Monkey Notes – December 1(5), 2025

Better Late Than Never

It just now dawned on me I was supposed to send this out December 1st. At least that was when I planned to. But… old man. {sigh} That’s the best excuse I can give I suppose. I forget stuff. 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

To say the last 6-8 weeks have been quite busy for me would be an understatement. I won’t bore you with details, but between home, work, church, and just things in general it’s been pretty much non-stop, and I’m fairly well worn out. So I’ll beg forgiveness for an abbreviated format.

Model Stuff

In terms of kits, I’ve realized that the idea of “build stuff and just do videos in no order” wasn’t a bad idea… but the execution of it has bitten me hard. What it has meant is that if I get bored, I just start a new project. Which is all well and good unless you’re actually hoping to finish both the models and the video series.

What I’m going now is (mostly) focusing on the already started projects to get them wrapped up, and not start on anything new until I’ve gotten the list whittled down a bit. We’re not talking a lot of builds – basically four of them. Still, I have to either move on, or get them done. And I do want to get them done.

So for the next month or so I plan to focus on those, and get them wrapped up. If all goes well it will actually fill up the video schedule until March or April, which is a good thing.

Videos

I have videos loaded up and ready to go through mid January currently. Two others should fall together rather quickly, so that pushes me through February. And as mentioned above, wrapping up the floating projects should push it out through March or April.

How I did two videos AND a 2000+ word blog post each week just a few years ago I’ll never know.

Until I figure out something otherwise I’ll stick to not sticking to strict sequential order. 🤔 Unless I decide otherwise… which means I have no clue what I’ll be doing later on in 2026. 🤦‍♂️

Plans Versus Reality

As I get older, I have realized that my ability to plan and execute a build has fully exceeded my capacity to actually do the work. In 2019, I built 39 kits in one year. That’s a model kit every 9 days and some change.

My available time to build has decreased due to work, so there’s not much I can do about that. But while I used to stay up late and work on models, I find I am ready to drift off in the recliner by 8PM, and I usually do. And though I get up early every day (0430… Army habit), often I sit and stare at a part, or fiddle with it too long, or get caught up in just thinking about it. So even the time at the model bench is less productive than ever.

I do enjoy it… but looking at parts on a sprue and drifting off to sleep while you do so doesn’t result in built models.

But Are You…

…having fun?

Yes. With caveats.

I am having fun with model building, no doubt. And I am still having fun making videos.

However, this year I discovered a few things.

• While I initially got very excited about doing some airplanes, it just didn’t grab me as it used to. The best way I can describe it is going back to visit a place you loved as a kid after a very long time. It’s just not the same. And you realize that when you loved it, you were a different person and it was a different place. That’s not to say I won’t ever build an aircraft again. But if I do, I likely won’t say a word until it is all done and dusted and uploaded to YouTube and 100% ready to go. That way if I bail on it… I mean a “hard bail”… I can just quietly box it up and put it on the shelf.
• I am done with “fiddly”. While I’ve never liked kits that seemed to be difficult for the sake of being difficult, in times past I’ve been willing to tackle less than stellar kits because I was looking forward to the end result. But this year has shown that my eyesight, hand steadiness, and general patience have given me a clear message: No more fiddly kits. The Ma. K kits with loads of wires, or the aircraft kits with tiny parts, or the Gunpla kit with 800 bazillionty parts. Nope… I’ll be looking to generally keep it simple.
• I have always loved airbrushing. I’ve airbrushed hundreds of models to what I feel is a very high level. I mean, I can tell if the paint is thinned how I like it simply by the sound of it emerging from the nozzle. But this year, as I have done some airbrush work, it seems more of a chore than a joy. It’s so much easer to just sit down and pick up a paintbrush and go to work. Start. Stop. Little cleaning is needed. And if I use a cheap nylon brush I can take the hard lazy route and just toss it, as I have 80+ more of that brush. So like aircraft, it’s not that I won’t airbrush… but it will be less and less of a thing for me. (Plus my arthritis is starting to show up when I use the airbrush…)

Wrapping Up

I am so grateful for everyone who reads my blog, and watches my videos. And for the folks who share some kindness through Paypal – thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. I know my modeling content is a bit like a grumpy old man who just sits on the porch and shouts at folks, yet every now and then smiles and waves. I do try to keep it more to the smile and wave variety, I promise.

As I look back, it does make me a bit nostalgic. While I am not particularly old (59 in February), it dawns on me more and more than I am more old than not. I am the age of the old men my dad knew when I was a kid who I would show my models to. And I thought they were ancient.

Yet, even despite a 20 year break (1986-2006), modeling has in some way been a lifelong companion that I truly enjoy. Even when I wasn’t building, I helped my son with models.

There may even be a day that I stop doing videos, and the website. Yet I am quite sure there will be bits of plastic getting coats of paint, even if I never share it with anyone. If nothing else, it is fun.

Happy day to you friends.