Complete loss of interest

[Tony P]

[tor lives]

So glad that my rut is such a source of amusement for everyone .
TOR

[Graeme H]

Ray, we may post joking responses, but it's because we care, we don't like to see fellow modellers get in a rut, you probably need something out of left field to get your mojo back

maybe a car model or a an eggplane are just a couple of suggestions

[RayS]

Ray, we may post joking responses, but it's because we care, we don't like to see fellow modellers get in a rut, you probably need something out of left field to get your mojo back

maybe a car model or an eggplane are just a couple of suggestions

..or perhaps just tidy up your work area/model bench. It usually does it for me

If there is too much crap around from the 15 kits I have on the go, I tidy the bench, try to put stuff back where is belongs (if I can find a place) and then pull something out and get going on it.

[Ansett A330]

Ray, we may post joking responses, but it's because we care, we don't like to see fellow modellers get in a rut, you probably need something out of left field to get your mojo back

maybe a car model or a an eggplane are just a couple of suggestions

Ditto.

Another suggestion for a car - what about one of these? (Or too close to the Heart?)



And just remember ruts are symmetrical - so long as you don't stop at the bottom you should have enough momentum to get up and bounce out the other side!

[Adam the Akrodude]

Hang in there mate!

Crap in my man cave was almost falling in on top of me getting me down. Solution was to get a skip and throw out 3 cu. metres of crap! Maybe get rid of kits you've no interest or passion for - ones you know you'll never build and buy more 1/32 racers! Damo is right too - collecting kits is another part of the hobby, not just building 'em. I have though been enjoying building my little Spatz - even adding a lot of detail which I enjoy doing.

Keep the faith and hopefully your mojo will return. It's very hard to get inspired when tired and stressed from work, etc. Bend with the find, go with the flow and don't stress it man!

[BradG]

I've got even more time for modelling now as the museum decided they didn't want a model show and I might actually get a few entries into Expo this year as I won't have a Commodore full of someone else's crap.

[tor lives]

I've got even more time for modelling now as the museum decided they didn't want a model show and I might actually get a few entries into Expo this year as I won't have a Commodore full of someone else's crap.

No WINGS anymore.......so why
TOR

[BradG]

I've got even more time for modelling now as the museum decided they didn't want a model show and I might actually get a few entries into Expo this year as I won't have a Commodore full of someone else's crap.

No WINGS anymore.......so why
TOR

Well committee apparently looked at the figures and decided that Wings was not profitable and that traders coming in from the show were competing with and taking away sales from the front shop. I have to say I am pretty flipping angry with the museum at the moment. 4 years ago they asked dad and I to see if we could resurrect Wings as the previous committee had run it into the ground. I told them at the time I could do it and that they should consider Wings as a museum event designed to draw people through the door, specifically modellers and hobbyists who would spend money, especially with their second hand books. I also said that it should be used to promote the museum as a great community place, looking after the locals, etc etc, all that good PR stuff. The museum thought this was a good idea and even wanted to compensate any club with a cut of the income over the weekend. This was not my idea, this came from the president himself. One of the clubs even came down and did some work on the Gannet.

I'd never had any complaints from committee the last 4 years. Hell committee loved it. I have to say last year I got some strange feelings from the museum, as if they simply didn't want the show, even though it was extremely successful. We had 160 visitors on the Saturday and 60 more on the Sunday plus 30-40 families over the weekend, the target for the book sale was achieved on the Friday night just from the entrants alone and over the weekend the book sales tripled their target. The bloke looking after the book sales was more than happy, as was the front desk.

As for clashing with the front gift shop...what, the whole 15 Airfix kits they had for sale? So Wings gets the credit for clashing with product, but not the credit for the modellers who came through spending several thousand dollars on books at the front gift shop......?

Now consider the cost of Wings was not a huge amount. The president himself told us that the MAC had put up the sponsorship of the trophies (a fact that they now seem to be back peddling on, so who's telling the truth?), the clubs cut was covered by the raffle and entry income, leaving the only expenditure not covered the Model Art Advert and some printing, less than 500 bucks. The fact that dad and I had made the museum 1000 dollars income at Model Expo was conveniently forgotten. Way back when Wings started with Axis Eagles, Axis kept the income of the raffle and entries, so we were pretty much back to the old way Wings was run.

So my guess is for them to come to the conclusion that Wings did not make money, they must have done something I like to call Ouija board accountancy. I suspect they didn't credit Wings with the income from the book sales nor the entry to the museum over the weekend, thus Wings made no money and actually lost a few hundred dollars. I made it pretty clear at the beginning that Wings was designed to get people through that door, it would not make a huge amount of money just off model entries and in fact, if it did I wouldn't be able to handle it because it would be the size of Model Expo. I wish they would have told me 4 years ago that this is what they wanted, because I wouldn't have wasted 4 f***king years busting my butt building up the show.

That said, I believe there are other factors that led to Wings being cancelled. Last year dad was accused of being a misogynist in an editorial he wrote for the Museum newsletter. He was then fired from the position of newsletter editor. Dad regularly attends museum of victoria lectures in the city and his editorial was about how he saw these history lectures being used to thinly cover left wing political rants, that the actual history was being lost and he mentioned that many of these lectures were being given by young women. Apparently to identify the gender here was misogynist, according to museum committee. Not only was dad removed as newsletter editor, he was told he could not represent the museum at any future event. So they just took a hot steaming dump on a man who gave 40 years of his life to the museum, a museum life member, most successful and longest serving president and someone who genuinely cared about the place. As for being a woman hater, his father died when dad was 7, he was brought up by a single mother with 4 children, he has 2 sisters and had to drop out of a mechanical engineering degree to get a job to help his mother with the family as a young man. He's also been married to my mother for over 35 years. Sounds like a real women hater, right?

So not only has the museum crapped on dad, really peeved me off, destroyed a very popular newsletter, thrown away a successful museum event, but they have lost several opportunities to sell their second hand books. I was offered free tables at several swap and sells for the museum, that I was fully prepared to volunteer my time and petrol to take items to sell on the museums behalf. Now though, they can get stuffed.

[Adam the Akrodude]

That is indeed disappointing news Brad. I won't go into or delve into any "politics" here, as quite frankly I've had it up to the back teeth with "club politics" which seems to exist in pretty well any organised and collective group of individuals - human nature I guess.

The Wings model show at the museum was great to be a part of and always fun catching up with a few fellow modellers. You can at least take heart in doing a fantastic job organising this event. Like you, I can't understand just how it lost money, but of course not having access to the financials (nor wanting too!), I can't comment any more.

Sadly for me and the kids, it's one less opportunity to visit the museum - oh well. I'm sure if Wings resurfaces somewhere, you'll let us all know. I'm sure we all agree in that you did a great job organising Wings mate. Get stuck into gluing some bits of styrene together - always a good antidote for crap that happens in life!