Many times I see someone's outstanding work online, in person or a magazine. Other times a review, advertisement or the current "buzz" inspires me to grab a certain kit and start building.

A lot of times though, the talk about replacing the kit parts with aftermarket or the need to correct this and that de-motivates me.

I'm as guilty of this as the next person. Buy the XYZ M-XX kit, but you will need to replace the tracks with the individual link ones, then find the OOP photo etch set, and use the JR barrel and you will be all set.

Often by the time I collect up all the aftermarket items needed to create the accurized kit, something else has caught my eye and the kit goes back into the stash.

Other times, by the time all the aftermarket catches up with the inaccuracies of the kit, an entirely new kit is on the market. Case in point, the Tamiya M41 Wlaker Bulldog. I believe I was just under the $100 mark for aftermarket parts to build the Bulldog when AFV Club and Skybow both issued a new kit that makes the old one obsolete.

Tamiya Bulldog $10
Eduard PE set $15
Ordnance Models PE & resin $10
Barrel Depot aluminum barrel $12
Tank Workshop resin mantlet and muffler $15
AFV Club suspension $18
AFV Club tracks $12

Oh well.

hehe nothing de-motivate me, modelling is like heaven...

Time or the lack of time. I prefer to model in the morning and all morning but getting blocks of time like are too infrequent. As an example a couple of weekends ago I had an entire Saturday afternoon for modeling. Glue a few parts together, looked for a misplaced sub-assembly (which because it so long ago that I assembled it I could not remember what I had done with it), and setup the air compressor. Could not get a good flow of paint to come out. Finally I realized that it had been so long ago that I purchased the paint that all of the pigment was settled in the bottom of the jar. Needed a real stiff paint stirring stick to work the paint back into useable condition. Sprayed four items. I haven't had a block of time like that since and I don't see any coming up soon either. I guess I will have to get used to small, more frequent build times.

waiting for paint or glue to dry makes me get stresed so then i rush the bild adn get paint and glue all over the model. I also hate havig to stop modelling because i have run out of a certain glue or paint.

cheers

Philip

Finding time to paint! I find in most cases I need at least 2 hrs for a camo color because of the detail required. A block of time that long is hard to find except late at night,then the compressor noise is to loud.
Thats why i have about six to eight things waiting to be painted at any one time.
Thank God I can now paint at work over lunch so I can do OD or single colors in that time...boy do people look at you when you walk around carrying a 3ft long UBoat :-) :-) :-)

Good question Rob. I feel your pain with the Bulldog. I did the same thing, but have yet to purchase either of the newer releases. I have a Dragon T34/85 that literally weighs almost 10lbs due to all the "goodies" I have assembled in the box for that particular kit. A big de-motivater for me is when my work area gets cluttered and I have to stop and clean it up before I can continue building. I know it is my own fault, but things happen.
Another thing which it is a setback is when I am in a nice groove, parts are fiiting great, no major seams to clean, air pressure is great and the paint is flowing perfectly, Then, "Honey can you do ..........?" Arrrrgh. Love her to death, but it always happens. I get over it and come back to things, but it really is frustrating at times. "Q"

Pieces that don't fit right. I had some nasty gaps on the Strv 122 front fenders and I had to shim and fill all over the place. Took me 2-3 days to get that done.

Or figuring out how to fix that 'one' detail that needs to be added. Coupled with the fact that I have a hell of time making a straight cut on styrene or brass.

Paul

The only de-motivating thing I encounter in modelling is the bottum of my wallet...

PAUL

the carpet monster.

once i have 'lost' a part... even the tiniest, most minute, unnoticeable one - it will never be 'the perfect build'.

I think what de-motivates me is often the price of a kit. However, I also find that the nit-picking over having the right this or that can suck all of the fun out it. Lastly, being under a deadline. Not one like the campaigns here, but if I want to build one for a library display or something like that and as a reult, I've a narrow time frame in which to build. That too will ruin it for me.

Building multiples of the same model for others.
I don't mind doing it for myself, but when someone else commisions me to do stuff, and meet a deadline,
uuuugghhh!
I had to do this twice, once with Tamiya Pibbers (initially built 3, one went flying down the stairs, built fourth in record time), and the other time, five NASCAR Race cars. Can you say Decalphobia, and an allergy
to bright colors? These two are permanently off my build list...

AND my girlfriend using my crockpot for cooking when I need to dry my figures.
She's getting one for her B-day...

Not having the right color of paint.

I have a Bradley that I built a long time ago and painted with Tamiya acrylics according to the instructions in the box. Even I could tell that it wasn't anywhere near the color of the real stuff. I thought I'd have to throw it out, but then I discovered the Easy-Off method of paint removal.

Since then it's been sitting on the workbench waiting for me to decide what shade to really paint it. I've heard from people here and people at my LHS to use about ten different colors. "Use MM US Army Sand! NO! MM US Army Sand is way too dark, use Humbrol #123456! No! That's too yellow! Custom mix your own using housepaint and newt spleens!". Grrr. I really just need to paint it and go. It's not like I'm going to be showing any of this stuff at competitions anytime soon.

I also get detailing paralisys. I know something doesn't look right, and I want to update it, but I don't want to spend more on an aftermarket kit with three parts than I did on the kit, but I don't know how to scratchbuild the correction. I go through these loops where I can't decide if I want to get the AM, scratchbuild, or just live with it.
Like most things, you can have:
A - Fast
B - Cheap
C - Accurate
but you can only pick two.

MASKING ANYTHING!!!!!!!!! I HATE it. I know it must be done, but every build stops for weeks, months until I take the incredibly stressful time to mask. I have no clue as to why it is so for me!
capnjock

Being an engineer for a living, and supervising a CAD section, I've become very detail oriented. And what bothers me when I'm building a model is when what I perceive as not paying attention to detail by the manufacturer causes me a great deal of "fixing" to correct details in the kit. (Note: this is not quite the same issue as adding a lot of after market details which isn't quite the same problem for me.)

While I do enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to correct the flaw, and will admit to a certain amount of perverse pleasure when I scratch build or fill to correct the existing problem, it would really be nice to take the kit as it comes OOB and build it without having to correct what should have been right in the first place.

Since virtually everything I build has some sort of connection to things I've been associated in one way or another during my military service, I just have a hard time ignoring some of the details that I'm sure others would never notice. And believe me, I don't consider myself a "rivet counter", but some of the mistakes I find are just too much for me to ignore, and it does take away some of the fun for me.

Tom

I understand totally where you're coming from as far as the AM parts. I guess I'm lucky enough, or cheap enough, or lazy enough, to not yet care about things like that. When I read reviews and they say things like what parts have to be replaced by AM I skip over that part. If a review mentions things that I really think will need to be corrected if I'm to do a half way decent model, then I think seriously about skipping that model. For example I understand there are several things on the turret of DML's new, or re-released, M4 early. Things that are really for the Firefly, and have to be filled in. I'm no good at putty and filling yet. I might pass that one up for a while.

While I can find plenty of excuses for not modeling, right now it's the painting that is demotivating me. I've got several kits all ready for the airbrush, but not the time, or the place, to set up the brush, and get some serious painting done. Every time I think I do then the weather doesn't help, or the wife has some Honey Do that I can't get out of.

I think the thing that makes me lose movtivation is adding AM parts or additional details to the kit, because they add time to building the model and that in itself makes me lose interest. If I'm working on something more then a couple months or whatever I lose interest in it

Well..what de-motivates me is the time spent working on a model. It's not buying all the aftermarket resin and PE or the sanding and painting..it's all the time going in to the kit. After working on something for 3 weeks or more, that when i start to get de-motivated. So i box everything up and start on something new only to end up boxing that kit too. I have about 13 -15 started kits waiting to be finished These days it's hard for me to build a model straight from the box.

Demotivation:
Realizing that before you can start to build you will have to wade through the pigsty of a work area and do a major clean up. I shouldn't gripe as I have a designated 'space' but in reality it's like having 50 lbs of crap and only a 2 lb bag. Clean up is basically shifting things around so one area looks neater than the other. Ah, but one day.....I'll have a whole room to mess up.
Thanks for starting this thread, it posponed the inebitable...now I have to goe clean up the work area!! (++)

Cheers,
Charles

Seam filling. I hate to putty and sand, and you work and work and work at it and it still ain't perfect. On tanks, that's why I went to the metal barrels on large scale ships....well I just suffer through it. (Lord I hate 3 deck pieces !!!!!!)

Painting the rubber rims on the Sherman is my pitfall everytime. The rest of the kit builds with no problem but putting together 6 bogies with 12 roadwheels just kills me.

:-) Hey Shermie try a panther or tiger..12 roadwheels will be easy then :-) :-)

I don't build to fast but sometimes i get bummed out when I spend to much time building on 1 project.. so sometimes I have something else to do when I want a change...

also.. I'm most a Out of the box builder with some minor scratchbuilding and additions. Nothing gripes me more than someone saying "that would look nice if you had used PE and resin such and such with it....

I think a model should stand on its own merits not those that a super detailer does on his model..

also rivit counters and Paint Nazi's... "that shad of OD green is to green.........ect.....ect....... you have 3 right twist wing nuts on the cover and it should be 3 left twist lock nuts......" ect ect..........

I'd say after it's all put together and I got the base coat on road wheels painted etc I just get this block on weathering It's almost like I am letdown after the kit is built and painted