I don't finish them. Sometimes, I just build them. Other time, I get a couple of coats of paint layed down. I'm slowing down, now. But, it means that all of the builds I was really enjoying, up to this point I can return to.

I definitely have a rotation of many builds ongoing at all times! The most critical ingredient to model building is inspiration/motivation/energy for a project, and without that you aren't going to get a lot accomplished.

So if a project starts to feel like work to me, I carefully protect/pack what I have done, write notes/labels if necessary, re-box, and re-shelf. I then break out project #2 if that seems like more fun, and start or re-start work on that one.

I try to model a little every, or almost every, day. A lot of my armor projects are 1/35 Dragon kits.

They tend to take like a month of individual work days I would say, though a "Work day" is not 8 hours for me. More like 3 or 4 at the most, and often only 1 or 2.

my problem is I'm allways trying to look at other ways to do the same thing ,and that slows me down to the poant I don't get anything done .

Thanks all. I don't feel so bad now with kit build times well into the years. Like others, I have a half-dozen or so kits in various stages of completion. Some of them are half-built while others really just need to be painted. My biggest problems are finding the time and keeping from being distracted by a shiny new kit that I just have to have and build.

Back when I was in college [no full-time job, no “serious” girlfriend, no other kits to work on, and few other interruptions] in the late 90's, I timed myself building a Shanghai Dragon Panther Ausf. G from the moment I cut off the first part to when I considered the model “finished”. It took me right at 40 hours spanning a period spanning from a weekday night to Zero-Dark-Thirty Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Now with a wife and family and the obligations that come with them, other hobbies, a full-time career, etc. along with the fact that kits and aftermarket sets have become more comprehensive, it takes me years to finish a kit whether I like it or not. Right now, I am in a process of cleaning off my workbench and either finishing the shelf queens or tossing them. Couple weeks ago, I completed a Sd.Kfz. 251/9 that I started when my daughter was born; she turns 11 later on this month. I am now trying to complete an Eduard Jagdpanzer 38(t) that is serving as a test bed for a winter whitewash scheme before tackling a Takom early Panther Ausf. A. After that, I am probably going finish a Trumpeter E-75 before building “1946” Tiger II – again to test out various techniques before building a newer-generation model.

I've got shelf queens from several years ago, in all different stages short of completion. If I lose interest, or most often, decide I need to wait for some interesting AM part, or better references, or (insert any old excuse here) it gets shelved and something else started. I currently have around five on the actual shelf above my work area, three or four further away but still visible, and a few in their respective boxes that I've most likely forgotten about, with two kits on the bench, currently undergoing assembly and painting. I also have four or five in the case, needing figures or antenna, but otherwise "finished".
I may actually get two or three per year into the case, where the other "finished" models are.

I seem to be always working on three kits at a time. Mainly as one kit is paused due to waiting on glue or paint to cure, I will start on the next kit in queue and the next if I reach a stopping point on that kit. Right now I been able to finish each kit that is at the top of the queue before completing the next on in queue.

I did stop work on a ship model that I became burned out on with all of the PE work that came with it. But now I am getting thoughts of going back to it.

Mark

No such thing as a typical model....

I know someone who knocks out say a Dragon or Takom kit in a week & if I finish something similar in under a year... It's a speed build!

The only annoying thing is how much better at painting them than I am!

it says '14 years and over' on some kits ......