Shelf of shame, or the path to glory?

[Blind Pew]

Following on from a recent thread, the conversation went in a direction that I feel may warrant it's own thread.
How do we progress our figures? I'd say I do about 75% to their conclusion, from beginning to end. A further 20% run out of steam and I end up finishing them off later. Sometimes these can be the most satisfying projects and carry a greater sense of achievement. The remaining 5%... best not think about.

I think a key thing in modelling is recognising when a project is going bent. Losing interest in a figure is fatal. Boredom is not the father of excellence. Best thing is to pick up on the point where a figure is becoming a chore, or done for it's own sake. Always a precursor to the bin.

 

[Historex Rob]

99.9% of mine have been binned. Hoping to change this going forward.

Actually, thinking about it, 100% have been binned… the completed figures were tossed when I got divorced and moved away.

I have nowhere to go but up. lol

 

[Blind Pew]

I wish you luck, mate.

 

[theBaron]

I do finish the figures I start, though some do take longer, with a hiatus.
In scale models, I have a true Shelf of Doom, builds I started, then lose interest in for one reason or another. I have a 1/700 USS Pennsylvania I started in 2010, got assembled, and it's been sitting in drydock since then, awaiting PE.

Prost!
Brad

 

[megroot]

I always finish the one that I started before I go to a new one.
At the moment I'm looking forward to SMC, because I have no figures to paint in stock.

Marc

 

[Warren SMITH]

Ive lost count of the figures that I lost interest in, put away only to retrieve, strip back and redo when the mojo was better.
Ive also binned quite a few over the years..
These days when Im not in the mood to paint, I build, so that I have a choice of pre primed figures when the brushes start to call..
Ive just put together several Airfix 54mm figures.
No that the grey army seems to get any smaller..

Smithy

 

[David Spencer]

I finish everything. But only make/paint 3 or 4 a year.

 

[Nap]

Hi folks

Catching up on things , I have about 12 on the shelf .....all based up and primed in black ,some have been basecoated , all have the nameplates ready .....

.....and then something else catches my eye .....maybe get the putty out as well

Oh the joys of this fine hobby

Nap

 

[Merryweather]

I really like having finished things so I have disciplined myself in the last few years to actually finish stuff.But I also have more ideas than there is time available, so now I'm not so rigorous. Especially as my ideas are often crazily ambitious, my Iwo Jima diorama being one example. It's on the back burner for the time being. I've been busy with other stuff lately and I daren't even start painting something for fear of not finishing the other stuff.
I never bin anything.

 

[valiant]

I wont start anything new until the previous project is almost done. I will sculpt in between projects. I usually lose interest in things once theyre completed, consequently most things get sold, passed on or binned once theyve done 12 months of shows!

 

[cinimod]

I think I definitely have a shelf of shame, or a quarter of a shelf at least. It has started figures and busts that’ll definitely be finished one day and there’s also several that looking at this afternoon are well past me having anything to do with. I have never put a model in the bin so wondering if it’s time to pass them on……..dom

 

[Babelfish]

Of all the figures I've ever started, I've finished maybe 60% of them. Some of these I no longer own (given away / sold / damaged beyond repair in house moves / some older ones binned because I've decided that they're crap).

Some take me weeks, most take many months, and in extreme cases a few have taken years. At any one time I've always got several on the go in various stages of completion.

Of the rest, maybe 10% get binned before they're finished and the other 30% remain in an indefinite state of limbo on the "Shelf of Shame" - which in my case isn't a literal shelf but various drawers & boxes.

Some "Shelfers" end up finished at some stage, others don't.

- Steve

 

[WarhammerAdjacent]

I have a pretty good finishing record with figures and busts, I find they progress quickly enough to retain interest and the only ones I've abandoned have been sci-fi subjects I printed to play with. Having said that, when I say 'finished' that's often with things I could go back and improve if I could summon up the energy to do so.

On the other hand I have several boxes containing half built/painted tanks etc. One day I'll polish them off.

 

[theBaron]

Thinking again of my scale modeling and the Shelf of Doom, a couple of years ago, the one club I belong to chose "Shelf of Doom" as our annual build theme.

Each year we have a theme, we start in January, and then in December, we have a display of the items we entered for that theme (we also have a theme every month). When we chose "Shelf of Doom", the criterion was to pick something you started, then got stalled or stuck, and finish it as part of the annual theme. I wound up entering one SoD build, finishing it, then entering and finishing 2 more. I found the group theme helpful to stay motivated to finish them.

Prost!
Brad

 

[VerSacrum]

I sometimes "bin" something and then look at it a few months later and think that it isn't so bad after all and finish it. Tend to get tunnel vision during a project.

 

[bigtodd]

They mock me when I go to my table to paint. Then I see a box not opened yet and start cleaning it up ready to paint. Add a base coat then maybe finish it or get 90% done and add it to to row of other figures laughing at me because I did it again. Then there are finished ones without a base taking up table room because I can't bring myself to go out into the garage and make some. Let alone order them online.

Ugh Charlie Brown!

 

[theBaron]

They mock me when I go to my table to paint...

That's my Pennsy build. It sits on a makeshift bench in the basement, where I do my spraying. And it's on the way to the refrigerator I have down there, too. Every time I go by, I see it, and I think to myself, "I should finish that...". Then the thought goes away.

Prost!
Brad