Your skills ......are they there yet?

[Jantrix]

Recently we had a new member open a thread to sell commissioned work when his building skills were clearly not up to the level to do so. The thread was quickly and rightly shut down. However it got me thinking about my own skills and I wondered whether I thought MY work was up to the level to do commissioned work, with the confidence that the buyer would be happy with the purchase. So I thought I'd open a topic for conversation.

How are your modeling skills?

Are they where you think they should be considering your modeling experience?

What do you think your strengths are?

What things do think you need to work on the most?

[Agent G]

After 49 years I believe I have acquired some skill in regards to building. I am no where as proficient as some, but I continue to move forward.

Painting is my strongpoint. I love the process, and would like nothing better than paint builds all day. My weakest area is customization. I can build a period hot rod, a box stock car, or anyone's copcar, but I'm kind of lost in the custom area. I know what I like, I guess I just have never dug in and went for it.

I have built kits for others, but I prefer not to. I did replicate a friends '07 Mustang, and he's thrilled, but again, not my cup o' tea.

G

[Johnag4004]

I think that this hobby is similar to driving, it is something we can all learn, but will never be masters as there is always something new to learn...

[Pete L.]

Fellas,

As I got older I gained some skills, the greatest of which is patience ! I used to rush my builds and sometimes screw them up and toss 'em out...no more. When I get flustered I put them away in the box 'til next time. Sadly, some have been waiting in their boxes for over TWENTY YEARS !! :lol:

[The Modeling Hermit]

I wish my skill were where everybody tells me they are. I've been building since 1960, and I keep thinking that after all these years, I should be much better than I am. I build for others, but only projects that I feel strongly about, and I don't charge for the work. I've built a diorama for the Alutic museum of an ancient village, plus some other displays, and I've done some work for the Kodiak military museum. Right now I'm just starting work on a model of an MRI trailer for the local hospital. It will be used for training and community events. Since I don't work under contract and I don't charge, I don't have to worry if they recipient doesn't like how it turns out. If they don't like it, they don't get it.

My biggest strength, at this moment, is that I've finally learned to do the research needed for the projects I work on. Patience is not one of my virtues. I get near the end of a project, and I just want to get it done, so I have a tendency to rush through the last bits and then I make blatant mistakes. I've been caught on a couple that I've displayed here recently, so I'm working on that.

Everybody keeps telling me how wonderful my work is, and maybe I'm just too critical, but I see a vast amount of things that I need to improve on. I am not where I should be after all these years, and I wouldn't even start to consider doing paid commissioned work.

[Bartster]

I have to agree with Pete L. the greatest skill advancement I have achieved is patience. I have now 14 projects ranging from straight-forward builds to radical customs. When something starts irritating me, I box it up & pull out another project. My 2nd strongest skill (maybe asset?) is creativity. I have a few VERY radical customs in the fold that I can only hope my skills can keep up with my imagination. I would LOVE to sell my work, but not on a commission basis. I have to build what I'm interested in.

[Erik Smith]

Another interesting philosophical modeling post.

I have a hard time identifying my strengths - I know where all my mistakes are. I can manage to do most of my builds pretty decent and I like the look of them. They are not perfect in any sense. I can manage a pretty smooth paint job now - something that isn't easy and the work is really more important than any talent I may have. I can add enough detail to add interest, but not so much that I exceed my abilities and make it look poorly built. My weaknesses are easy, and probably too many to list, but I can always work on patience, resilience, and recognizing when good enough is good enough.

I don't think I would ever be willing to build for a commission. I tried it once, when I was into woodworking and it really took a hobby and placed into another realm - work. There is nothing wrong with work, I guess, but in a hobby such as modeling, so much of the joy is in the creation and imagination process. Envisioning something and then converting your ideas into something tangible. It's not quite the same converting somebody else's idea into a solid object.

[BKcustoms]

I built a Sprint car chassis for someone on the SA forum a few weeks ago. I definitely don't consider my self a professional builder, but I am always willing to try new things and learn as much as I can.

[bbowser]

I would and have built replicas for friends as gifts but would never build for commission. As Erik said, it then becomes a 'job' and I don't want this hobby to ever become work for me.

[mopar68]

Hmmm something to ponder indeed.

I'm fairly happy with my modeling skills, although I have a lot of room for improvement in things like paint and making modifications/themes 'flow'. My speciality is scratchbuilding 'small things'. Not that I'm particularly good at that, I just like doing it and so I practice it alot.

What do I need to work on the most? Finishing my projects!

As for commissioned work, I've never done any. I have built parts for others before though, and they have been satisfied with my work. Then again, if it were costing them money I'm sure they'd have been more critical In the long run though, I suppose "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". If you have skills someone else doesn't have, your work is going to look amazing to them. For instance, before I started joining modeling forums I had never seen a scale engine detailed any further than paint. When I first saw spark leads on a model I couldn't believe the 'realism' the builder had achieved. Suddenly my work seemed extremely inferior. Now however, wiring the engine is standard procedure for all my builds, and it takes more than out-of-scale leads to amaze me. Now there are new skills that I'm working towards.

What I'm trying to say is, if someone sees something that they don't think they could do, it's probably going to look good to them. And if they think it looks good then they'd probably be willing to pay for it.

Edited March 16, 2012 by mopar68

[crazyjim]

I built a few models for friends but not commission work. Even though I've been building since 1958, I'm still on the learning curve and have a long way to go. Several people have mentioned patience. I seem to have patience for my builds but continue to have no patience with people. I've tried working on that issue to no avail.

[Lownslow]

Recently we had a new member open a thread to sell commissioned work when his building skills were clearly not up to the level to do so. The thread was quickly and rightly shut down. However it got me thinking about my own skills and I wondered whether I thought MY work was up to the level to do commissioned work, with the confidence that the buyer would be happy with the purchase. So I thought I'd open a topic for conversation.

How are your modeling skills?

Are they where you think they should be considering your modeling experience?

What do you think your strengths are?

What things do think you need to work on the most?

i think ive gotten to the point where i can ask for 100$ per build+kit cost, before i would just charge 20$+kit cost unless they wanted pegasus wheels.

i need more work on the engine detail department sparkplug wires works ok for most people but i personally wanna step it up some

[Austin T]

My imagination is my strong point,I need to work on paint a lot to make it SHINE good,and deadlines are my weak points.

[Bartster]

I seem to have patience for my builds but continue to have no patience with people. I've tried working on that issue to no avail.

.....The more people I get to know, the better I like my dog!!!!!

[Ramfins59]

As I'm sure it is with most of us "old farts" that started building models back in the '50's & '60's, in the early years it was all about finishing the model as quickly as possible for that instant gratification. Upon rediscovering the hobby in my later years I learned a lot of new things and techniques for making my models neater, cleaner and more realistic. Obviously the explosion of stuff in the aftermarket and the improvement in kits over the last 30+ years has helped a lot. As has been said above, the most important tool I've acquired is the patience factor. I do still get frustrated at times, but I've learned to walk away for awhile and come back to the problem with a clearer head.

I've built a model for my son-in-law as a birthday gift ('67 Vette Convertable - - his favorite car ever), and, I was paid for building one model for a guy at a Cruise Night about 14 years ago ('56 Ford - - Replica of his 1:1 car). I had a ball building the car for my son-in-law, but building the '56 Ford model became a chore after awhile and was not a fun build for me.

I continue to learn new things all the time, especially from being on this Forum, and for that I thank everyone here.

[Jantrix]

To answer my own questions. I think my skills are all where I'm happy with them, except painting bodies. I desperately want to learn to use my airbrush, but having no place to paint is a real downer. I also need to get some stick-to-it-ivness going as well. I think my strengths are scratchbuilding and choosing interesting projects.

As for commissioned work, I've been asked by co-workers before, but I have zero interest.

[SuperStockAndy]

How are your modeling skills? Bad.

Are they where you think they should be considering your modeling experience? Sorry, this question confused me

What do you think your strengths are? Erm....nothing.

What things do think you need to work on the most? Everything.

[Dingo5162]

Because I build on a not so regular basis I think my skills R adquit for wot they R resamble BUT could do with improving and I'm not afraid to admit it sometime I do absolutely fabulous builds other times they R absolute rubbish so I start again, my biggest let down is not waiting long enough for the paint to harden but I wouldn't try to sell a model even though I have done commission work and it did take me some 8 months to do the model, it turned out OK and I mean OK as the person who ended up with it did not complain about the crappy job on the bumpers (good thing) as they where shocking no matter what I tried the paint wouldn't take on the resin properly.

Dingo

[XJ6]

When my skills get to the level of "John Teresi" then i have reached the top of my modeling skills..

Cheers...Don aka XJ6