Project burnout?

[Mad Ax]

Anyone else get a kind of burnout when working on RC projects so much?

So it's been a bit of a crazy few months for me on the RC front.  I've had more wrench-time than ever, partly because I've needed some personal space, partly because I haven't been inspired to do much writing (my other big passion) and partly because I've had a lot to get ready and not a lot of time to do it.

Basically I've used almost every lunchbreak over the last 4 months to pop home and get 30 minutes wrenching on a project.  My 1:14 race trailer came along really well, but I put it on hold when I realised I had 3 weeks left to the Iconic bash at Broxtowe and none of my cars were ready.  And did I ever spend some money!  Way too much, if I'm honest.  A whole summer's worth of spending crammed into 1 month because I wanted all my Revival primary and spare cars to be ready so I could test them at Broxtowe.

But now the Broxtowe bash is over, the Revival isn't until the end of July, and I might not get to another RC event between now and then, the joy has kind of gone.  This week I've been going home at lunch, standing in the workshop and sort of twiddling my thumbs.

The one thing I've really got to do is trim, paint and mount some bodies.  Both my SRBs need new polycarb Baja bodies, my Manta Ray and Top Force Evo need new bodies, my King Blackfoot needs a body and I'd quite like to source a different body for my WR02 as well.  Plus I've got a MAN race truck all cut and ready to mask, once I've given it a good wash, and my Desert Fielder shell has been hanging around for over a year waiting for me to decide on a paint scheme.  I've got most of what I need, including bodies and paint, I just can't seem to get motivated.  I've never really enjoyed the body-making process - cutting polycarb is just an awkward chore, especially on non-Tamiya bodies like the Kamtec Baja, which is too thick for easy score-and-snap trimming.  Washing bodies is a necessary evil but drying them out can be difficult these days when clean dishcloths are at a premium.  Masking is fiddly and annoying, and time-consuming.  Actually throwing paint on shells I don't mind - I paint quick, use a hairdryer to speed up the process and can get a 3-colour shell done in an hour.  It's just all that prep drives me crazy, and there is so much of it to do.

I find I can get excited when I think about the other projects I haven't started yet: my Pajero rebuild, or my TA02T tow rig, or even my Hummer project.  But besides the main cars I've got out on my workbench right now, I've also got a dozen others that I was really excited about when I started them.  I'm determined not to start anything new until I've cleared my decks of a few things old.

I'm thinking, if the weather stays good next week, I don't bother going home to wrench on projects.  Instead, I grab one of my known-good runners (I have a few), charge up a couple of LiPos and head out to the fields instead.  After all, I bought these things to use, didn't I?

[Wooders28]

I may have a one track mind but read almost all your thread until I realised it wasn't about a project to build a car for burnouts!! ( i get confused in the summer too, when loads of mags talk about 'perfect ABS' and not a brake disc in sight! 

But, yeah, it's not the weather to be stuck inside! 😎

[Badcrumble]

43 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

I'm thinking, if the weather stays good next week, I don't bother going home to wrench on projects.  Instead, I grab one of my known-good runners (I have a few), charge up a couple of LiPos and head out to the fields instead.  After all, I bought these things to use, didn't I?

That's it. I've been beavering away for a few weeks now on bits and bobs whenever. I can fit some Tamiya time in between work and parenting. 

Tomorrow i hope to get the WW2 out for a spin (now I have my missing step screw!)

Make the most of them!

[speedy_w_beans]

I'm squarely in burnout mode w/ respect to RC right now.  There are too many other things to do for work, with my family, and around the house to be building RCs.  I plan to keep everything and will work on all the RC projects eventually. but for the time being it's all going to sit still and collect dust.  I'm perfectly fine with that.

[Mad Ax]

6 minutes ago, speedy_w_beans said:

I'm squarely in burnout mode w/ respect to RC right now.  There are too many other things to do for work, with my family, and around the house to be building RCs.

TBH that's been part of my issue.  My daughter is now 12 weeks old, I'm half-way thru building a bathroom, my garden's a mess and the house needs decorating, so I don't have time to indulge any hobbies during regular downtime.  I take one day per month to go off and do something on my own, like go to a race event or a lorry meet, and besides that I get my lunchbreaks to do whatever I want.  For a while that was great, because in 30 minutes I could make big progress rebuilding a gearbox or fitting new electrics or taking a hacksaw to a vintage SRB.  Every day was progress.

Now I'm onto cutting and masking bodies, it no longer feels like progress.  It feels like a lot of hard work before the reward at the end.

It's all good though, I think I just need to step back from the graft and enjoy the cars for a while, there's some good terrain near here and it's nice to be out in the fresh air.  I know once I get some motivation back I'll get those bodies painted and fitted and photo'd, and then I can get back on with some more interesting stuff, like finishing off some things I started years ago and boxed but because I didn't quite have the skills back then.

[Badcrumble]

49 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

TBH that's been part of my issue.  My daughter is now 12 weeks old, I'm half-way thru building a bathroom, my garden's a mess and the house needs decorating, so I don't have time to indulge any hobbies during regular downtime.  I take one day per month to go off and do something on my own, like go to a race event or a lorry meet, and besides that I get my lunchbreaks to do whatever I want. 

It's all good though, I think I just need to step back from the graft and enjoy the cars for a while

Woah! That is a lot on! My lad is 2.5 and I have a similar amount of free time (minus the one day a month).

I don't mean to sound preachy but step back as much as you can, you only get this time with them once. Do the minimum in the garden  and, as my wife says about decorating, "leave it, if you do it now it will need repainting sooner - let's go to the park". 

However, bathrooms are necessary!

I'm keeping a book of my RC projects, diarising when I took each step.

it could be depressing to look at it and realise that I haven't touched my Bowler since last September but it forces me to be realistic about potential progress (I'm at the Lexan trimming and painting stage too).

I use the book to think about my RC in different ways:

catalogue car purchases and parts

want / need lists

Plan project steps

Sketch colour schemes

Write background pieces for future showroom updates

Hope this is food for thought, if nothing else! Enjoy the cars you have, when you can. The projects will wait until you are ready. 

 

[Wooders28]

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

My daughter is now 12 weeks old, I'm half-way thru building a bathroom, my garden's a mess and the house needs decorating, so I don't have time to indulge any hobbies

Sounding eerily familiar!

Only chance I get to tinker on any projects, is when I'm working nightshift!

Not been to a drag race since my first was born (now 2), only get to a car meet when it's on my door step and not raced my RC car's since November, and don't see me getting back until #2 child is a couple of months old 😔

[berman]

I would love to have too much time on rc, but I do 55-60 hours on average a week, and when i get home it is time to relieve the Mrs (who is currently on maternity leave) of our 4 week old boy and 2 year old daughter. And when those two are in bed and the chores are done etc I am far too tired to work on RC's as I start at 5am in the mornings. 

I would love to step back and have time to myself but as Badcrumble said, every moment with my little ones are more precious than the air I breath so everything else takes a back seat, and I am paranoid of my missus getting PND so I like to make sure things are savory there. 

Time is such a valuable resource in my life I had to PAY a friend mechanic to do some simple maintenance on one of my 1:1's.😯

I also have a plethora of bodies to paint, mostly polycarbonate but I have a nip clodbuster body set to paint that I have had for years to replace the broken one. 

I have also got to cut my collection down considerably as my hobby room is now my boys room, and he has to get his stuff in there, as much as most people think he won't mind walls of rc toys...

And although we moved over month ago, all our stuff, including my rc boxed stuff, is taking up the whole garage.

[Pauli330]

I think this is a common "problem". You need to deside what is more important for you.

For me

1. Family with the two minime's

2. Work because I need money to pay the bills

3. Hobbies

Because my minime's are 3 and nearly 6 now I get some more hours for RC and sometimes they help me that's really a plus (sometimes :-)).

[WillyChang]

Reality check... if you think you haven't got time Now...

Youll never again have the same amount of Free Time as when before kids. 

3yrs later... You'll never again have the same amount of Free Time as when kids were still in diapers.

3yrs after that... You'll never again have the same amount of Free Time as when kids were still in kinder.

3yrs after that... You'll never again have the same amount of Free Time as before they had extracurricular activities...

etc etc etc rinse & repeat

(all we got left is to look forward to them moving out... eventually )

[Mad Ax]

The interesting thing here is it's not so much about the amount of free time I have, as the fact that when I had a bit of free time and nothing else to do, I found myself aimlessly wandering around in the workshop wondering what I was going to do with myself.  I think I'd just been working so hard to get the cars ready for the Broxtowe meet (thinking it would be the one big RC escape before the Revival in July) that I pretty much burnt out on it.

Oddly enough today is a different day: I've managed to book into Round 2 of the Iconic Cup, which is this Sunday.  I wasn't planning on doing it at all, but Round 2 is almost on my doorstep, so it seemed rude not to.  That means this week's lunchbreaks will be about making sure the M03 and FF01 are prepped and ready for a day's racing.  Fortunately the M03 was run only a few days ago and the FF01 was put away in reasonably good condition last time around, so all they really need are new tyres, new control motors and some fresh electrics for the FF01.

@berman mentioned PND - I was worried my wife would suffer, it actually turned out I did.  I won't go into details but it was a horrible experience, albeit one I managed to get control of pretty quickly.  My wife makes sure I have personal space and time every day so I can stay on top of it, and I make sure I'm home from work in plenty of time to see my daughter before bed every night.  We make sure we put the DIY on hold to get some family time every weekend.  We've probably had more good times out together in the last 12 weeks than we had in the last few years.

More than a rant about not having enough free time, I think it was a rant about how I find it hard to motivate myself to do my least favourite jobs, like body trimming and masking   

[Driveforfun]

Yes, i do get burnout probably to wife's relief. Right now i'm not so hardcore about RC, but i do still maintain the itch to make sure if anything breaks, it's fixed right away or i don't sleep properly until it is! I scored an RC plane that a guy threw in on a trade for dirt cheap, so i've been learning to fly it (and of course repair it). The fact that i was only out $50 to acquire it has made me brave in both flying and repairs - that thing has so much glue on it right now i'm surprised it still is light enough to fly! But by god, she still flies!!

 

I still like to grab an RC when walking the dog or when my son is outside riding his scooter or bike...main thing is i'm not itching to take a trip to terrain parks and such, just drive an RC when convenient now.

 

 

[Jason1145]

On 08/05/2017 at 0:35 PM, Mad Ax said:

 

More than a rant about not having enough free time, I think it was a rant about how I find it hard to motivate myself to do my least favourite jobs, like body trimming and masking   

Ax, if you ever want to ship a couple bodies to me I'll gladly paint them for you, I can even do masking and put window masks in, you want a half half colour.. no problem.

I don't even mind trimming Bodyshells, quite good at it now, must've done 30 plus in my time! 

You get the drift, the offer is there if you can't face doing a few body shells, maximum of 5 though, don't be a cheeky sod and send me 10 to do

 

[casethejoint]

On 2017-5-8 at 0:35 PM, Mad Ax said:

I think it was a rant about how I find it hard to motivate myself to do my least favourite jobs, like body trimming and masking

Sounds to me that the time you have to yourself in the workshop is precious/valuable, so you don't want to spend that time doing tasks you don't enjoy. And you'd rather spend that time doing nothing/wandering the workshop and looking/thinking. That's quite understandable. That's your brains way of doing something enjoyable and spending that time wisely, it's not a loss of motivation at all.

I've had the same "burnout" and what I do is try and have 2 or 3 projects on the go at various stages. That means if I only have an hour spare, I can spend 20 minutes doing something I don't like and 40 that I do.

 

[Mad Ax]

12 hours ago, casethejoint said:

I've had the same "burnout" and what I do is try and have 2 or 3 projects on the go at various stages. That means if I only have an hour spare, I can spend 20 minutes doing something I don't like and 40 that I do.

That's a neat way of working.  I've often got various projects on but I can be quite a messy worker, I leave my workbench cluttered with Project A so I have to clear it before I can work on Project B.  This is fine if I intend to start a project and work thru to completion, but when I get frustrated with something I then get frustrated with having to clear my mess  

On the plus side, it means less set-up time when I have limited workshop time.  Today I'll have 30 minutes to swap the bottom ball ends on some vintage Tamiya TA03 shocks so they'll (hopefully) fit my FF01.  The TA03 is already on the bench, the FF01 is on the unit beside it, the tools are out and the box with the spare shock parts isn't far away.  The only thing that isn't local is my shock pliers, which I forgot to get out of the house this morning.

The workshop is a bit overloaded with stuff thanks to all the DIY work, but as DIY projects get finished (slowly but surely) the workshop gets more clear and easier to work in, which is good for me and my wife too, as she has had to stop doing all her woodworking hobbies both due to baby and due to lots of house furniture being piled up in front of her lathe.

[Mad Ax]

So this week's dive back into project mayhem has been partially successful.  My test-drive of my battle-scarred FF01, not driven since I broke it at a Snetterton meet back in 2015, went pretty well.  The only serious problem is (yet another) sticky Tamiya servo saver.  I've figured out how to get a Kimbro in there (with some modifications) so that's my project for this lunchtime.

I've also managed to overcome my fear of painting, and I have painted a Beams Integra shell to go on the FF01 for Sunday's Iconic race.  In theory this was dead easy because it's just one colour and there are (curiously) no window masks for the Integra.  But try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to paint over the windows, so I ended up making my own window masks.  And then I decided to do an alternative two-tone colour scheme (I rarely do boxart on race shells), which added to the amount of masking required.

Then I hit it with some genuine Tamiya paint.  It's only a shame I didn't use Tamiya masking tape.  I now understand why a little roll of Tamiya tape costs significantly more than the five-for-a-pound pack that my wife got from the pound shop.

So tonight's plan, after I've laid the baby down to bed, is to attack it with some black lining tape to cover up all the bleeds

Part of me says hey, it doesn't matter, it was a race shell thrown together quickly, it'll only be used for race events and doesn't have to look good.

Another part of me says, hey, I've had that shell for years, intending to do a neat single-colour modified street car look, and now I've ruined it with a lame badly-painted race scheme

 

I'll add some photos later.

[Mad Ax]

I'm sure I promised photos on here, but had a bit of a crazy weekend (successful at the Iconic Cup, less so in other areas  ) but will try to post up some photos later, then put this thread to bed

 

[Mad Ax]

Been a while since I posted here.  Over a month in fact.  I took a bit of a break from RC stuff and focussed on doing other things for a bit, until the bug bit again.  I've managed to do the odd bit here and there, adding form to my race trailer, fixing up a few little bits for my Revival runners, and last night I finally broke my bad run of painting by masking and spraying my MAN TGS race truck shell.  It's been knocking around in my studio since last year, moved from place to place, picked up, put down, cleaned, left, cleaned again, and finally dumped on top of the piano for what seems like an age.

And it came out pretty well, too.  Not the world's easiest masking job, but made easier by the fact that I cheated and painted the engine details on the outside.

I managed to get a few photos last night of work-in-progress but I'll sit on them until I can show the finished product and I get the time for a proper outdoor photoshoot.

And today I'm going to do something different - the van is loaded up with the King Blackfoot, the Top Force Evo and the Manta Ray, all of which need a bit of a shakedown before the Revival.  So provided the heatwave doesn't end with a torrential downpour around 1pm, I'll be heading off to some local fields for a test-drive

The only downside of my reignited passion is that I've decided I need another RC in my life and I've found an NIB for an unbeatable price and I'm struggling not to hit Buy It Now, despite the fact that I promised the wife we'd save up to get the garden sorted!

It's good to be back