Procrastinating / Builder's "block"

[CFMgarage]

Hey guys,

Ever since the wife and I came home from vacation last Wednesday, I've been glancing at my projects on my bench, and simply not having any motivation to touch them. This has never happened before. I still get on here and love all the posts and other people's workbench threads, but I can't get myself to get back into finishing my in-progress cars. I want to see them done, I just can't push myself into it.

Do you ever have this? What do you do? Get some beers and set aside Saturday afternoon and just sit down and build away?

[Lunajammer]

Get some beers and set aside Saturday afternoon and just sit down and build away?

No, not build away... walk away. It'll still be there when you're ready.

[MeatMan]

When I get that way I watch a couple of the car shows on Velocity and get the bug again.  I also like to have a project sitting around that I really love and do a little something to it when I start to drift.

[Harry P.]

It's normal to lose the urge to build every so often. It happens to me all the time. Nothing to worry about. The urge will come back. In the meantime, forget model building and do other things. No sense forcing yourself to get in the mood, because if you force yourself to build, it defeats the whole point of what a "hobby" is and turns it into work, not pleasure.

The urge will come back. Guaranteed.

[MrBuick]

I haven't really been building for that long (a few years), and for a while I was setting personal goals of completing two models a month...NO idea why I decided to do that. I don't compete, don't need to finish them that rapidly, and am still very much in the learning process, so I was just adding fuel to the fire. Anyway, I got stressed over it and started losing motivation. I then didn't work on any models for almost 3 months...just did other things; worked on my 1:1, worked around the house, and started a competition 1911 project. One day I just got the motivation to drag stuff out and start working again...I'm sure it'll happen again at some point, though I've learned my lesson so it won't be for the same reason. All of my hobbies tend to do that...I'll get overly into it then kind of stress myself out and take a long break from it.

[CFMgarage]

Thanks guys. I actually did touch my one main project for two seconds today haha, but you're right I'm not gonna force it and I'll just work on cleaning up my 1:1 for now

[slusher]

I have many of the AMT Proshop prepainted kits to build and get on out and after just getting started on one the urge comes back and i start reading model magazines also...

[Harry Joy]

When I lose interest in a build, sometimes it can take a little bit before I realize that the thrill is gone. I'll continue to putter on it now and then, and all of the sudden I realize I haven't finished it in a while. There was always a more interesting TV show, or book, or whatever. Once upon a time, I would put them back in the box and try to return to them later one.

 

But that later on never comes. When I hit that point on a kit now, I salvage interesting bits and decals and throw that Murph in the trash. Life's too short to build kits I don't enjoy. And when I do that, I'll usually whip out my next build in record time, and usually to a higher standard than the unloved kit was getting. It's just a hobby. I'm in it for fun.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I'll often hit walls with builds, get in to mods that were terrific fun to mock-up and look at and imagine, but that end up taking rather a lot of intense effort to get right.

In my real-life, I HAVE to keep going in situations like that. Make it happen no matter how sick of it I may be.

In my hobby life, I can just box 'er up until the mood strikes me to do more. Sometimes they'll sit for years and over the intervening time, my vision for the build changes or my skills improve to the point where an earlier problem is now no big deal.

But I NEVER throw anything out just because it got a little tiring or difficult. 

[Foxer]

2x Ace! 

I just stop and come back when something gets me up again ... usually a different one than I stopped on. My oldest WIP is a '59 Impala needing just more BMF to finish, put aside last century.

[TooOld]

Hey guys,

Ever since the wife and I came home from vacation last Wednesday, I've been glancing at my projects on my bench, and simply not having any motivation to touch them. This has never happened before. I still get on here and love all the posts and other people's workbench threads, but I can't get myself to get back into finishing my in-progress cars. I want to see them done, I just can't push myself into it.

Do you ever have this? What do you do? Get some beers and set aside Saturday afternoon and just sit down and build away?

I haven't had the motivation to build anything for more than a year now and I don't really know why .  One thing I would never do is to throw things away , I did that once many years ago and regret it every day !  Recently I've picked up a couple of kits and have some ideas bouncing around in my head , so maybe I'll get some of that motivation back . Maybe . . . soon . . . one of these days . . .

Edited April 21, 2016 by TooOld

[CFMgarage]

I'll often hit walls with builds, get in to mods that were terrific fun to mock-up and look at and imagine, but that end up taking rather a lot of intense effort to get right.

In my real-life, I HAVE to keep going in situations like that. Make it happen no matter how sick of it I may be.

In my hobby life, I can just box 'er up until the mood strikes me to do more. Sometimes they'll sit for years and over the intervening time, my vision for the build changes or my skills improve to the point where an earlier problem is now no big deal.

But I NEVER throw anything out just because it got a little tiring or difficult. 

That was my plan  to box these two W.I.P.'s up and get back to them when I feel like it. Until I came to work today, and realized there's no internet connection. 3 and a half hours later, still looking at pictures and videos of cars, I think I'm becoming inspired again...which I'm pretty thankful for because I wanna finish up these cars so I can clear my bench up for the Cannonball community build car that I boxed up a month or two ago so that one day I can start it over.

No, I would never throw one out. I don't even trash one from my old (beginning days) collection (even though they turned out like c.r.a.p.) - one day I'll rebuild them again. Why toss them? Some purple pond and tlc and they'll be good to go.

[Tom Geiger]

Gergo, there was a little model show in New Jersey this past Saturday that would've got your juices flowing!    

[CFMgarage]

Gergo, there was a little model show in New Jersey this past Saturday that would've got your juices flowing!    

I couldn't make it to NNL East...I'd just gotten back from vacation and had too much stuff to do. I was pretty bummed, though.

[JTalmage]

I find that sometimes doing nothing for a while helps reset the mind. Lately I've been watching TV and drinking beer.... not the best way to stay in shape haha! but it does give me time to think. And I'm usually the kind of person who will think about something until it eats at me then I start working on it... hence my '68 Ranchero conversion, and my '80 Bronco

[Marcus M. Jones]

It's normal to lose the urge to build every so often. It happens to me all the time. Nothing to worry about. The urge will come back. In the meantime, forget model building and do other things. No sense forcing yourself to get in the mood, because if you force yourself to build, it defeats the whole point of what a "hobby" is and turns it into work, not pleasure.

The urge will come back. Guaranteed.

What Harry said 100%

[snacktruck67]

I was really into building, nearly 15 hours a day.  I just could not get enough.  Then for reasons unknown I didn't touch a thing for nearly 3 years.  I would go sit down and look at things and figure that would help.  Nope didn't do a thing.  Then just as suddenly as I stopped, I started up again.  Weird hobby.

Edited April 24, 2016 by snacktruck67

[Ace-Garageguy]

I was really into building, nearly 15 hours a day.  I just could not get enough.  Then for reasons unknown I didn't touch a thing for nearly 3 years.  I would go sit down and look at things and figure that would help.  Nope didn't do a thing.  Then justt as suddenly as I stopped, I started up again.  Weird hobby.

My last ex was kinda the same way about me. By the time she was interested again, I'd returned to building model cars...after a lapse of about 40 years.

No drama, no STDs caught secondhand from Raul-the-pool-boy or Franz-the-yoga-instructor or Danny-the-golf-pro; only the occasional frustration of knowing how I want something to look, but not knowing exactly how to get there. 

And the little cars are always around, patiently waiting for me to have time for them. Plus, they never spend hours on end shrilly comparing me to the neighborhood husbands...none of whom could build a model OR a real car if their lives depended on it. 

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[MrObsessive]

And the little cars are always around, patiently waiting for me to have time for them. Plus, they never spend hours on end shrilly comparing me to the neighborhood husbands...none of whom could build a model OR a real car if their lives depended on it. 

Ha! A compelling reason why I've stayed single and I'm still building models!

[MrObsessive]

I want to add that I too suffered from builder's burnout not long after I finished my '57 'Vette years ago. I didn't want the same thing to happen after I just finished the '59 Impala, so it's back to a much simpler build...........right out of the box. No wires, lines, opening doors, just build to the instructions and that's it. 

Sometimes just a simple snapper can clear out the modeler's block...........something nice to put on the shelf, and then plan for your later WIP's.