Does anyone remember an old Tom Cruise movie called “Risky Business”? One of the catch phrases of the movies was sometimes you have to say “what the (fill in the expletive here)”. At the time I really thought that was pretty funny, but little did I realize how true it was.

We all get into our ruts, as a matter of fact my last several Spraybooth Logic columns have been about being in a rut of some sort.

What makes up a modeling rut?

1) An inability to finish things. This is the simplest of the ruts. You really like to do cockpits or to paint models, but you hate decaling. There the model sits, just waiting for those decals with a prize winning cockpit in it. The worst thing about the inability to finish is that the kits seem to haunt you, sitting on your modeling bench like an open wound. So you find yourself avoiding your workroom like you avoid a particular strange member of your family at a family reunion.

2) Loss of interest. This happens to everyone. Nothing really tweaks your interest quite enough to get you started on a new kit. Another symptom of this is also “the wait”. You know the wait, it's when there is a kit that is just about ready to come out and you decide that you will wait until it is released and make it your next project. Well we all know that the wait just leads to “the wait part II”. This happens when your first wait just about comes to an end and magically the new issue of SAMI comes out with the future releases in it. Will the waiting ever end??

3) The gloom of doom. Too many kits on the shelf that you want to build, so rather than digging in, you do nothing. This is one I've written about often. You can pick through kits and get excited about almost every one, however you can't get excited enough to want to build any one of them.

4) Peer pressure. That's right; it's not just for teenagers anymore. Maybe you really feel like doing a tank kit or a car or heaven forbid, a sci-fi kit! However you start to think about the ration of crap you'll get at the next club meeting and the idea quickly dissipates as does any hope of actually building something.

5) “My kits never look that good.” I know I've felt this way when I bring stuff to meetings. I don't feel like I meet up with the standards set by the other guys. You know, sometimes this is true, but you are being selfish here. I can't tell you how many kits that have not been the “best kit on the table” have inspired me to build. They are also sometimes the ones with the best story or history behind them. You never know who you might inspire.

6) Crappy kits. I know a couple guys that have 300-400 kits. Not Hasegawas or Tamiyas, but Airfixs and a bunch of limited run stuff. Here's a piece of sage wisdom from Dr. Dave (come real close to the screen now) LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BUILD CRAPPY KITS! That's right; I said it and I won't take it back! Trying to build a contest winner out of an inferior kit is difficult at best, so why start with a strike against you.

Look, major league baseball hitters don't try to break out of slump by hitting against Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens, their managers put them into situations where they can be successful and rebuild their confidence. That's what modelers need to do also.

So what's your confidence breaker? Are you just not interested anymore or have you just tried to build too many crappy kits with very mediocre results? Maybe it's time to just say “what the (insert expletive again here)” and jump on board again. Heck, grab a tank or a car and see what you can do, maybe it will kick you in the butt and get you building again.

So, until next month, shut up and build something!

-Dave