Greetings all;
Just a bit of a thread review here. Since we do kit reviews why not threads?

Its a grand soft day here in my corner of the Aeroscale airfield. Typically there are several kits in progress and I have done some few parts today. There has been some turmoil in the billets lately but thats also typical. The coffee is hot, French bread, stew and chilli are the fare this evening. For desert lemonade, apple and or cherry pies.

The subject of this memo is burnout. That dread affliction first diagnosed in 1916 by Dr. Hertz Van Rental while he was but an intern at Sister Consumpta's free clinic / bar and grill. It is noted in that with the diagnosis of AMS (Advanced Modeler's Syndrome) that the patient may find that there develops dry and scaly (1/72) patches. This is often accompanied by bouts of lacko-ntrest in modeling. These are but symptoms of larger issues.

Most critically is the visual aspect of wide open pupils, noting verbally "...I will never build all of these kits..."

The road map to modeling longevity is a healthy outlook.
1. Never let healthy competition (contests) and their out come taint your enjoyment of the build.

2. Build for yourself, but never be afraid to try new things. Variety is the spice.

3. Stay out of ruts. Consume solid norishment and beware of fast internet feeding frenzys. Take your reference information first hand not the from 30 year old speculations and regurge that lead to disappointment when you discover your triplane should be red and white not blue and white.

4. Have a life away from modeling. Life is short and you can't take anything with you when you go. Enjoy yourself.

5. Nothing is permanent, there is always room for one more build.

6. Revisit an old friend. take one of your favorites down from the shelf and build it without aftermarket PE, resin or decals. Out of the Box therapy.

7. Evaluate your condition and pick the therapy that gives you the fresh perspective.

8. Never mix alcohol and cyano...it does not make a better bonding agent. Trust me on this one.

9. Visit the Aeroscale hangar and peek under the tarps...Especially over on Merlin's side...

10.Have fun, its a hobby enjoy the praises and critiques of people you respect & admire. Never take anything personally.

Right now, my problem isn't burn out, it's getting a fire built under my fat, lazy a$$.

Get me a helpin of that chili and some bread while I cut out some stringers for this little P-40!

Well Steve, that helped, must have been the chili set a fire under me. Managed to get this done this morning:



Thanks!

Mr Flash, I just love it when you get all philosophical. You have a great knack of pulling things back into perspective and putting the spotlight on what is most important. This IS a hobby and we should all just enjoy our builds and admire each other's work, and never hold back on helping those in need.

Chhers, D

Very well said Stephen, I couldn't agree more.

@ Mark; is that the Heller P-40?

Wow, is it that obvious?

For some reason the, uh, lump behind the cartridge ejector ports jogged memories of making one of them as my first ever kit when I was about 7 years old. I had great fun putting it together, but the box art showed a P-40 that was the exact same colour as the plastic of the kit, so I didn't even think of painting it and just put the decals on it and left it at that .

It also started my trend of having the landing gear of my model aircraft in the "up" position, because I melted the P-40's landing gear beyond recognition, .