Modeler's trait: Patience & Perseverance. Really?

Often, I heard that when a modeler s sharing this hobby to newcomers, claiming that patience and perseverance are two main quality one should have in this hobby. Telling him how he should be patient when building a model, dont rush, do it bit by bit, day after day, before they could achieve n build something great.

By default, I have absolutely no problem with such statement n claim; i am a big supporter of these two qualities in a person.

But, (yeah, there is always this BUT) from all the backlog, abandoned projects, half build kits I have seen; "no mood",  "I have another better project,", "The fire is out" reasons I have heard around me; really makes me question: Why?

Someone d told me "When I was on fire or got very excited on it, ideas just flow in non-stop; and i can continuously work on it for hours, non stop. I just keep working on it until it's done." To me, this is neither patience nor perseverance. That is merely... on fire. Like having a adrenaline rush.

"So what will you do when u have no mood for the kit?"

"Well, I will just put it aside for awhile (awhile? huhu) Work on other kit first, then later will come back to continue."

Exactly! This is exactly what perseverance should mean! When u r on fire, u work on that kit for long hours, that aint perseverance; that is merely, well, normal.

Perseverance will only shows up when you have NO MOOD. When u have lost interest in a kit, u continue to do it at a steady pace, not giving up no matter how painful u feel; that is called perseverance.

Of course, not all half build, abandoned projects are lack of perseverance. There will be many factors in life that will lead us to temporary stop a project. Time, money, health reasons, change of career, new born baby etc etc. But, NO MOOD, is definitely not one of them.

(One of my own PG that i have "abandoned" for awhile. And that "awhile" is near to 2 years....)

What about patience?

As opposite to perseverance, patience is more often exist n required during the ON-FIRE time. You got so excited, ur vision is getting clearer, the pile of plastics is getting closer to what u have planned; or simply, u just having too much fun n prefer not to stop. Now, you remember it is time for you to stop. Be it any kind of reason: you hd been sitting for more than 10 hours n u need rest, is time to take your parents for dinner, time to goto work, time to exercise, time to get a life.

In this moment, if u tell yourself, yes, i have other priority and the modeling have gotta stop and call it a day. guess i will have to wait till tomorrow to continue finishing it; this discipline, is called PATIENCE.

Oh yes, u gotta have the patience to take the necessary time: to let the putty fully cured, the paint fully dried before masking, plan n draw out with accurate measurement before u pick up you knife n "agak-agak" start cutting pla plate. or simply "call it a day" to get yourself some proper rest.

Again, there are too many cases i have seen. Even until the very last stage of building your presentation base, name tag, etc. If u can spend 6 months to build a monster mecha, u just cannot tahan spend another 4 weeks to do something nice to present it?

Get a Bandai stand and poke into the ass of your gundam; that, is the lousiest presentation i have seen way too frequently. Worse, I have seen works that has been spent months to build, which the modeler definitely has the skill to create a more subtle way to make the mecha looks like it is not touching the ground, but got the ass-stuffed treatment.

Oh, for the record, there r dioramas in gundam genre that 2 or 3 gundams fighting each others all got their asses stuffed with some pole.

So patience and perseverance, yes, next time we introduce these to newcomers, never harm to look into the mirror for awhile.

(Photo on left is another classic example of lazy modeler, spending months on modifying the mecha, but poke its ass with a stupid stand)



* This blog has no intention of being judgmental at all, it is just about my little opinion onto these two traits of modelers.
Besides that, being a modeler who owns my fair share of abandoned projects and kits with mistakes due to "I can't wait", i am absolutely in no position to judge.