I love listening to the modelling podcasts, which was a revelation as I was convinced the subject matter wouldn’t lend itself to an audio-only format. How wrong I was; I enjoy them all.
Whilst listening to one of the recent Plastic Model Mojo episodes, Dave Knights made a comment along the lines of, “I have only 30 minutes and that isn’t enough time to do what I need to do next”. Now, I think that’s the gist of it. I can’t remember what Dave actually said, and it sounded like a rather throwaway comment, but I’ve emailed him and I think this is a fair representation. I’m not going to go trawling through the last five episodes to find one sentence of audio!
But it did catch my attention and got me thinking, since I often model in thirty minute chunks. In fact, I don’t think there’s anything I can’t make a significant dent in if I’ve got thirty minutes: parts can be glued together, seams can be filled and sanded, a model can be primed or painted, decals added, something masked…the project can always be moved forward. It may not be the most efficient method, but at least it’s moving.
A lot of this is down to the materials that are now available and which I referenced in my previous post on productivity. Superglue sets in seconds and makes a wonderful filler. Lacquers dry just as quick. Mini spray guns mean large quantities of paint can be applied in minutes; I once primed an 1/48 MiG-31 in the half an hour I had before teatime. With a motor tool a canopy mould line can be scraped, sanded and polished in little longer than it takes to dip it in Klear. In the 2020s we’re modelling on steroids and I think it’s us that are struggling to keep up.
Because I actually understand Dave’s comment. I think it’s a psychological block. When I got going on my collection in the mid-90s, things *did* take a long time. Plastic cement did take a while to cure (I was using Revell Contacta dispensed through a tiny needle – horrible stuff). Putty was solvent based, came out of a tube with HUMBROL written on it, and needed at least 24 hours to cure, whereupon it would have shrunk and you’d add more and wait another day. There was a lot of waiting. My paints were enamel. They took ages to handle and mask. Even simple camouflage schemes took multiple sessions because once you’d sprayed a wing, you’d have to wait until the next day to hold the other.
Modelling was an effort. Nowadays I can hold the airbrush in one hand and the sanding sponge in the other, polishing as I go. It’s astonishing. The problem is my mindset evolved much slower than the materials I was using. I was still mentally thinking, ‘It’ll take me x hours to do y’, when in reality it could be done in x/4 (or whatever). You don’t need to wait until tomorrow to mask. You can do it now!
So materials and mindset. There are other factors, too.
You can clean your airbrush quicker than you think you can. It used to take me ages to clean out my Badger 200 siphon feed. That was a real mental block to airbrushing: do I want to have to clean it at the end? But there is a dirty little secret not often spoken of: with a powerful enough solvent (I use a generic gunwash), you can get your airbrush clean enough just by squirting a cupful or two through it (assuming you’re using a paint that will dissolve in such a material; I don’t airbrush water-soluble paints and with them all bets are off). If you’re modelling regularly, in daily thirty minute chunks like me, that’s good enough. You can clean the airbrush more thoroughly the next day if you have a spare moment. Even then, a thorough clean shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.
Lastly, I have a plan. Not a complex one, but I know where I’m going. Whenever I finish my modelling session, I know exactly what needs to be done next. Often I write it down, on the decorators paper I use to cover my workbench anew with every project. I jot down lists. It takes seconds and it means that the next day, when I sit down, there is no dithering, no decision making, no getting my mind back in the project: it’s there already; I know what I’m doing. It helps that I only work on one project at a time so don’t get distracted or confused, but it’s a simple trick that has hugely helped me just get on with modelling.
Materials, mindset, maintenance and method.
But who am I to dispense advice? I am not you and you are not me. In all our discussions on mojo, and productivity, and shelf queens and What You Can Do To Fix Your Modelling Problem(s), we too often forget that a lot of it just comes down to psychology. What works for you may not work for me, and vice versa, because we’re wired differently. The idea, for example, of a ‘palette cleanser’ from a different modelling genre is anathema to me; I cannot think of anything less motivating. For others, it really works.
So take what I say with the pinch of salt it deserves, but I will still contend this: In thirty minutes you can make a meaningful dent in any model you’re working on. Prove me wrong in the comments!
For more info on modelling podcasts, visit http://modelpodcasts.com/.
Back to home.
Jon's Models 
I can’t prove you wrong on this one, as it’s been my method to make progress. If I’m going to try and find a 3 hour block of bench time, that’s not going to happen very often. But I do have plenty of 30 minute slots I can grab, and in that way, make progress. It’s working in terms of whittling down the ridiculous number of Shelf of Doom™ residents I have.
Many model-building activities can be broken into bite-sized chunks – construction sessions, cockpit painting sessions, detail parts clean-up, preparation of resin aftermarket and so on. Tamiya Extra Thin or its Mr Hobby equivalent certainly speed up glueing, and for filling (and non-styrene glueing) Bob Smith black superglue with accelerator (and solvent – thanks Tony Bell) have certainly made for a more reliable and predictable filling experience, and result in a manageable superglue-based area to file or sand back to shape.
Likewise, I can make satisfactory airbrushing progress in 30 minute sessions, especially when I use those disposable micro-pipettes to dispense paint (less clean-up) and stick with a single paint type for airbrushing (lacquers, or those which thin with lacquer thinners). My recent trial with MRP has me sold on moving over to this style of paint which requires no thinning. That will take a while, though, as I work through all the current Tamiya, Mr Hobby, Mr Color and AK RC on the shelf.
I see (far too many) posts from (far too many) people awfully discouraged about airbrushing because of the perception that more time is spent cleaning than spraying. I certainly remember it being like that when I was an early teen, trying to clean out sticky Humbrol enamels with white spirit and not make a mess everywhere. But nowadays, a quick blast of Tamiya Airbrush Cleaner and a quick wipe of the needle at the end of the evening and I’m generally done.
Certainly, some projects (or Shelf of Doom™ residents) need a larger time chunk than 30 minutes, so I’ve found it important to recognise that and plan for it, rather than start a major “over the hump” session if I can’t complete it.
I will have to try writing down what needs to happen next – that could help me enormously. And probably reduce the number of simultaneous projects…
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Thanks for your reply Tim. Keep me updated on how your efforts to increase production go!
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