Suffering from Gunpla Burnout? Try Plamo!

Ever get that tired feeling with something you love doing, but for one reason or another it's been getting less and less fulfilling with every new project you do? That's what most people would call burnout. That state of mind where something you find fun and satisfying starts to become a chore.

Some say it's either the hobbyist, the community, or the franchise that's the main problem, but in my case it's a little bit of everything.


Earlier, at the start of the year I got tired of a full 2013 doing nothing but Gundam model kits (in 1/144, and halfheartedly finishing two 1/100). I was going through the aforementioned burnout phase. New work  messed up my schedule and split my concentration, and to be honest I've been growing tired with how little I've been learning and finishing since coming back to the hobby, not to mention how I've haven't found a solid group to integrate with (although I do really feel more comfortable as some wanderer on the fringes), I've been in the events, immersed in the scene, talked with the people in the hobby and a combination of everything above just killed my mojo for these tiny plastic robots.

Last year's work, not as much as I'd wanted done and not as fine, either. 

A friend of mine (who also mixes some paints I use) suggested I try something else, A hobby that he's a veteran of and is basically the progenitor of Gunpla; I should dive into the world of Plamo (or Plastic Scale Models). Fair enough.

Last October 2013, I bought an aircraft kit for fun ( I LOVE planes, yo.) , and amassed a stockpile of five by the end of that year, just for kicks, saying I'll get to working on them as soon as I get really good with gunpla. And of course being the scale stickler that I am I bought 1/144 scaled kits.


Welp, the opposite had happened (as it really should have) by the beginning of  2014 and I was diving head-first into this new hobby, which I thought wouldn't be so bad since I've already set a limit for myself. 1/144 kits are really sparse locally, and most are old tooling kits that need some TLC to look good.


I decided to do a Leeroy Jenkins and finish one kit in a day.

I instantly fell in love with the little things. 

My first attempt turned out decent and I learned a new skill (somewhat)--Soft Edge Camouflage. I shed my previous apprehension, threw out the "I can't do this or that" thought out of my mind, and  before I knew it I was doing more and more of these kits as time passed...

 

And progressively found myself getting better.

Stuff I picked up:

• Freehanding Camo.
• Learning to love the process of masking.
• A better patience with applying decals.
• Doing steps in advance, and planning. 
• Researching (well, technically I rediscovered it, and just applied it to my hobby instead of school or work).

Stuff I dropped:

• Rushing (although this is pretty much a hard habit to break off sometimes).
• Hamhanding tiny plastic parts.
• Over-using glue of any kind.
• Not measuring (or at the very least, learning to guesstimate a bit more)

Aircraft modelling at this scale is satisfying. You can churn one out in a day or a good weekend free of any tasks, the kits themselves are marginally affordable and offer you options in decal choice and armament, and these days, the kit engineering is at par with gunpla at least in terms of ease of assembly.

This hobby appeals to me in that a certain or rudimentary level of obsession is required from the modeler. You can choose the ugliest plane out there in your opinion and once you start doing research on the history of the model, how it came to be, so to speak, you gain an appreciation for it. Truth be told, I only wanted F-22s and other more modern fighters, but gradually came to love some oddball designs.

The Saab Draken being now my personal favorite.

Plus, you start to learn the value of preparation, and patience. I admit, I liked to rush my earlier models since I wanted to see them done up and painted immediately, but I've gained a renewed interest in the process of building itself.

Sanding parts, building instrument panels, painting pilots (I almost always have one in the cockpit), that's my therapy right there.

And these little guys became my hobby within a hobby. 

Right now i'm testing the waters with 1/72. It's taking more time than usual but I really want to get this one right.

Overall Plamo taught me a few things. I learned to be more patient with how I build, and try to see the order in things. I started to appreciate the little mods I do to kits, I realized good personal builds really shouldn't be reliant on overly flashy mods. That good prep and a patient attitude will give you the results you wanted, no shortcuts.

So no pressure to make this look like the best Zaku out there, just the best to my standards, heh.

EDIT: And boy, are we getting there.

As I'm slowly easing myself back to gunpla, I'm trying my best to apply these sorts of old-new learnings and being mildly surprised that my rate of finished kits are slowly increasing again.

and Operation V will soon be complete. 

I've ventured into more dulled down finishes, taken an interest in military-looking or real-type looking colors, even experiments into weathering my kits. All this is fun to me, and probably the best part of it is I've been learning the importance of actually working with friends as opposed to groups, and starting to see the fun in the hobby again. I just hope the ball keeps on rolling this year, and despite the fact that my backlog of kits (gunpla and aircraft combined) has exponentially increased, I'm less daunted by that pile of boxes staring at me from my left side as I type this, In fact...


I can't wait.