Continuing the series of retrospectives, let’s take a look at year 2025.
Similar to 2022, 2023 and 2024, in a global, geopolitical sense the year was very bad from my perspective, which of course affected my mental well-being.
On top of that, I had a severe, debilitating burnout at work.
Naturally it affected my modelling, and not in a good way.
Thankfully there was one event that proved to be a real turning point for the better - IPMS Ireland Nationals 2025. I got a lot of inspiration from that show, and also bought two models which I started to work on right away.
KrAZ ATZ-22
I was so happy when I found this old model in the exchange stash at the IPMS Nationals. It’s simple, and it’s a great subject - an old civilian truck, which not only did I see in person many times, but also grew to love in Snowrunner (a video game).
I started to build it right away in October 2025, and got it right up to the point when I needed to paint. I didn’t have the right paint, and was eager to start the Galway Hooker model, so stashed it till next year.
Galway Hooker
Lovely model which I wanted to build for years. The plan was to build it in a couple of weeks.
Despite me making the build much harder and replacing everything with scratch-built wooden parts, I managed to almost complete the hull of the boat this year.
HMS Alert POF
I simply continued to make and install frames whenever I could. I had a couple of productive months, but then the burnout at work took hold of me and I stopped for the rest of the year.
Finished the year with about 2/3 of the frames installed. Very much looking forward to continuing working on this model.
Conclusion
Not a single model finished this year.
But I continued to build models, and it still helps with my mental health.