I only realized it after checking the date I bought this domain: 11 August 2005. Oh my…
Of course, my online presence is older than that but this domain name began back in 2005. And after 20 years, I still can’t decide between calling it ‘Rocket Punch’ or ‘RocketPunch’. 😛
In any case, thank you to everyone who took the time to visit my corner of the Internet. Some of you even took additional time to comment and email about my stuff. I’m eternally grateful.
In the last 20 years many things have happened with my hobby:
- I’ve made life-long friends and am proud to say that some have become my closest friends
- I only started building consistently in 2006 when my son asked me about why I have so many kits but I don’t build. After I asked, he asked me to build the Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire. This build re-ignited my joy in the hobby
- I try to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour every evening dealing with my kits which helps me with consistency
- I began with pure acrylics for painting to reduce smells but have since switched to so-called acrylic-lacquers thinned with Isopropyl Alcohol. This is my ‘goldilocks’ paint of choice now
- while I’m still a slow builder, I have come to be a more careful one when it comes to. I still fall into the mistake of not reading instructions carefully though
- I used to concentrate on one build at a time but I think for me at least, that can lead to boredom, especially if it turns out to be a challenging build. Life’s too short to be bogged down by crappy builds so I move on and maybe come back to this one later when I’m in a better mood
- I still don’t like dealing with photo-etch parts but it has become more tolerable at least
- I’ve come to be more accepting of less detail if it results in better fit i.e. an easier build
- chasing perfection is not a realistic goal
- I’ve only ever binned two kits in the last 20 years and both were the Academy P-40 Warhawk. I hope that I will finish one one day
- I still prefer building 1/72 kits even though my eyes (especially since 2023) would really benefit from 1/48 kits
- after 20 years I’m still not very good with figure painting. We all need to know our limitations
- life always finds a way to take some of my time but I hope to be able to finish ten builds a year again one day
The biggest lesson I’ve learned in this last 20 years though is: finished not perfect.
Speaking of which, what has happened to me in real life in the last 20 years:
- I turned 50 in 2025!
- I moved my family back to Jakarta, Indonesia back in 2007
- I have two kids now with the older about to start his Sophomore year in the US
- my family adopted two dogs in the last few years
- I have tried a few times to get my kids into the hobby but it didn’t take
- I’ve had two retina operations on my eyes since 2023
- I’ve had a decent so-called career and am in the process of starting two new businesses. Where do I find the time for the hobby right? 😀
Although I’m still building consistently, I’ve unfortunately lagged way behind in taking photos of my builds. It’s due to a combination of both procrastination and some frustration with doing it properly. Basically I still can’t make my photos look consistent build-to-build. I hope to get sa practical workflow going some time this year.
Site-wise, before I started building again, I had a lot of news of releases as content. As I built, I would post up WIPs which eventually evolved into longer form build posts like what I have now. Back then I also posted up previews of kits as content but as actual building of kits get priority, these along with short release posts have on the wayside. I think these types of content make my site a more ‘bloggy’ personal one and it keeps the site updated more often. But I don’t see a practical way of doing them without sacrificing building time. Facebook is actually an easier medium for stuff like that but I don’t want to have two instances of my site existing on two platforms.
Having built close to 100 kits by now, I’ve started having the inevitable problem of display space. I’m not at the stage where I’m willing to throw away old builds yet but for me this is a good problem to have (thinking positive!). And for the record, I’ve made about a 10% dent in my stash. Somehow I don’t think it’ll get much higher than that.
Anyway I think I’ve rambled long enough.
Will Rocket Punch ever get to 50 years? I’d be 80 by then so I doubt it. 40 though, there is a very slight chance… let’s find out!
