For myself personally, web-sites such as this is very much an escape from the constant turning of the world of reality, when I am not at work, what little time I have I spend on my models, my wife constantly giving me a good old ear bashing about not spending enough time with her and our son, apart from myself, there's no one other than the people reading this that take a slight intrest in my hobby, I'm completely on my own where this hobby is concerned, right that's enough with the sick bucket, and now for the reason for this new thread, at those moments that you're bored out of your head and you end up actually building something worth while, its like a kick in the backside, the following pix is the result of unwanted diorama base and 30 minutes of mucking about with paint, cottonwool and then photographing the whole thing while everything was still wet -



Anyway, while I was thinking of taking a brake from building scale models I actually broke out my old Lionfish and wathered it for no reason other than something to do, am I losing the plot ?

Hey Alec,

When you say "plot", to what are you referring too?

Very nice little diorama you got there by the way.

Hello Kenny, my marbles, a serious lack of importance and blance between building my models and my home life, I can't juggle between the two as every time the coin lands, it lands showing a model, (wow, quite profound that). I work 3 shifts and tomorrow I start the early shift 07.00 to 15.00 for 7 straight days, I've just had 2 days off and before that I worked 8 straight nights 22.00 to 07.00, I'll get up in the morining check my email, coffee, look at my model, do a bit of work, then go to work, come home, coffee, start my model, I'm married and we have a ADHD 8 year old boy - you'll probably understand as much as myself if I were good enough to build and sell, but I am no where near good enough and this is only a hobby, so I keep telling myself, the darn thing has taken over my life, they say 'STOP' and I say please tell me how ? My wife would love me to build one model at a time, and actually spend time building it, I once built the 1-350 USS Missouri in 7 days and that's everything from paint to rig to full crew, I honestly believe I took my time, my IJN naval base that over on modelwarships.com took almost 3 weeks, this is 7 ships, 8 smaller surface craft, 10 buildings, the works, at the moment I am working on the LST-4001 and a 1-700 Japinese transport ship, any advise apart from doing an Old Yellow on me would be great.

The diorama that I've now finished, not happy with, being the very first full blown 1-700 its a good effort but I feel could have been better, the sea has now been changed, and I am seriously thinking of braking this up to build a smaller, more compact dockyard using some of the same methods used in construction.

This overview is now a darker blue/green taking away the bright blue which I actually liked, sadly, there are no dockyards with a sea this blue, I can dream.

Good, I was going to comment on the blue being a little unrealistic. Juggling life is something we all have to deal with. Maybe getting your son interested in the hobby would quiet the wife and benefit the boy at the same time. Get some of the really cheap snap tite stuff and let him have a go at that for a bit.

Alec,

Don't be too hard on yourself. Like may of us, modeling is your way of relieving stress. One of the ways I incorporated modeling and family is to build some sub-assemblies while spending time with family. Steve's idea is also a very good one. Just remember that like all things, moderation can be a good thing.

Kenny

Alec,

My wife suggested I get a hobby to help me cope with her cancer treatments. So, I started building again, 2 years ago. Now of course she complains I spend too much time doing it, but I know when she gets back at her pottery I will hardly see her.

She does go to shows with me and really enjoys seeing the finished products. She still thinks I am nuts to pay for something I have to assemble.

BTW...I like the big harbor scene!!

Thank you all for the supporting and kind words, apparently my IJN dockyard will stay to gather dust while I build one, a single ship model with emphasis on the word 'TIME' and linked stongly to 'TAKE' and oh yeah my old woman also threw in 'YOUR' among other strange colloquial tones, I am to link the 3 words together somehow LOL boy oh boy did she get the hump, the Shimokita LST-4002 is my next project that I will be taking my time building, which I do with all my models, but this time, I will take extra time in the build, it doesn't mean it will be any better, just it will take me longer to build, and it will be one and only one model at a time, a first for me, once again, thank you all.

Alec - I like the dios
and yes, we all have family, kids, etc and we need to find a way to juggle them without dropping any pins onthe ground! The economy has hit hard on both sides of the pond; some of us have had to scale back the time (and quids) spent on the hobby. But like many (most?) in here, I returned to the hobby as a way to relax and unwind after stressfull job situations. Cheers