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markbt73

I've noticed something annoying...

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During the week, when I have very little time for any hobbies, I spend my lunch breaks and other scattered free time messing around on TC, which reminds me of something cool that I want, so I go to eBay or other sales outlets to check prices and availability. But then I remember that I don't have any money available for hobby stuff at the moment, unless I sell something. So I start thinking about what I might sell.

But then I come home and actually have a moment to look at the stuff I thought about selling, and I really don't want to. In fact, just pulling down off the shelf makes me want to finish whatever grandiose plan I had when I bought it. Not only do I not want to sell that project, but I want to spend more money I don't have on the little odds and ends I need to finish it. So I splurge and order those bits, and then the model goes back on the shelf and sits there with a few new parts in bags nearby, because I don't have time to work on it.

So I spend another lunch hour daydreaming over things for sale, and the whole cycle starts again...

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I feel your pain man.  currently signing invoices and browsing TC at the same time.  all while looking at parts for my random cars I haven't spent more than ten mins on in the last three weeks.

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This is VERY close to the situation I find myself in, so I can really relate. 

I'm so busy with work and family that I barely have enough time to bring out my kits and work on them a little here and there, and the weather this time of year means it's always too hot and humid to go outside and drive them, so I'm stuck here looking at a row of what have all become shelf-queens-in-progress. When I do have a little time, I browse TC, and RCMart/RCJaz/ebay looking for the next piece (or pieces) that I need to make one of my builds that little bit nicer to look at or to drive.

It's a never-ending cycle that sometimes entertains, but at other times frustrates, because I feel I'm not getting the time to enjoy what I buy, whether it be by building it or driving it. Thankfully money is no issue, but that doesn't make a big difference when you have so little TIME. In fact that might make it worse. I constantly have a surplus of hopups that I haven't gotten around to installing on all my builds, and when I do get around to it, I sometimes find that I've forgotten why I even bought this or that doo-hicky :lol:

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1 hour ago, markbt73 said:

...So I start thinking about what I might sell.

But then I come home and actually have a moment to look at the stuff I thought about selling, and I really don't want to. In fact, just pulling down off the shelf makes me want to finish whatever grandiose plan I had when I bought it. 

This has certainly be me recently. So I bought another car. At least it ran straight out of the box...

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2 hours ago, markbt73 said:

During the week, when I have very little time for any hobbies, I spend my lunch breaks and other scattered free time messing around on TC, which reminds me of something cool that I want, so I go to eBay or other sales outlets to check prices and availability. But then I remember that I don't have any money available for hobby stuff at the moment, unless I sell something. So I start thinking about what I might sell.

But then I come home and actually have a moment to look at the stuff I thought about selling, and I really don't want to. In fact, just pulling down off the shelf makes me want to finish whatever grandiose plan I had when I bought it. Not only do I not want to sell that project, but I want to spend more money I don't have on the little odds and ends I need to finish it. So I splurge and order those bits, and then the model goes back on the shelf and sits there with a few new parts in bags nearby, because I don't have time to work on it.

So I spend another lunch hour daydreaming over things for sale, and the whole cycle starts again...

I've recently bought a bow for archery, so I now spend some of my free lunch hour shooting cardboard cutouts pinned  to some bales in the garden. Very therapeutic and keeps me away from Ebay.

Now to the RC part of my comment :)

I have in the past put huge amounts of effort into building scratch built models, which have taken me years to complete. I build them myself because a) Nobody will build a kit of the model I wish to build, and b) I used to like a challenge of doing something no-else has done before.

I have now realised that

a) Usually nobody has done it before for a very good reason, and as soon as I get stuck into something (I.e. spending lots of time and money on it) I come up against a tricky engineering problem and spend many hours trying to figure out how to fix it. After 2 years or so I've lost interest in it, have already thought of 3 other things I want to build, and then only end up finishing project No. 1 because I'm too stubborn to admit failure, and too tight to just drop it in the bin.

b) Once said money pit is complete, I've usually lost interest in it, and it ends up sitting on shelf forever more, so instead of being outside enjoying running the model, I'm stuck in the workshop machining up the next overweight fit of madness.

c.) If spent as many hours as I did on my projects emailing Tamiya saying 'Please build this', they'd probably get fed and give in after the first 1000 hours of emails and I'd end up getting what I want and it would be a lot less effort than building it myself :ph34r::lol:

d) Although my scratch built models are fun, they probably aren't enough fun to justify the amount of time and cash I spent building them.

e) The hobby has become more frustration than fun, and the more models I have it feels like I have to spend time working on them just to keep them all running.

So my suggestion is:

Put your favourite model next your computer you use for surfing. Enjoy what you've got. This will remind you of what you've got, and you may be less inclined to want to spend more on getting stuff you haven't got. I got more fun out of my one and only model when I was a kid (my hotshot) than I do from all the models I've got put together now, and I guess a lot of us are trying to chase that fun we had when we were kids, but of course we're not kids any more and certainly my brain works differently now, age has applied a 'fun' filter to it somewhere, so I'm getting about 10% of the child fun factor.

 

 

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23 minutes ago, MadInventor said:

I've recently bought a bow for archery, so I now spend some of my free lunch hour shooting cardboard cutouts pinned  to some bales in the garden. Very therapeutic and keeps me away from Ebay.

 

Derail!

Here's some inexpensive fun for the whole family: 

 

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39 minutes ago, MadInventor said:

I've recently bought a bow for archery, so I now spend some of my free lunch hour shooting cardboard cutouts pinned  to some bales in the garden. Very therapeutic and keeps me away from Ebay.

Yes sir !! - I plink with my CO2 gas guns at empty Carlsberg cans - not at work tho' ( other cans are availble at most outlets )

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34 minutes ago, MadInventor said:

Put your favourite model next your computer you use for surfing. Enjoy what you've got. This will remind you of what you've got, and you may be less inclined to want to spend more on getting stuff you haven't got. I got more fun out of my one and only model when I was a kid (my hotshot) than I do from all the models I've got put together now, and I guess a lot of us are trying to chase that fun we had when we were kids, but of course we're not kids any more and certainly my brain works differently now, age has applied a 'fun' filter to it somewhere, so I'm getting about 10% of the child fun factor.

The retro simplicity of RC has been overtaken with new tech / new ideas . Go back to simpler RC for the youthful fulfilment . I do admire your engineering skills to the MAX though  , so there is my dilema as I can't resist a custom make / modify or 2  ;)

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5 minutes ago, KEV THE REV said:

The retro simplicity of RC has been overtaken with new tech / new ideas . Go back to simpler RC for the youthful fulfilment . I do admire your engineering skills to the MAX though  , so there is my dilema as I can't resist a custom make / modify or 2  ;)

Trying to get the TBLe-02 working in the comical hornet, and not being able to get it to work with an ACOMS servo and 27Mhz receiver, I couldn't help thinking 'I wouldn't be having this trouble with a 3 step MSC, and it would be good for 4S until the resistor melted'. ;)

 

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1 hour ago, MadInventor said:

So my suggestion is:

Put your favourite model next your computer you use for surfing. Enjoy what you've got. This will remind you of what you've got, and you may be less inclined to want to spend more on getting stuff you haven't got.

This might work if I was still working from home, but I doubt my boss would be cool with me plopping a toy car down on my desk. "No really, it helps me concentrate!"

I think what I need to do is just make more time for things I really enjoy, and try to spend less time in front of the TV when I get home. It's just so easy, when you're tired from a long day, to fall into the sofa, turn on Netflix, and turn off your brain...

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39 minutes ago, markbt73 said:

. It's just so easy, when you're tired from a long day, to fall into the sofa, turn on Netflix, and turn off your brain...

So true. Decompression time is not wasted time though. To get some RCing in, I have booked a day’s holiday on Friday for a ‘Daddy skive day’. I plan to spend it in the garage, tinkering. I won’t get everything done but I hope to make some decent progress, even if it is just organising some stuff for winter building.

As for a car in the desk, go for it! I have my ‘All Metal Frog’ on my desk at work, it is a good conversation starter. But then my boss can’t really complain - he got me interested in the hobby when he bought a Hornet (and he had a go with the Outlaw this afternoon in the car park!).

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1 hour ago, markbt73 said:

This might work if I was still working from home, but I doubt my boss would be cool with me plopping a toy car down on my desk. "No really, it helps me concentrate!"

I think what I need to do is just make more time for things I really enjoy, and try to spend less time in front of the TV when I get home. It's just so easy, when you're tired from a long day, to fall into the sofa, turn on Netflix, and turn off your brain...

Ahh, thought you were working from home. I'm working from home now, but it would have priceless having the War Rig on the floor next to the my desk at work, boss walks in and I say, 'Boss, we're going to need a bigger desk....'

I must admit that I tend to decompress in front of Netflix in the evening as well, although I do tend to spend half and hour looking for something I haven't watched yet.

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2 hours ago, MadInventor said:

I got more fun out of my one and only model when I was a kid (my hotshot) than I do from all the models I've got put together now, and I guess a lot of us are trying to chase that fun we had when we were kids, but of course we're not kids any more and certainly my brain works differently now, age has applied a 'fun' filter to it somewhere, so I'm getting about 10% of the child fun factor.

This is very very true. Quite astute @MadInventor.

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I always find myself looking for more tires. They just don't seem to last, I have gone through more tires than anything else.

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Actually, if I'm honest, another part of the annoyance of this whole thing, approaching it from the other direction, is that there's really only one more thing I want that I don't have - a re-re Bruiser/Mountaineer. It's the last RC frontier for me, and I know to make it happen I'd need to sell quite a few other vehicles. And it's easy to think "oh, I can sell this, and this, and this..." when they're not right there in front of me, and much harder to think about letting them go when I see them on the shelf.

But if one day soon you see a huge "for sale" thread from me, you'll know I've made my decision...

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"...Not only do I not want to sell that project, but I want to spend more money I don't have on the little odds and ends I need to finish it. So I splurge and order those bits, and then the model goes back on the shelf and sits there with a few new parts in bags nearby, because I don't have time to work on it."

 

For me, a notebook helped.  I used to have endless (75+, no kidding)  RC projects that never reached completion and sat on metal shelves with zip baggies full of assorted parts.  Then I cleaned house and sold most of them.

Then, as we are all known to do.. I started with a NIB kit.. then another.. and soon wanted to add upgrades. But this time, I kept a notebook and made a list of items while I surfed the web for glittery bits during my lunch break.  It helped me stay focused on the things I wanted to do with each particular model (and how much money I was going to sink into it!) and also prevented me from taking on another challenge until the previous one was completed.  

Thus far, (19 models all complete) I haven't allowed myself to take on any new projects if I am awaiting parts for more than one model.   

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I came to similar conclusions recently and sold off as much as I could.  I'll miss some but there's more freedom now.  I don't have my lists of expensive "necessary" upgrades for cars I didn't drive much.  I don't have to decide which car gets it's parts first.  I don't need to think about anything really, and losing that weight on my mind when thinking about the hobby is the best part.  I've officially got more than double the number of receivers I need, which I never foresaw happening.  More wheel time and less reading/spending is my mission.

By the standards of a lot of people here I hardly had a collection but, in hindsight, I still had too many.  I'm down to just an almost stock XV01 and a stock M07.  Both are very capable even without upgrades so I don't feel the need to spend much more on them or research what is needed to solve the inherent problems other chassis can have.  Although I'll still buy another car or two, I can now see how being more pragmatic is necessary.

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An interesting topic :) 

I've had a fair bit of free time during work recently - as much as 2-3 minutes idle time every time I perform a build and run tests, with as little as 30 seconds work between.  Since it's not worth switching to a new task (and few spare system resources to switch if I did), I spend a lot of time idly browsing TC.  But since TC doesn't move that fast, I end up browsing Facebook (which is not good for my stress levels) and Quora (which is not good for my brain cells) and the model shops, hardware stores and instructable sites (which is not good for my bank account).

My free RC time is limited to two evenings and one long day per week - into which I also want to cram in some music, fiction writing, walking, cycling and motorcycling, as well as going racing or crawling.

The key factor driving my spending impulse right now is the uncertainty of the pandemic - right now I can still go racing (outdoors), or I can still meet up to 6 friends to go crawling (I actually only have one local crawler friend anyway), but there's no certainty on how long that will last.  My next race meet is just over 2 weeks away and given how much things have changed in the last 2 weeks, I might not be racing again until summer 2021.  A cold snap might keep me out of the workshop and in the studio or house, where my RC fun is restricted to new builds and design work for decals or 3D prints.  Fear of a long, isolated winter is steering my budget towards NIBs that I can tinker with in the house.  And yet, I'm almost completely out of space for more cars, but like so many people, I'm reluctant to let things go.  The only things I probably wouldn't miss are things that wouldn't raise that much money or sell very quickly.

Plus my budget is being drawn in multiple directions.  I really want an FDM printer to complement my resin printer.  Resin prints look nice, but they're far too brittle for structural parts, and I have so many projects that would benefit from tough structural components.  I can hand-cut some parts from aluminium or delrin, but they never look tidy.

I also want a CNC router.  I didn't even realise these were a thing until a month ago, but the promise of cutting my own chassis plates from aluminium or FD4 is too much to ignore.  No more ugly hand-cut alu chassis plates!  I can transfer my CAD designs directly to alu without having to print / trace / jigsaw / file / polish.  I can finish my Clod, my WT-01, I can update my scalers...  And yet I know it won't be as simple as that.  I know there will be a learning curve in getting it all up and running and then probably a long and costly process of upgrading the parts that aren't up to the job.

I also want to work on my monster trucks.  They're fun to build and modify in the workshop and although nobody races monsters in the UK, at least they can be fun out in the open fields where Tamiyas get swamped by grass.  But there's a huge shortage of monster truck parts right now.  I think I bought the last JConcepts monster body in the UK yesterday, and it wasn't the one I really wanted - just the only one I could get.  Tamiya stuff might be shipping in again but JConcepts, Proline, etc are nowhere.  I really need some good 2.2 tyres for a waiting project and I need some Clod-size wheels and tyres for my NIB SMT10 which has been sitting around waiting for me to start it since March.

At the start of lockdown I decided to focus on rally cars.  My theory being:

  • they're a good multi-surface platform, but smaller than a buggy, so I can race them in my garden
  • I can build a few low-spec rally cars for cheap
  • I can let friends borrow them when they come over so we can have a small local rally championship without the need for big race clubs

This was supposed to be the perfect post-lockdown racing antidote.  However it didn't go entirely as planned:

  • my lawn is bumpier than I thought, and 1.9 rally tyres won't run on it
  • my attempt to mow my lawn shorter resulted in a bent mower blade and some badly damaged turf
  • official post-lockdown racing got started much faster than I anticipated
  • friends didn't feel comfortable spending time in close proximity in my back garden

So now I've got a bunch of half-finished rally cars on the project list that will need sundries like radios, motors, ESCs, servos...

Finally - I'm feeling the urge to be more creative / public with my hobby.  I don't want to start yet another generic RC youtube channel.  There's no way I could complete with the likes of RCKicks or Matteo - my cars aren't that tidy, I don't have such a continual supply to feature, I don't have the video personality and I don't have the recording equipment.  But I have been thinking (for quite a few years now) about a "youtube challenge" series - something like an RC mashup of Roadkill, Colin Furze and Scrapheap Challenge.  But that too will require some serious tidying of my workshop, some new cameras and mics and a good supply of cars, chassis, parts and ideas to keep it fresh.  Plus the immense amounts of time that must go into all the post-production - picking out the best video clips, stitching them together into a coherent story, adding music, graphics...  It must take an age.  Probably the sort of time I don't really have.  But I do wish I could share more of what I'm doing while I'm locked away in my workshop.

Add to than a possible house move sometime in the next 6 months (lockdown allowing), and all the hassle of boxing up all my stuff and probably having to compress it all into even smaller a space...

It's no wonder I spent my last workshop day standing among a pile of project boxes, looking at each one in turn and wondering what I can actually do that doesn't involve prematurely starting yet another new kit or spending the whole day in front of the screen designing 3D parts that will probably break as soon as I fit them...

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