Indiana Modeler and The Curse of the Golden Stash

[DreamKnight]

An Editorial by DreamKnight

Indiana Jones.  This is who I feel like sometimes when it comes to scale modeling.  Let me explain.

I just got back into the hobby almost 9 months ago when I got back into the hobby, I mean not just thinking about it, or picking a model in a box and looking at it.  When I first rebooted into the hobby, I still had a few models lying around that would ease me into it.  But as I worked on those I grew.  I found SMA and Promodeler.com. I saw what other people were doing. I started to experience what's in the market these days. I started wishing. I started dreaming.  I started the hunt.

   I was comfortable with the stuff I had and the stuff I had access to, namely, cheap Academy 1/72 scale models.  But the hunger began and I began the process of what felt like trying to raise funds for expeditions so I can afford the more detailed models and to travel to exotic lands to find those hard to get models.  Now mind you, I live in California. Exotic lands to me is anywhere east of Kansas, but that's not the point.

The Expeditions.

I started to budget for more expensive detailed models like my current Golden Stash in my collection: The Eduard BF 110c 1/48 scale or buying aftermarket additions for what was a decently priced model.  So what was a $25 model suddenly became a $50+ model.  Let's not mention how some of these Czech made products are hard to find. Have you ever tried to purchase a resin cockpit for a 1/72 Academy Corsair? I had to contact a hermit in the jungles of England to procure that baby.

Then there's the dream.

Being a huge Trekkie, I can't believe how hard it is to find a larger variety of those AMT Star Trek ships now-a-days. When I was modeling in my younger days, you couldn't walk into a LHS or Toys R Us without seeing a shelf full of those AMT Star Trek Models.  Now you have a few shops online as an option if they aren't out of stock or pay your first born on Ebay for those models.  Otherwise, you have to work with their expensive resin counterparts which isn't a bad thing. It just isn't the same. However, there is a light on the horizon with the re-issue of some those models this year. My dream for a Golden Stash would be to be able to find all those AMT models and build them all.

And then there is the legends.

When I got into the hobby, I found myself surrounded more and more with scale model marketing for those reviews and advertisement for those really awesome kits.  You know the ones.  You see them in the shop.  You stand and stare at them for an hour or so thinking about how you can get your hands on it and if you do, if you even had time to build them.  You're shuffling your kids college funds in your head or coming up with outrageous capers of robbing the federal reserve's or digging out excuses to give to your significant other about how you obtained the model and having the family stave for just a week is in the best interest for national security.  Then sadly, you walk away, head down and dejected saying to yourself, "Someday..."

The Curse Continues...

Of course, the curse doesn't just stop at model kits.  I have collected a variety of Tamiya and Citadel paints but now I find that I need to have an extensive selection of Vallejo colors to add to my collection.  The horror never stops!

We're all cursed with the Golden Stash and that's part of the adventure in scale modeling. From the expedition to the final moment of holding that model you've been seeking in your hands consider yourself the Indiana Jones of Scale Modeling.

So, let's hear from you. Share some of your silliest story of what you had to go through to get your Golden Stash.  You saw, read or heard about a model that you knew you just had to get.  Was it simple to obtain? Or did you have to jump through loops and hoops for it? You're on the air with "This week on SMA..."!


Other "This Week on SMA..." topics:
What type of model is currently on your most wanted list?
Your most wanted Plane Kit...
Your most wanted ship Kit...
Your most wanted Armored Kit...
Your most wanted Vehicle Kit...
Your most wanted Sci-Fi/Fantasy Kit...
Your ultimate wargaming project...
The ultimate kit in your hands!

[Scott Girvan]

I found eBay in 1999. It was April. I started bidding on Star Wars kits like mad. If I saw it three times I would bid on each auction. Turns out I won a lot of them - all to the tune of around $1000. GULP. My son was also born that week.  DOUBLE GULP. I'm not a guy with cash like that to throw around, especially when I now had another mouth to feed.

Oh, but the selection of kits......I ended up with 67 of em. 4 copies of some. Hence the large Hoth scene.

[Elm City Hobbies]

Ahhh young Padawan....but all these old AMT Star Trek kits are new again, and all to be re-released by Round 2 in the near future, including an all clear Enterprise D kit, to aid in easier lighting of it.

How did I acquire my kits. Bought alot on Ebay (before I got into the business itself), LHS and such.

Then I became the LHS, which depending on how you look at it, is a blessing and a curse, because you could now have that elusive kit you always wanted at cost now (providing it was still being produced), however, it makes it all too easy to "just add an extra for yourself" when doing the orders.

I think my personal stash has gone from about 300 to between 500-600 in the last 3 years I have been open. I however don't buy as many on Ebay anymore, only those that are long out of production, and they are cheap......usually those 2 don't go together, but every now and again you get lucky.

Some currently I look for. Back in the late 60's early 70's, Tamiya had a selection of 6, 1/18 car kits. This was before they ventured into the 1/12 cars. I picked a Porsche 910 Le Mans
car up on ebay for a paltry sum of $30 with shipping. I get the box home, and it is really quite a nice kit, not up to today's standards, but for 1969, it would have been very well detailed. On the side of the box it showed some other kits in the series, 3 other Can Am cars, and 2 street cars. Well the street cars were ugly, some little Subaru econobox I had never heard of, and a little Honda econobox (smaller than the civic of that time).

I have since gotten one of the Can-Am cars, the Lola T-160
and continue to look for the other 2, a Nissan R381 ,
and the elusive McLaren M8A

I have seen the Nissan listed on Ebay occasionally, but have never seen the McLaren. These kits were re-released in the mid to late '90s, with the exception of the McLaren. Rumors as to why it wasn't re-released run the gambit from not having the licensing, to the molds were either damaged or lost. Thus, it is the hardest to find out of the 4.

[DreamKnight]

Ahhh young Padawan....but all these old AMT Star Trek kits are new again, and all to be re-released by Round 2 in the near future, including an all clear Enterprise D kit, to aid in easier lighting of it.

Haha yeh! That's why I mentioned the re-issue. OH! let me know when you get them in!

[Quaralane]

Ebay and resin kits did a number on my wallet in recent years.
Me, I am VERY glad to see the massive influx of new plastic sci-fi kits

[MrNatural]

As a modeler, im easy to please, im the type that doesnt like to buy a new kit until i finish one so i'll usually reward myself with a couple kits after I complete one, that being said, since i've only been modeling for a year and a half my stash is relatively small. but i like it that way, one time i had like 4 or 5 un-opened kits, and I just felt overwhelmed. I'm not to picky when it comes to subject matter either, i'm pretty happy with my local hobby shop's selection. I've always hated buying stuff off the internet, its great, i still do it, but i just enjoy going to the store browsing around and taking a fresh kit home to work on. I think i'm more obsessed with obtaining tools rather than having a huge model stash. i've definitely spent more on tools than kits, I have a feeling this will change as the years go by, im sure i'll be one of those dudes with a wall of un-built kits.  i cant wait