I am my own worst critic. I dislike basically everything i make. Maybe not dislike. But i never consider it "good". Always room for improvement. I dont like how this looks. I can do that better. 

I just finished a sort of alien planet native alien house type build. It was supposed to be super easy quick throw it together and move on type build. Nothing special. Took all day because i kept re building it. 

So, at what point do you step back from a build and say to yourself, yep. Thats it. Thats done. Thats what i wanted? 

3 hours ago, metalgeekzy said:

So, at what point do you step back from a build and say to yourself, yep. Thats it. Thats done

I have never had that moment.
I like to make complex big Creator like models with Technic stuff inside, so there is always a new way to make something more compact or smarter, or just nicer. And I find something to improve sometimes years after I am done. The longest time I worked on a MOC was two years, just for that reason.
I guess that goes for every theme and every build, especially if you are a bit of (or hardcore) perfectionist, or simply how much you like what you build at the moment.

Right now, after a mini dark age, I am working on a new stuff, and I wanted to see how much stuff I can make "perfect" (modules of the build that I find fully satisfactory), before moving on to a next section of the model. I still haven't finished the cabine of a vehicle, after 1 year

When you are happy with it. 

I've built many things in the past and have revisited them as I later decided that they could be improved but they were still finished at the time and ready to display. 

Lol, I have to say, I have never finished a moc. I tend to always change things around sometimes just a little thing other times, I may tear the whole thing down and start over.

A lot of times, I make B models of certain sets those I do actually finish but I consider that to be different than an actual moc.

For the most part though a moc is never finished, even if it sits on a shelf, neglected, for years. I almost always revisit it and make changes, large or small.

When you are satisfied! I echo what Milan said. I have usually taken on something that is beyond my current abilities. I spend a lot of time with it on the back shelf so to speak. Then one day I might have an epiphany, and suddenly all the problems I was having with it get solved.

When your LUG event starts in an hour or two, the MOC is deemed "complete". The show must go on. 

 

Speaking for myself, a MOC is finished as the last part is placed.  At that moment, I’m satisfied with the result. Of course, I sometimes see things that could be better, but then, in my case, it is too late. For me, building a MOC can take several years. I usually start with making drawings to avoid errors because I wouldn’t like it very much to demolish a building halfway due to a mistake during the building process.  

But I think it is personal.

I know afols who have great lay-outs, and they are never finished. They constantly change their town as were it a real town.     

I also think a moc in never done. THere is always something that can be improved, even on a smallest 4 wide car.

Once my vision of the build is reached.

I have a picture in my head of what I want it too look like, roughly at least. Think of it like still-locked videogame content back in the day; there is a silhouette or an outline and only once you win/achieve/reach the right level is the detail filled in. 

For my vehicles it is exactly like that: A shape and I hit that shape I want. Sure I might want to add a few stickers or swap a part or two for printed alternatives, but it is built. For a building, once it looks like the mental image I have, then I am happy with the build. I might change up how it is populated by figure on the regular though. So a castle tower would one time have two guards and a bird, but next time it is a cat and a staff person sweeping, then the next it is the King/Lord and a dog. The build is complete but the residents are ever-changing. 

Of course, there are A LOT of MOCs I create that are never 'polished' enough or cannot hit the mental image I had which get scrapped or re-worked until they are what I want to make. Then taking photos is a whole other thing...

I do more modding of LEGO’s builds than MOCing. But either way, my baseline is if it’s as least as good as LEGO’s own design standard.

That doesn’t tell me when to end though. So what’s my top line? I usually start with a concept or a particular improvement to one of LEGO’s design and consider it done when I reach that point. Sadly, cost is sometimes a limiting factor - my LEGO budget isn’t nearly as big as I would like!

On 9/24/2021 at 8:45 AM, metalgeekzy said:

So, at what point do you step back from a build and say to yourself, yep. Thats it. Thats done. Thats what i wanted? 

Similar to your other question a few weeks ago to which I also replied it might help to establish a certain disconnect with your work and step away from it from time to time. Of course you describe what is the curse of most of the creative industries, anyway - technically, a lot of stuff is never finished because there is no accurately measurable goal or result and stuff only ever is declared finished when you run out of time or budget or you (or the client, respectively) decide it's good enough for what it needs to achieve. With regards to my own MOCs I find that I'm most satisfied with them when they communicate the story I wanted to convey and/ or show a certain level of technical finesse. I also feel that often it helps that my LEGO stock isn't that big and I don't get weighed down by considerations of abundance of materials or doing stuff differently simply because I couldn't, anyway. Perhaps that's another trick to use: When your models "work", set yourself a limit on what to use for polishing them.

Mylenium

A finished MOC can often be improved some time later when there are new more appropriate parts or you learn a new technique. But if you enjoyed displaying it all that time, it was still finished enough.

@MAB, Interesting point. Does that mean that a MOC can have multiple finishes? Is ‘a MOC’ even meaningful if so or is it a different MOC? How much needs to change for it to be a new MOC? It’s an ontological conundrum!

5 hours ago, AmperZand said:

@MAB, Interesting point. Does that mean that a MOC can have multiple finishes? Is ‘a MOC’ even meaningful if so or is it a different MOC? How much needs to change for it to be a new MOC? It’s an ontological conundrum!

I see it like software, just add a version number. Are Windows or MacOS or Ubuntu or Redhat ever finished? They were ready enough for release many times but frequently improved upon / updated.

15 hours ago, MAB said:

A finished MOC can often be improved some time later when there are new more appropriate parts or you learn a new technique. But if you enjoyed displaying it all that time, it was still finished enough.

On that note; some of my MOCs remain despite many years of new parts and colours.

I could improve the build, but I call it a redux or a whole new MOC.

3 minutes ago, Peppermint_M said:

On that note; some of my MOCs remain despite many years of new parts and colours.

I could improve the build, but I call it a redux or a whole new MOC.

Yeah, sometimes you can just tinker slightly with an old design and change something minor. And sometimes you can rip it apart and start again to incorporate something new.

Either way, to me, if it was good enough to be displayed then it was finished at the time. Especially for MOCs that are not published but are more just for personal use, there is no time stamp on when they are "released". So good enough to display is as good a definition of finished as anything else!

 

 

This must be something that composers, writers, painters etc. would discuss often. I once heard a songwriter say that their album was finished when they stopped working on it. You could say a MOC is finished when it is as close as possible to the image you have in your mind's eye of the completed model, or simply when you can't see anything more than can be done with it. That doesn't mean nothing more to add, as it's easy to go too far and add too much, decreasing the quality of the model. Maybe that's when a MOC is finished, when any possible alteration diminishes rather than improves the 'finished' product. Even then, composers and writers will revise their own works, often many years later, and the same can certainly apply to MOCs.

Like going back and redoing the Star Wars movies?  Recently I modified my ripsaw tank MOC and it didn't perform as well as version 1.0.

When I stop working on it.

If it's an alternate build : when you run out of parts.

Never. I tell my partner always "it is done now" and then months later after some new parts came out I get asked "did you change again/it looks different".

There's a bunch of heavily modified/almost MOC'ish sets I want to get rid off (selling, once I find a proper page) so I simply had to put them away or I'd put more effort/time/money into them.