Jimbo, I'll answer your original question directly. You're now getting this info truthfully, though I may have obscured this answer (or even lied to cover my shame) in other posts: sorry if I've done this... this is confession time...
... here goes...
Yes, I abandoned a model. I'd been used to making increasingly elaborate plastic models of ships, aircraft and the occasional tank. I was in my early '20s and thought I'd build a wooden sailing ship. I made haste to the closest model shop and bought 'Bluenose'. I got as far as the masts and rigging and threw up my arms in horror... I hated it. The model sat unfinished for years. I may have said to people on this site that it was broken when I moved house. That much is true. What I concealed until now is that I was secretly glad at the time: it absolved me of the responsibility of finishing the b****** thing!
I'm now much older. I sincerely regret being pleased by that ship's death (a bit romantic, but so what?)
1) I'm an engineer, so I set things out logically... apologies for that...
2) You've had some sound advice here, the most important is that model making should be fun, and it can be even for modellers of our shared "elder status".
3) Don't ever look at what others do and downrate yourself. I'm a professional mechanical design engineer, but that doesn't mean that I'll make the best models. People here have way more experience of model-making than I have. You can always learn. I learned as an engineer to listen to everyone. The people I listened to most were the ones making the stuff I designed. They had skills I could never hope to match... but I could learn from them. Couldn't equal them, but I came close at times.
4) Your age... had to mention it, you old duffer! I'm of a similar age. My beard is grey, my back is bent, my eyes are old and rotten! Errr... I lapsed into Monty Python there (the beard bit is true... it's long and grey. Oddly, my hair is still black). The point is, I know where you may be coming from. I've spent hours on my ship doing what would have taken me minutes, in my teens. I've just been trying to paint the great cabin windows for my kit. It took an age and I was mainly guessing when the tip of the brush hit the part. I wasn't happy with the result, but my daughter thought it was fine. The point is, you can do it, if I can. It'll take longer, true, but the satisfaction is greater!
5) I'm still wanting to learn and get better. You are too, by the sound of it. I think that people on this site will help (including myself, where I can) and between us, I hope that we'll restore your love/desire for modelling. Let's face it, you wouldn't have posted this if you had no desire to continue modelling.
6) I don't want to sound like some politically correct moron. What I say is what I mean: I'm a Northerner, when all's said and done. Hope you want to continue, but it's up to you.
I say do it and I'm confident that everyone here will do their best to help.
Edit: One of the reasons I abandoned 'Bluenose' was that I didn't have all the tools. I know what you'll think, and I do too: "A bad workman blames his tools". That's true to a point, but sometimes it's just impossible to make scale models without the correct tools. I have limited tools, but I've bought a number without which I'd have struggled to do what I've done so far and what I plan to do. If you have the money available, don't hesitate to lash out on good tools. You may think: "It's only for this model", but if you love this one, you'll love making more.
Of course, a lot of people think the same way about golf!
