Negativity about projects

[Tamiyastef 1966]

40 minutes ago, Pablo68 said:

I've been avoiding getting the bodies done

Yep. That's what is seen by others immediately and scares me the most. I'm not good at masking (means I have to practice more) and stickers rakes me ages to get them not as good as I want them to be. (means I have to practice more)

[Mad Ax 9310]

7 hours ago, Killajb said:

advanced aging has depleted my fast-twitch reflexes and eyesight but thankfully those were replaced with patience and determination.  When a project isn't to my liking, I just keep at it until I get there.

I can definitely relate to this, and it's marked a major change in my projects over the past 3 years.  I have always struggled with patience and motivation, to the extent that "short-tempered" and "lazy" were the most frequently-used labels to describe me when I was younger.  If I tried to do something new and found I was no good at it, I would lose the patience and motivation to try again.  My teen and most of my adult years are chock full of ambitious projects that I've started and given up on when things got hard.

In recent years I've learned much more patience.  I've learnt that to be good at something requires constant work, and making a mistake on my first, second, tenth or hundredth try doesn't mean I'll never be any good, it just means I need to keep practicing, keep trying new things, and make sure I'm attentive to when things go right, so the lessons sink in.  Everything is a learning process.

If I start a project expecting the results to be brilliant, I can only be disappointed.  If I start a project expecting it to be a learning experience, I can only be pleased with the outcome.

[Tamiyastef 1966]

13 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

Everything is a learning process.

So true! Something I've read a while ago and reread before I start on anything is the following:

The difference between a master and a beginner is that the master has failed more than the beginner has tried.

[Saito2 6686]

On 11/23/2022 at 7:07 AM, MadInventor said:

Don't forget you only see the end products of peoples successful builds.

 

23 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

You only see the best photos of the best angles of the end products of the successful builds!

 

21 hours ago, Tamiyastef said:

That's the internet for you in a nutshell. The reason a lot of young people nowadays get burned out and depressed before their adult life starts is because of all the perfect images of the perfect life they get fed everyday on instagram/tiktok etc... We usually only share succes to get applause and appreciaton. 

The fact I failed to recognize this is almost embarrassingly obtuse on my part. I basically fell into the same trap our social media obsessed youth has. D'oh! Admittedly, it is a big relief to know I am far from alone when it comes to projects not living up to personal standards or expectations. Thanks! 

[markbt73 5315]

There is a reason I have so many builds, both RC and static, that get to 90-95% complete and never actually finished. I'm always scared I'm going to ruin the whole thing on the last little bit, so I tend to stop at "really good so far" and leave it at that.

[Nick-W 1493]

On 11/23/2022 at 1:35 PM, Nikko85 said:

You only see the best photos of the best angles of the end products of the successful builds!

 

Great topic. If it helps anyone at all here’s a photo of the moment I remembered I hadn’t masked the windows. 

[Nikko85 3443]

25 minutes ago, Nick-W said:

Great topic. If it helps anyone at all here’s a photo of the moment I remembered I hadn’t masked the windows. 

So, stickers? Or cut out? : )

 

 

[Nick-W 1493]

11 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

So, stickers? Or cut out? : )

A kind of metallic black sticky backed plastic in the end. It kinda blends in to the roll cage decals but at least I had the kit masking sheet as a template . 

[87lc2 2662]

Nice save, came out looking good. 

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

When I was building my 84264 R91CP kit, I felt that pit-in-the-stomach feeling after laying down all the coats of paint and then realizing I hadn't masked the headlights.  I was so angry with myself!  Luckily a spare body set was available, so I started over with a fresh body to get a decent final result.  But it was a time and money setback, certainly.

I messed up a few HPI bodies and had to start over, and I had to replace a portion of a Unimog body where I was overzealous with the trimming.  It's rarely a mechanical problem that sinks me, but finishing a body takes quite a bit of concentration to get a reasonable end result.

[El Gecko 1343]

On 11/23/2022 at 4:59 AM, Saito2 said:

It feels at times that I see nothing but beautiful and awesomely executed projects here on Tamiyaclub (a testament to the skilled hobbyists here) while my stuff, at best. looks "off" and, at worst, looks like garbage.

My stuff basically IS garbage, sometimes it looks like it and sometimes I get lucky and it doesn't

[Nikko85 3443]

1 hour ago, speedy_w_beans said:

When I was building my 84264 R91CP kit, I felt that pit-in-the-stomach feeling after laying down all the coats of paint and then realizing I hadn't masked the headlights.  I was so angry with myself!  Luckily a spare body set was available, so I started over with a fresh body to get a decent final result.  But it was a time and money setback, certainly.

I messed up a few HPI bodies and had to start over, and I had to replace a portion of a Unimog body where I was overzealous with the trimming.  It's rarely a mechanical problem that sinks me, but finishing a body takes quite a bit of concentration to get a reasonable end result.

Those lower lights are not meant to be beige... Completely forgot to mask off, molotow to the rescue.

[Champ85 609]

I am currently building a Kyosho Scorpion re-re kit. I got the LED lights for it plus the light buckets and rollcage that goes with them.  While fitting the LEDs into the light buckets and trying to snap the clear plastic front lens cover on, it was being fiddly and the LED was getting off-kilter every time. The LED was being pushed down and ended up pointing sideways instead of straight ahead.  Each time I tried to fix it I was getting more and more frustrated trying to punch out the front lens (which isn't supposed to come out once snapped into place) to correct the problem because it took a lot of force and I was slightly damaging the plastic and reflector in the process.  The instruction sheets that were provided with the LEDs, buckets and rollcage were the exact same single-sided sheet of paper with absolutely no diagram showing how the LEDs mount inside the buckets.  Apparently it's so simple that Kyosho did not feel the need to bother to document how to do it.  I felt so dumb that I could not accomplish such a simple task and started making the comment "well I won't be ever buying another set of these as they are complete garbage," while also noting that everything about the Kyosho re-releases has been absolutely top notch quality and so much fun to build and it is so odd to be experiencing such a horrible time doing something that should be so easy...

Then I noticed that the LEDs are supposed to slide into a groove at the back of the light bucket rather than on top of it.

More often than not the negativity that I feel is due to my own actions, inactions, or thoughts rather than anything external.  It helps to keep that perspective sometimes.