discussion How many at once?

[PaulinKendal]

I'm just a regular guy. For the last few years I've been painting figures, and I've been painting them one at a time, using acrylics.

But I've just started experimenting with oil paints and all of a sudden I've got four projects on the go at once - a first for me.

Although experienced hands can paint oils 'wet on wet', from start to finish, I'm not one of them. I've been leaving applications of oils for a day or two to dry before attacking them again. And while I'm waiting, I've started a second project, and then a third and a fourth.

Luckily for me, each figure takes up very little space. I can have all four in a square foot of desk space, and switching from one to another is just so easy. I will work on two or three of these every time I sit down at my benchspace.

How many kits do you build at once? How frequent are your switches between models?

 

[Miko]

How many kits do you build at once? How frequent are your switches between models?

Interesting you should post this today,
I have been for quite a while a 'one at once' kinda modeller because setting aside a stalled kit while starting a new project almost inevitably leaves it incomplete for a long time and sometimes forever! there are lots of reasons to stall a build including needing aftermarket parts or modelling supplies such as a particular paint colour or a research issue, maybe because the kit is providing technical problems and fit issues and the common-or-garden modelling error!

However! That said, a while ago I started a (rare for me) 1/144 build, an Amodel DH Comet which ran into few of the issues listed above! So, breaking my personal rule and with 'I just can't wait any longer' attitude in my head I started my 'Sword Lightning T5' a series of events in my real life stalled this build and my hobby took a back seat for a month or two, on the possibility to return I decided I needed a quick fix to get my modelling mojo back on track, a quick build, easy to complete in a weekend, so a 'Hasegawa Lightning F6' was ordered and delivered in short order, construction began . . . . another stall! a combination of events that had me believe the modelling gods were frowning on me and giving me no respite from bad luck!

Now I find myself tempted again, this time the notion of building a recently acquired Hasegawa Lockheed F-104 Starfighter as a 'what if?' 'Empire Test Pilot School' aircraft in glorious 'Raspberry Ripple' paint scheme!

'I can resist anything but temptation' . . . [Oscar Wilde]

Miko (post inspired by the peer pressure Paul Rose who's encouragement is pushing me to modelling sinfulness! Ha!)

 

[Steven000]

I usually work on 2 models at once (mostly aircraft), one as a main build, and a 2nd one as a side build when I need to wait for paint to dry or get frustrated with the main build... Cheers

 

[Tim Marlow]

One at a time for me Paul. However…..I can sometimes work on more than one area of a kit at once, such as cab and load bed, or superstructure and tracks, for example. Also, when I paint the little blokes I tend to do units, so can paint the first half dozen, then the next when the varnish is drying, etc…. What is an absolute no no, is having two units or kits on the go at once. One of them would always get left and probably not finished…..

 

[PaulTRose]

'Raspberry Ripple' paint scheme!

 

[pjgtech]

Still relatively new to this, but I tend to stick to one at a time......

 

[PaulTRose]

I used to work on 2 at a time....a main and a side project.....once or twice 3 projects.....but i get mojo loss/burn out....... it ceases to be fun and more like being on a production line.......so only one at a time these days

 

[Airborne01]

Prefer one at a time but, for reasons previously stated earlier' in the thread I'm often sidetracked to one (or two) more. The problem then is that the earlier project often gets delayed for quite some time! (I do have quite a few 'Shelf Queens')
Steve

 

[colin m]

Whatever I'm building, no matter how big or small seems to spend a lot of time in construction mode. A lot of time, so I try to stick to one at a time.

 

[Miko]

My mom told me there would be people who were bad influences!! Ha!

. . . and yes, I'm committed to the 'raspberry ripple' thing, I've already got the stuff together to start the build, just taking a few metaphorical deep breaths before diving in!


Miko (easily led. . . it seems?)

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

At the start of a build I usually have enough to be getting on without the need for a second build. However as the build progresses and there are less tasks to complete and longer waiting times between tasks I will start the second model. I need to do this otherwise at the end stages of a build I start to get "Go Fever" and will tend to get slack and rush a job to get to the finish line. Having a second model on the go helps to avoid this.

 

[PaulinKendal]

...at the end stages of a build I start to get "Go Fever" and will tend to get slack and rush a job to get to the finish line. Having a second model on the go helps to avoid this.

Now this really chimes with me. Having figures at earlier stages of development is enabling me to slow down on finishing the Swordmaster, to do more of what the YouTube figure painter Vince Venturella calls 'futzing' - endlessly picking up and correcting tiny faults, in my case mainly spots of paint in places they shouldn't be.

 

[spanner570]

When I made my Rourke's Drift diorama on here, i painted over 400 1/72 figures all in one go! Sort of, with no break kind of thing.....

Try that and stay sane.

Ron

 

[Tim Marlow]

When I made my Rourke's Drift diorama on here, i painted over 400 1/72 figures all in one go! Sort of, with no break kind of thing.....

Try that and stay sane.

Ron

I have, and I didn’t LOL. My Zulu war armies number about five hundred 15mm figures, but they were painted around twenty years ago now. Did three hundred ACW rebels about five years ago, but have never got around to the union side or the artillery….the numbers needed have put me off them for a while. When painting that many troops I use the “it’s Tuesday so I’m just painting trousers” sort of approach, working on around sixty at a time (any more wouldn’t fit in the bench). I assume you did the same sort of thing Ron…..

 

[spanner570]

Much the same method, although my numbers were somewhat insignificant compared with your vast amount!

 

[Tim Marlow]

Much the same method, although my numbers were somewhat insignificant compared with your vast amount!

No way is 400 figures insignificant Ron. That’s a big chunk of time, and even in 15mm, where I simplify the standards a lot, that would take me well over a year. I only have a lot because figures are pretty much my bread and butter modelling these days, and I sometimes use them for gaming. My Sudan project, on the other hand, stalled at about forty fuzzies. One day I’ll pick it up again…….only about one hundred and sixty to go….and then I get to do the colonials…..