fifteen minute modeller

fighting procrastination fifteen minutes at a time

Tag: 4mm

Basic Beginning

15th November 2020 / / 0 Comments

When I sat down to write this post I was looking back at the previous post and realise that this blog is much like my modelling at best sporadic and at worst, well, non-existent. It’s a constant theme and something that I have struggled with for a very long time. I look at others and try and learn from them and hell even the name of the blog and my modelling is 15-minute modeller. At this moment in time, it couldn’t be further away from that and I am minded of the picture taken from Voyager 1 all that time ago and think am I like it head off out of our solar system, never to be seen again or can I turn this craft around and grab hold of that tiny thread of light. Maybe it’s a bit dramatic but sometimes it feels that way and in order to do this, it just needs small actions that can grow into bigger progress.

Well at this point after seven months of inactivity and a global lock dow that many took advantage of in there modelling endeavours, I have very little to show. I raise this as others I know suffer from the same malaise and that in some way gives me strength that I am not the one procrastinating to a full stop. Life in general to me seems somewhat unclear and with all the other “stuff” going on, one’s mind is yanked in all directions, unable to find solid ground.

But an organised mind can somewhat combat those feelings and to this end, I have decided to try and breakdown my modelling project into small pieces. Rather than feeling overwhelmed with the entirety, if I just think about the next thing until that ie checked off then there will be progress. Yes, I know that all the productivity and getting things done turns off a lot of people but for me it allows me space to not get too distracted. As you will know from reading this blog, if you keep up with it, the common theme of that lack of focus evidenced by the sporadic posting has been there from the beginning. Some might say why bother writing about failure, or not doing something but for me it is an important reminder to try and do better each time I post here. I do go back and read previous posts if nothing else to make sure I don’t repeat myself post to post.

So here in the lock-down 2.0, I am getting myself back to the modelling table and attempting to restart 1st Layout Build Project. If I’m honest I rather lost the mojo for the foam board, but I am going to push through just in order to be able to say I built it and am learning many valuable lessons from this project. But for the time I will leave you with the image of the Yard Office that I am scratch building out of materials I have lying around from food packaging and if you haven’t seen it there’s a vid up about it over on youtube.

Cardboard carcass from basic Materials
The carcass for the Yard Office in 00 scale

Until the next one…

Building a baseboard

14th April 2020 / / 0 Comments

In an attempt to get me back to blogging I am going to try doing some micro blogging, where I can just put up a short post just to keep the flow going until I reach critical mass and can keep the habit going. I enjoy writing these posts as it is a way of bringing thoughts together in a way that isn’t really possible in other mediums. But I have banged on about this enough and probably loads of times before so will keep my ramblings to a minimum.

The point of this post is to mark a milestone that is a major step forward for me. Some time has passed since moving to this new house and getting to the point where I have a space to play trains in. For so long I have been procrastinating about the fact that I didn’t have or couldn’t do but now I have no excuse! “You need to build a layout” I have been told!

The YouTube channel I started and probably why I post less here is a great carrot and stick in that it motivates me into getting things done and feeds the doing. It is however also the stick and is the beast that must be fed. Although I don’t profess to be one of those fancy full time YouTubers or someone who really knows what they are doing, one does get a little interested in the analytics. But to become a slave to them would be the death of a hobby I think. But I did make a commitment to myself to do a consistent content upload and on the whole I have kept to it.

I really like the process of creating the videos and although I know nothing about film making and editing I stumble on trying to get a little bit better every time I make one. Yes I know there is a tonne of stuff out there but I thought I would try and find my “way” before I start being influenced by others. It’s thinking about how one is going to tell the story of what’s happening in front of one, keeping it interesting to me as well as an audience is quite a tricky thing.

All of this is to say that my latest effort marks the start of hopefully many layout builds on my space constrained shelf. For me variety is the spice of life and boredom is the enemy of creation.

As a slight side note, in this time of uncertainty and restrictions I and pondering will I have enough resources to complete the build but for the time being I have enough to keep me going for quite a few weeks, hopefully to the point of near completion.

If you care to find out my efforts you can see them here

So until the next micro blog, stay safe and hopefully enjoy a bit of your own hobby time.

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