Have you noticed that plastic scale models are a rather expensive hobby these days?

[Steven]

The results in the end are what I strive for. It gives my hobbies a direction and a purpose. I use a methodical approach and plan to guide me in obtaining the results I'm capable of. The path can be arduous, frustrating and almost an impossible task to take on. I have bipolar II disorder. It's crippling when it hits. In spite of that, I have no intentions of letting this take me down entirely. I have always come back to continue my personal passions. I believe I have demonstrated this. I used to take the entire 7.5 ft. tall stack of the Saturn V to a local Starbucks for therapy.
It worked wonders even when I isolated myself for several months never stepping out of the house.

Ironically, I have adapted extremely well to the lockdown situation.. The only silver lining to being bipolar. My doctors were impressed in regards to developing my own form of therapy. It's been roughly 8-9 months since those visits. Today I dropped in to pick up a mint mocha. They were so happy to see me and I them. A warm welcome by all involved. Even that short stay felt so satisfying. A real connection was brought back. I could tell by their eyes they were smiling under their masks. I miss those interactions. So, when I can, I do what little I can on this project. It hasn't been easy. We have the dreary weather kin to the UK I believe. It can be depressing without the comfort of the sun. So one must choose their own ways of dealing with repression and depression.

I drum, drag race and build flying models. They occupy much of my time when possible. I also live in an environment that is peaceful, tranquil and beautiful. This is a deliberate, planned approach in dealing with adversity. It works. I highly recommend to anyone to strive for excellence. When you get there, you will have no doubt about it. It feels like you just climbed to the top of Everest. Just don't eat the yellow snow.

 

[urumomo]

 

[Steven]

That's happened to me before.

 

[urumomo]

 

[urumomo]

Merry Christmas , Steve !

 

[Steven]

I should take up smoking again.

 

[urumomo]

I should take up smoking again.

AB - So -Lutely !

 

[urumomo]

I'll even send you quantities to smoke !

 

[Steven]

Merry Christmas , Steve !

Back at you.

 

[Steven]

I have quit smoking, drinking and drugs back in '90 when I became a parent. I felt this would become the platform in showing a child who I was by becoming a living, breathing example for him. I raised him with chores to do as he had witnessed in myself. He did the dishes, cooked dinner, took out the garbage, helped us carry groceries in, mowed and weeded the yards, fixed plumbing, cleaned house including the bathroom as I did. In my mind it was not just a woman's job. She too had an exemplary career. It was in this 32 year committed relationship that I actually grew up. Putting aside my selfish partying days to transcend into a responsible, caring adult. It came naturally. Today I party, tomorrow I don't. It was that simple. Dealing with life's challenges has become routine. Understanding where one's priorities lie is more challenging. We don't want to let go of something we have enjoyed. When taking on one challenge after another, you become stronger as one does through weight lifting.

You now are less afraid of challenges and just dare them to come your way. I hate compromise. I won't cut off one arm to save the other. I like both of them. Two are always more useful. I want to have my cake and eat it whenever possible. I figure if I don't deserve it, who does? A nation and it's people will never reach it's goal of greatness until the individuals themselves achieve this in their own lives. When the 1% grows to 2%, 3%. And the 99% diminishes to 98%, 97%. Take on your own demons. Take them down hard. You will become stronger in mind, spirit and integrity. You will know when it happens.

 

[SF_Ziggurat]

I like building things I can't build in 1:1 since most would require north of 33 million dollars ....

I build vintage Japan SF kits, almost exclusively, because I like the sheer imagination of them, if not the primitive, toy-like quality of most of them. I might post some pix if I get up the nerve...

 

[SF_Ziggurat]

I have quit smoking, drinking and drugs back in '90 when I became a parent. I felt this would become the platform in showing a child who I was by becoming a living, breathing example for him. I raised him with chores to do as he had witnessed in myself. He did the dishes, cooked dinner, took out the garbage, helped us carry groceries in, mowed and weeded the yards, fixed plumbing, cleaned house including the bathroom as I did. In my mind it was not just a woman's job. She too had an exemplary career. It was in this 32 year committed relationship that I actually grew up. Putting aside my selfish partying days to transcend into a responsible, caring adult. It came naturally. Today I party, tomorrow I don't. It was that simple. Dealing with life's challenges has become routine. Understanding where one's priorities lie is more challenging. We don't want to let go of something we have enjoyed. When taking on one challenge after another, you become stronger as one does through weight lifting.

You now are less afraid of challenges and just dare them to come your way. I hate compromise. I won't cut off one arm to save the other. I like both of them. Two are always more useful. I want to have my cake and eat it whenever possible. I figure if I don't deserve it, who does? A nation and it's people will never reach it's goal of greatness until the individuals themselves achieve this in their own lives. When the 1% grows to 2%, 3%. And the 99% diminishes to 98%, 97%. Take on your own demons. Take them down hard. You will become stronger in mind, spirit and integrity. You will know when it happens.

An exemplary mindset, indeed. If more parents brought up their kids to be mature, responsible adults as you did, well then, let us just imagine that world!

 

[urumomo]

 

[lancerunolfsson]

I just dropped about 200 bucks on 1/72 model aircraft kits and supplies. Not hard when when even cheap small kits are close to 20 bucks after shipping and glue is over 6 bucks a tube. But that's what I get for starting a new hobby while working on Beer #4. Still I don't think I did too bad I wound up with 6 planes. But I have a suspicion I'm going to be buying them quicker than I build them. There are several others I want. Can I keep myself down to 1 or 2 a month after the initial stock pile shows up? I've got stuff I never dreamed there could be, coming. like 2 special fluids related to placing decals.
I'm sort of starting from scratch. I Built some WWII Italian fighter back in 1992. Before that the last plastic model I built was probably 1970. That was when a 1/48 monogram or Revell was going for something like $2.00.

 

[Steven]

Here is my observation. Women collect shoes, men collect toys. We're more alike than not.

 

[SF_Ziggurat]

I just dropped about 200 bucks on 1/72 model aircraft kits and supplies. Not hard when when even cheap small kits are close to 20 bucks after shipping and glue is over 6 bucks a tube. But that's what I get for starting a new hobby while working on Beer #4. Still I don't think I did too bad I wound up with 6 planes. But I have a suspicion I'm going to be buying them quicker than I build them. There are several others I want. Can I keep myself down to 1 or 2 a month after the initial stock pile shows up? I've got stuff I never dreamed there could be, coming. like 2 special fluids related to placing decals.
I'm sort of starting from scratch. I Built some WWII Italian fighter back in 1992. Before that the last plastic model I built was probably 1970. That was when a 1/48 monogram or Revell was going for something like $2.00.

The collecting of kits over and beyond what you can reasonably build in a lifetime seems to be an occupational hazard. I have about 100 kits, and I'm considered a lightweight in that area. Somebody on here I think has 5,000 kits in their stash! And does anybody know anyone who builds one kit before he buys another?

 

[SF_Ziggurat]

Here is my observation. Women collect shoes, men collect toys. We're more alike than not.

Men collect toys - well put!

What is it about us guys who prefer building our own toys?

 

[Steven]

Shoes are more difficult for us.

 

[the Baron]

I just dropped about 200 bucks on 1/72 model aircraft kits and supplies. Not hard when when even cheap small kits are close to 20 bucks after shipping and glue is over 6 bucks a tube. But that's what I get for starting a new hobby while working on Beer #4. Still I don't think I did too bad I wound up with 6 planes. But I have a suspicion I'm going to be buying them quicker than I build them. There are several others I want. Can I keep myself down to 1 or 2 a month after the initial stock pile shows up? I've got stuff I never dreamed there could be, coming. like 2 special fluids related to placing decals.
I'm sort of starting from scratch. I Built some WWII Italian fighter back in 1992. Before that the last plastic model I built was probably 1970. That was when a 1/48 monogram or Revell was going for something like $2.00.

Yeah, you have to exercise discipline, if you want to avoid accumulating a stash of unbuilt kits. But it depends on what you want out of the hobby.

It's discretionary income that we're spending, first of all; that is, it's a hobby, it's not food, clothing, shelter. If you enjoy thinking about a kit, then buying it and thinking about building it, savoring that anticipation, then don't feel bad about it. It's a hobby.

If you want to balance this against getting the most for your money-satisfying your Dutchy sense, as we'd say around here-then you need to exercise discipline, as I said at the beginning of this reply, and perhaps establish some limits for yourself. You can decide that you'll buy only one kit at a time, for example, or that you won't buy a new one, till you finish whatever you're working on. You can decide to establish a budget for kits and supplies. For example, I don't buy a lot of new kits. I buy a lot of classic kits, like Monogram airplanes, for example, because that's what I grew up with and it's what I like. And I won't pay more than certain dollar amounts for them. Ten bucks for a single-engined airplane in 1/48 scale. Fifteen to twenty for the B-17 or B-24. It means I have to be patient and keep my eyes open, but I know that eventually I can find what I want for the price I want. I do the same with the metal figures I paint. I buy old figures from Stadden, for example, and I try to get them for no more than ten bucks for a foot figure, twenty for a mounted figure. Those are rules of thumb, of course, guidelines, and I have occasionally violated them, but far less than I honor them.

Same goes with supplies. I know what I want. I avoid picking up the Next Big Brand to come along, realizing that I have a pretty good stock of paint, glue, etc, and I want to use that up before I might start buying another brand's version of what I already have. I also economize-for water-based acrylic paints, for my purposes, the craft store brands are just as good as Andrea of Vallejo, are cheaper by volume, and have multiple uses.

I will spend more for my brushes, but that follows the advice of Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet, from back in the day: "Frugal doesn't mean you're cheap, it means you don't waste anything." That means that if you buy a tool that costs three times as much as another brand, but will last ten times as long and serve you well that whole time, then it's a saving compared to having to replace a cheaper item more frequently.

That's why I don't complain about prices. Prices are what they are, and when we consider the costs of producing an item, from design, to collecting and processing the raw materials, to distributing the item, prices aren't too bad. And it's a hobby, so it's discretionary.

Also-and I think I said this in my first reply to this thread-I suspect that if we look past the price, to the amount of time we have work to earn the money to buy the kit, or the paint, or the tool, it's probably less than it took forty years ago, fifty years ago.

Finally, regarding looking at other's builds, online, or in the magazines, and at shows, you're right about building for yourself. It's easy to let those builds make us think we need to produce contest winners. But I always remember the motto of a fella who used to write for Internet Modeler, back in the day: "Build what you like, the way you like."

Be careful of Hyperscale, too. It angries up the blood.

 

[Wolf Star]

Everything about this hobby has increased in expense over the years, however the quality of kits and aftermarket has gone up too. Still, I just paid 6 bucks for a can of Testors spray paint. I go into my local shop to get 4 bottles of Tamiya paint and walk out $20 lighter.
Styrene kits are still much less money for the most part than scale trains. I used to be big into HO scale trains, still have a nice collection, but I can't keep up. People will pay crazy money for plastic locomotives with DCC, electronic decoders, etc... I don't keep up with it anymore.

 

[lancerunolfsson]

Baron, Nice Post!

I've learned a lot of things over the last week and had a lot of fun. My kits and supplies have been dribbling in. Actually I spent a lot more on supplies paint and tools than Models. I've been watching lots of build videos and seeing too many things that look "handy" to have for building; even if I'm not shooting for museum pieces. For instance somehow I have wound with three different types of filler putties.

I figured out a little too late that Amazon and Amazon and EBay are definitely not the first places to go to buy kits. Some of the online shops are a lot better after you test fill a cart and figure out what their real shipping prices are. Some of them are ridiculous others are quite reasonable. This argues for ordering batches in cases where one retailer has good shipping rates on multiple models. But then I get stuck on "Oh they have a bunch that they have only one of that I want. Which ones should I buy now?" The answer is probably less than I think and best to go with a mix of rare and easy to build!

I've also spent a lot of time researching stuff and hoping I don't back door into an Aviation book collection because I'm just not finding everything I want on the Web.

My friend Paul comes over most Friday nights sometimes we play wargames more often we just BS. Last night. We went over some of the kits I have gotten and talked about planes. Something we don't normally talk about. While I was carefully going over the contents of my kits for the first time with my Ocu-visor on. He was looking stuff up on his phone. Who new that the P-26 Peashooter actually saw Combat? I just thought it was cute and a Pilipino knocked down two Zero's with one!

So anyway I finally have all my supplies, a place set up to build and the model I wanted to build first so I might actually break ground on my first model this week.

 

[urumomo]

Hobby Link Japan has what they call " private warehouse " that allows you to purchase items they have on-hand and wait for stuff you have to order and then ship it all at once .
Very clever IMO -- caused me to spend waaay more money with them over the years .
You can
You can't beat Scale Hobbyist on shipping though .

 

[lancerunolfsson]

Yes urumomo, Scale Hobbyist combines some reasonable prices with great shipping. I already had a wish list going there. I've got a wish list going at Hobylink US Prices and shipping seem ok. Looked at Japan just now the prices seem insane. I guess you are there for the Sci-Fi?

 

[urumomo]

You did a who what ?
Hobbylinc ? here in the States ?

I haven't bought anything from Hobby Link Japan in years now . I used to ship from them once a month .

 

[lancerunolfsson]

I could be wrong but when I go here http://www.hobbylinc.com/ I'm looking at quite a different set of pages than when I go here https://www.hlj.com/

 

[urumomo]

LOL , yeah , 2 completely different companies .

 

[lancerunolfsson]

This is a sickness. just looking at these sites I wind up putting this in my wish list

Notice it is NOT a 1/72 scale Aircraft

 

[urumomo]

That was the problem with that " private warehouse " , I would just continue to add items while I waited for orders , then just ship when an item in there reached it's mandatory ship-date . repeat .

 

[lancerunolfsson]

With any luck this thing will go out of stock before I get around to ordering it.

 

[the Baron]

I've used HLJ's Private Warehouse feature the way you described, Momo-to save on shipping. I did that last year (or the year before?) when I got Tamiya's new 1/48 P-38 kit (one of the new kits I decided to buy). I preordered it at HLJ and put it with a couple orders in the Private Warehouse, and had them all shipped together when the P-38 was released. That way, I got it cheaper than buying it from a retailer here in the States.
I did a similar thing with DoraWing's P-43 kit (another new kit I decided I wanted). I found an eBay seller from the Ukraine offering it for $43 and free shipping. I could wait for the month's shipping time, and I wound up saving about twelve bucks over retail prices here, to say nothing of shipping I'd have to pay, too.