The Best Laid Plans...

I've been working on two projects for what seems like forever, and I'm kind of tired of them.  I'm not bored with them, I just want them to be done.  I still think they are great projects, but they are taking a long time to complete.  I'm at that point in the build where I'm down to the itty-bitty details that seem to make or break a build.  I want to be done so I begin to get in the mindset that I just want to get it done because it will be so cool when it's finished.  I start to rush and make mistakes which causes set backs.  I did some bodywork on my '68 Mustang and I was going to shave the door handles off and use some out of another kit to replace the molded in ones that are already on the body.  I shot the primer without shaving the handles off, more body work and more primer.  Instead of doing it once, I now have to do it twice.
At the same time, my 1957 Ford project has hit a snag, paint.  I finished the body work, primed it, and shot a gorgeous coat of light blue pearl paint on it, then cleared it.  It looked really good, even the wife was impressed.  I noticed some light orange peel in the paint so I wet sanded it and of course, I went through.  I guess I was a little heavy handed.  Well, back to square one.  Strip it , reprime it, and I planned to paint it today; except, I can't.  I have to repaint the underside of the body with enamel paint which takes forever to dry. So I guess I'm repainting it next week.
What makes these two event worse is, I have the local IPMS show coming up next month and the Mustang is kind of being built specifically for this show.  I'm not real sure it will be done.  The '57 Ford needs to be done by the end of March, I'm pretty sure it will make it.  The next project will be box stock, just to keep it simple!
"Rat Fink" Ron

Come In Out of the Cold, We Have Hot Rods!

This weekend my wife and I went to the first car show of the year.  I know what you're thinking, "You lucky dog, you live someplace warm."  Yes I do; the very tropical Midwest, and in this tropical paradise I live in the best weather of all, Ohio.  Where as other states in the Midwest are much colder, have way more snow, and winter lasts longer, Ohio gets the prize for crappiness (like happiness, but it ain't).  Ohio warms up, then snows some, then has some freezing rain, then switches to some cold for a few days, then warms up and rains.  There is now pattern or reason to our weather, it may even do all of this in one day!  Enough about the weather.  The car show we went to was the Cavalcade of Customs in Cincinnati, an indoor show that I really enjoy.  Besides getting my automotive fix, there are some really cool cars there to see and they are super clean, and I get a chance to talk to other car guys.  To me, it's like a big cruise in, guys hanging out, bullshitting about cars, and checking out cool rides.  There are some over the top cars and trucks there that you know never get street driven, rare cars that get rolled out of the garage and into a trailer and never get driven anywhere, race cars, and regular guys cars that they can't wait for summer to get their car out.  As a matter of fact, all of these cars cleaned up, modified to the hilt, and with super trick custom paint, it reminds me of a full size model car show.

  

I find it to be a really great place to get ideas for my models because all the latest trends are represented and you can spend a lot of time looking them over.  They are also well displayed for the judges and the public to see everything on the car.  I typically take lots of detail photos as well as overall shots of cars.  There are also lots of old race cars at these events.  When a car is too old to be competitive, what do you do with it?  If you keep it long enough, you take it to shows so guys can see how it was "back in the day."  I have some really cool detail shots of Funny Cars, Dragsters, Salt Flat Cars, and Road Racers by going to indoor shows.  Guys are also more willing to spend some time talking about their car because there is really nothing else for them to do all day.  At an outdoor show there are usually lots of other activities and cars are coming and going constantly, not so at an indoor show.  You do have to fight the legion of sales folks, hey babies in short skirts and low cut tops trying to get you to try a product, and throngs of kiddies being drug around by dads who got the, "if you wanna go ya gotta take the kids" deal in order to get out of the house, but that's not terrible.

  

Like a big model car show, you see stuff that is well done, cars that are OK, and those WTF cars,  but that's what makes it fun.  You get to see all kinds of cars and some you may never see if you didn't go.  I've seen lots of magazine cars at these and to tell you the truth, lots of them look way better in person than in the magazines.  So if you get the opportunity, shake off the winter blahs and go to a car show.  I think you'll be glad you did!

"Rat Fink" Ron

In It For the Long Haul

I've been working on two projects recently, a 57 Ford Custom 300 and a 68 Mustang, both of them are huge projects.  Lots of bodywork on both of them, one is a major conversion, lots of scratch building on both of them.  Both of them are really great and fun projects and I'm very excited to get them done.  I'm also getting sick of fooling with them.  It seems like everything is a problem, nothing just "fits" like I want it to.  It begins to wear on a person to point where I start to want to take short cuts just to be finished.  Not the best attitude to complete a project and have it turn out well.
How does a person get a project like this done without just putting it back in the box and giving up?  Perseverance. There's a line in the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales" that fits this situation, "Endeavor to Persevere."  To try hard to continue in the face of difficulty, that what it says.  There's another quote I like that says, " Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up" Thomas Edison said that.  He made at least 1000 attempts at making a light bulb before he was successful.  If he can continue for 1000 times, I can get through this.  A buddy of mine spent a year building one car, 365 days on the same model.  I see guys on the internet doing amazing things and it takes them a long time to complete, they endeavor to persevere.  This happens to lots of us, we give up just before we are successful, the kit goes back in the box or gets sold at a swap meet or we compromise the level of detail just to get it done.  We think it will be OK and no one will notice.  Well, somebody will notice; you will.
I have had a few kits go back in the box to finish later and two I sold half done at swap meets and one I smashed against the wall in frustration.  After the "incident" with the wall I vowed to never let a kit get the best of me.  I decided to finish all the ones I start and do it in a reasonable amount of time.  I don't want a bunch of half done kits littering up my basement and I buy them to build, not to take up space.  It's my hobby, a way to pass time and enjoy myself, I enjoy building, competing, and I enjoy the finished product of my labors.  Sometimes, that involved working through a little slump, or "Endeavoring to Persevere."

Night in the Ruts!

We all know about getting in a rut, you know when you can't seem to get anything finished, or started.  To me that's not really a rut, it's more of a not doing anything.  I went through that this past summer, I built nothing.  Nada. Zero. Zilch.  The weather got a little chilly and I decided I needed to get back at it and I decided I needed to build something out of my usual theme.  You can usually spot my builds on the table, they have wild paint, they lean toward the cartoonish, and most of the time they are a showrod.  Even when they are "serious" builds they always have something that leans toward silly, weather it's lace paint, neon colors, a wild chop, or big wheels.  So when I started back up this fall, I was going to be serious, dammit!  Well, not so much.
Of the five (yes, I said five) projects I'm currently fooling with, three are altered wheelbase cars (you know, the cars that coined the term "funny car"), one is a salt flat car with the roof chopped off, channeled, and tail fins extended, the last is a Mustang that has been widened to fit a modern chassis and super wide tires under it.  Yeah, I am the picture of seriousness.  Not a single cartoon proportion on these cars at all.  We were discussing paint last night and one of the altered wheelbase cars may end up looking like a giant candy cane.  Very serious.  I used to build replicas, but I can't seem to get interested in them like I used to, I have a compulsion to lean to goofiness, I think it's an illness.  More accurately, it's a rut.  Everyone has a rut they are comfortable in, mine just happens to be way too much fun!
Some guys are in a super detailed rut, a super accurate rut, a "I have to build a million of 'em before I die" rut, or a super clean build rut.  I know guys that are in all of these ruts and none of them seem "stuck' in their ruts. To me, being "stuck" in your rut implies you don't enjoy the rut you are in, I'm having a ball in mine!  My one buddy refuses to add any kind of weathering to his models, he wants them "factory fresh"  without a mark on them.  Other guys like 'em rode hard and put away wet, I tend to fall in the middle somewhere.  My point here is, weather you like it or not, you have a "preference" in your builds and anyone paying attention can spot your stuff on a contest table without seeing your name on it.  Every model you build has a "signature" on it weather you like it or not.  So if you are "signing" your work, are you proud of it?  Is it your best?  Even if it's silly, is it the absolute best "silly" it can be?
"Rat Fink" Ron

Clubs..Not Just For Baby Seals

I belong to a model club, hell, I'm the president of the club, again.  I think I'm pretty instrumental in the running and success of the club, others may disagree with my effectiveness.  I recently became way more involved again after a summer hiatus to play with my big car (I wasn't the president then), I have to tell you I missed it.  I really enjoy hanging out with the guys and talking models, checking out what others are building, and showing off my latest build.  I like the camaraderie, the goofing off, and the sly sarcastic commets and jokes we make at each others expense.  I get some really great ideas and how to's to make my model building experience better and more fun.  We have a really great club.
I always want the club to do more stuff together and have more fun interaction.  I always try to get together a build day on the same day as the 24 Hours of Daytona, the first day of the racing season seems like a great day to spend watching racing and building models.  It's still cold out in central Ohio so there is not much else to do.  I've also tried to get a trip up to the Detroit Autorama in March, the greatest custom car show in the US, but I've been met with little success.  I go every year and pick up some great building ideas.  The Goodguys Nationals are in Columbus every summer and there has been limited interest even with no travel time involved.  I've always wanted to have the club show up en masse to a big show like the Toledo NNL, but it doesn't seem to come together.  I've always wondered why our club seems to be a little inactive.
We're not a bunch of slugs either, we do some pretty cool stuff, too. I think we put on one of the best shows in Ohio, the Buckeye Classic.  The guys do a great job getting together on that project. We also do a couple of same kit builds, one for the "Ohio Challenge" and a box stock build off for our contest.  We do these because as a club member you can't enter our contest, so we want to have a way for us to show off our stuff.  We also started a "Christmas Kit Build Off", we have a blind gift exchange each Christmas, then you have to build the kit you got in the gift exchange for next year's Christmas party.  We had limited success this year, but I have a feeling it will be better this next year.  We have also done a "Group Build" where each part of a kit is built by a different club member and then the final assembly is done by another club member.  We had a lot of fun doing the last one, I think we'll do another one this year.  We also have a pretty good turnout every month of new builds.
This brings up the point of all of this rambling, what do you like about being in a model car club? What things do you want to do?  What does your club do that you like?  Are you involved, or just a spectator?  What is it that keeps you coming back every month (or more)? I always enjoy getting together with guys that have similar interests and doing things.  To me it is the social aspect of a club that is the appeal.  What about you?
"Rat Fink" Ron 

How Do I Love Thee? Uh...I Don't

All of us have things we'd rather not do, clean the gutters on the house, shovel snow, or eat spinach.  Even when it comes to this hobby, there are things we don't really like to do.  I have a buddy that does some great scratch building, absolutely fantastic stuff, but hates to paint.  All of his stuff spends years on primer hell, never to be finished, so he usually just sells them almost done.  I run into lots of guys who hate to detail kits, they like their kits closer to box stock. Interestingly, they seem to be fascinated by other people's models that have gobs of details added.  Photo etch, plug wires, throttle linkages, resin parts, and any other multitude of little gee-gaws will usually draw a crowd around a model.  Others don't like to weather their models, they like them clean as the day they drove out of the factory.  My one buddy says, "Can't do it, won't do it, don't wanna try."  That about sums it up, his builds will always be pristine.
So what is it that I hate more than a root canal?  Body work.  I can't stand the endless filling and sanding, over and over without end.  It seems to me that I fill an area, sand it, prime it, and ta-da, there it is, the low spot that needs filled again.  Every time I prime, all of the body work underneath shows up like a bad penny.  I know it's just part of the process,  but come on, why can't it just be right the first time?  I once had a four year project chopping the top on the old  AMT 49 Merc (Revell's is already chopped, but it was still years away from being released) partly because I had no idea that I had to also lengthen and widen the roof and partly because I became so frustrated with the filler shrinking under the primer.  I have tried every type of filler known to man and they all seem to shrink when covered with primer.  My buddy that has a bodyshop just tells me to reprime and blocksand, it's just how it works.  Well, that may be the way it works, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
So after reading the above paragraph, you would assume that I usually build my cars with the bodies as close to stock as possible.  Nope. Not even close.  I have two projects on my bench right now that involve bodywork, a '68 Mustang that I widened 1/8" on each side and a '57 Ford I cut the top off and filled the giant hole to make a salt flat car.  I also have a '64 Marauder I'm altering the wheelbase a la 1960's A F/X car, and I'm doing the same to a '62 T-Bird and another '57 Ford that I'm also going to stretch the nose on.  Why would someone who hates body work attempt all of these projects?  Because I like a challenge and I'm kinda stubborn.  Wait, did I say kinda?  I meant really stubborn.  I want certain kits to look a certain way and I ain't takin' no fer an answer!!  If I can spend four years chopping a 1/25th scale top, I can do this.
"Rat Fink" Ron

The Practice of Perfection

I've been thinking a lot about practice, specifically the type of practice.  The old saying is, "Practice makes perfect."  What if you are practicing wrong?  Let's say you want to learn a new skill like applying bare metal foil, so you go out and you buy some foil to do the trim on one of your cars.  Well, if you don't know how to use it, it can be very frustrating.  How do you get it to stick?  How do you trim it? Do I need a new blade in my knife?  Do I use a Q-tip, my finger, or a toothpick to burnish it down?  These are questions you either have or had about foiling a car ( the answer to the last two is yes). If you don't know the basics, a new skill can be hard to master and can lead to you giving up.  To have authentic practice you must practice proper techniques.
How much practice do you need to master a skill?  Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book, "Outliers" about that very subject.  He states that you need at least 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill, that's about 10 years give or take.  That's a looong time.  Of course, talent will determine how good you get at that skill, because let's face it some guys are just better modelers than others.  A pinstriper called "The Wizard", Steve Chaszeka, tells his students they need to do each of the 10 basic strokes needed to pinstripe 1,000 times to master them, that's 10,000 strokes. Coincidence? I think not.  So in order to master a skill it takes a lot of time and patience.  Think about that next time you try a new skill or technique out on one of your models.
When is practice not really like practice?  I never had to learn to play piano, but from what I've seen on TV and in movies, it must be pretty grueling to practice because some kid's mom is always forcing them to practice.  Building  models should not be that kind of practice, it should be the kind of practice you enjoy.  I recently read an article about "the Zone", and not the Twilight Zone.  "The Zone" is when you are so engrossed in something that you don't notice the passage of time, hours have passed before you know it.  We have all had that experience when you sit down at the old workbench to "do a few things" and next thing you know several hours have passed, the wife has turned out all the lights and is already in bed, the cat is wondering why you're stumbling around in the dark, and your leg is numb from sitting in the same position for so long.  "The Zone" is that special time when all you are concerned about is the kit in front of you, that is also my idea of perfect practice.
What is all of this practice for? Is there some test for modelers to pass?  Is there some intergalactic contest that you must win before you can be admitted to paradise? No test, no super contest, just the personal satisfaction of learning a new skill and doing your best at something you really enjoy.  If you truly enjoy building models, then it would stand to reason that you would enjoy learning to do it better.  One of the best ways to improve your skills is to build your models out of the box, no added details.  You will learn to build cleanly, remove kit imperfections, and how to improve your painting skills.  Out of the box does not mean boring, you can use paint to bring out details and draw attention to your builds.  I've always wanted to see a well built out of the box kit win best of show at a contest, to me, that would say that contests are really about building skills and not just about how much custom made stuff you can hang on a model.  Another good habit is to avoid the "good enough" syndrome. We've all done it, looked at a model we're working on and saying, "aw, who cares, it's just a shelf model."  Yeah, a shelf model, on YOUR shelf where you display the kits that you built for others to see (even if it's just you and the wife; and maybe the cat).  The point I'm making is build for you and make sure that it is up to your standards.  Your shelf models should be the best ones, because you built them for you.  Until next time, perfect practice makes perfect.
"Rat Fink" Ron