Somebody posted recently about losing their mojo and enthusiasm for continuing with a modelling project.
I've suffered thus several times over the years and generally find a complete change of subject, with all the associated new research required, quickly gets the creative cogs and gears going again.
A couple of years ago, this happened and I ground to a halt with WWI biplanes. One of my other hobbies is bird-watching and I chanced on one of the old Airfix 1:1 scale wildlife bird models - the Bullfinches - on ebay. There were no bids and I ventured a couple of quid for no particular reason and, of course, won it. Then realised I had no suitable paints so off to "The Works" for an acrylic artists set. Lots of sanding and filling later I found I had to learn new painting techniques to "feather" (literally) the plumage. Suddenly I was hooked.
I scoured ebay and junk sales for the rest of the series and managed to pick them all up for peanuts - I was of course looking for models to build, not collectors' pristine boxes, just the plastic.
I built all the models, painting one of the Blue Tits as a Coal Tit and omitting one of the Robins as the European Robin is an incredibly aggressive little bu**er and you rarely see two together (no matter how sweet they look on Christmas Cards) Also one of the Robin mouldings bears no resemblance to any bird I've ever seen!
I finished them all and then started to look at what else I could add and hacked a Bullfinch about a bit, adding a crest to fashion a Chaffinch and started similarly on a Yellowhammer - and suddenly, the bird mojo left me. The half-finished projects went back in a drawer. I wanted to build an SE5a!
Problem solved.
Anyway I got the Airfix Birds out of the cabinet onto the dining room table for a photograph.
When the enthusiasm wanes, try something different!
Sandy
PS Next time I'll tell you about the Aurora Knights!
