted to build a scratchbuilt 1/8 scale Rolls Royce woody by modifying a Pocher RR kit. I had the kit... I had the idea... I had the motivation. What I didn't have was the belief that I could do it, so the project never got beyond the "some day" stage. Then finally I decided to go ahead and try a "practice" woody using a 1/16 scale kit. Well, it turns out that I can do it! Yeah, it didn't come out perfect, I made mistakes... but I learned a lot. The most important thing I learned is that I can do this! So now I have the confidence to go ahead and finally dig into that Pocher kit and build that woody. If I would have "accepted my limitations" I would never have tried my "practice" woody and would never have found out what I am actually capable of.

If I can do it, so can you.

[Art Anderson]

We all have latent talent to at least some degree, I believe. Do we all have the skills? Probably not to the degree that each one of us would like, but we probably have at least latent skills (those just waiting to be developed).

I heard, many years ago, a great bit of wisdom--that guides me still to this day: "What the mind of man can conceive, man can achieve."

Art

[Tom Geiger]

Key words here (for me, at least): " Willingness to re-do things helps a lot."

Very important! When guys see finished models done nicely they assume the builder just gets it right every time. Talk to that builder and you'll find that the model is on it's second scratch built chassis and third paint job. The builder just didn't give up and got better with every attempt!

[landman]

I'm one of those guys with ideas and so-so skills. I learned a lot on this forum and by trying, trying again when it doesn't work and adjusting my goals to fit my skills when I get stumped. As long as you are having fun, that is all that matters. And let the ideas keep coming, they'll provide the challenges.

[afx]

I think the most overlooked aspect of high detail builds are the time and effort they require. Check out the time line of one of your favorite builds on this forum and you will see they take several months or in some cases several years to complete. Few builders are willing to put that level of commitment into a single project.

[dartman]

I too have ideas I would like to try but know I dont have the talent.Now I

build so it looks nice and pleases me.I mean they sit on a shelf in a show

case,it's not like anyone is ever going to pick them up and judge them.I

like them and that is all that matters.