… do you throw them away…? Your completed models, I mean.
I still have, boxed up, some of the kits I built over 25 years ago, including a 1/48 F-18 from ESCI, that I purchased because the plastic was grey and being not that good at painting, I could put together and decal and have a new model hanging from my ceiling within hours…!
I have recycled models, yes, used them for spares and scratch-fiction stuff, but that fate mostly befell to the ones that somehow got broken when my mum was dusting them, but I have never thrown away any model. I’ve ended up giving away a lot of them, though… (sigh!)
I’m keeping the kids first efforts hidden away too. One day, they’ll be happy that I did! [^]
That’s a great question. It’s something that I have never thought of before. The first thing that occured to me as I began to think back was how many models I built as a kid. As a young teenager I would build a model about every two weeks. I got started at the age of nine and don’t have any models from my first six years of modeling. My collection starts at the age of fifteen and I have saved every model from then on. I have 53 models in my display case at this time. Many of them used to hang from my ceiling as a kid. Seven or eight years ago I had a friend build the display case for me. I plan to save every model that I build. It’s a great conversation piece when My wife and I have company. People like to look at them and ask questions. I love talking about them as well.
Thanks for that Darren. Most of my earlier models that are still around are being kept at my parents, in Belgium. I lack the space for having them around here, in my house in the UK. When I visit, I like to open up those old boxes and look at my early attempts at modelling. Quite funny really. I recently purchased a display cabinet too, and I have to say it is one of the best purchase I’ve ver made in my life. Before that I had to store everything in little boxes and would only see my models when I selected them for shows. Now, I have this constant display, and as you say, it is great to talk about the models with people visiting. I change the models every so often in the display. Takes about 1/2 day to do it but it’s a great pleasure of mine!
I keep most of my models, but I have given some away as gifts, some are on display at different places (car dealerships, military units), and my parents have all the ones I built when I was a youngster.
I think that if a modeler has models they do not want anymore, they should find a home for them, museums, hobby shops , to name a couple.
Thanks for that Markii. I agree with you. I have a few models still on dispay at the Brussels Air Museum in Belgium. I went bananas one year and built all possible US bombers for a show then was left with no option but to get rid of them (for wanting the space!). The museum took them and today, nearly 15 years after I gave them the models, at least 3 are still on display. Makes me proud…!
I spent most of my life in the Army and, therefore, moved - a lot. As you all know models do not travel well and only a handful of my early kits survive. As models reached a point where I could no longer repair them I scraped them for parts - I have a lot of parts.
Only in the last few years have I became stable enough to have a problem with what to do with old models. Fortunately (or un-fortunately) I live alone and have a lot of space to put models on shelves.
What is going to happen to these models, and all my equipment, when I go is something I have considered. I have left instructions with my family to go onto sites such as this one and offer all my “stuff” to anyone interested in it.
I’ve spent a lifetime in the military, most built kits end up as cann fodder in a moving box awaiting repair or removal of a piece or two I now need on a current project.
I recently opened up a box of old sci-fi kits I built in college in the mid 80s. It was one of the boxes of models I retrieved from my parents’ home before they moved to Florida.
Lots of memories in that box as well as valuable “junk” that I have been offered money for by other modelers.
I haven’t kept the models I built as a kid, as they were poorly painted 1/72 glue-bombs that were hardly worth the description of “scale model”. The stuff I built a few years ago as I restarted the hobby are not much better than those others, so cull the herd as I finish new kits. Old kits become paint mules and home-made zimmerit test pieces. I’m not too sentimental about my old stuff.
Interesting stuff guys. I store them until my modeling skills have advanced enough to make them look awful to me and then I toss them into the spare parts bin.
You’d think we’d have scale boneyards with stripped down a/c, or a junkyard of cars with motors and wheels stripped off them. I don’t toss many, but the ones I have, I strip off any usable stuff for the parts box and let the boys play with them.
I have but a handfull left that I built in the years before I joined the Army. Most of those were at least given a new paint job as I learned how to airbrush. Of the rest of those that I built then, and there were a LOT, I stripped some for parts, and the rest I gave to my kids to play with. Those eventually all ended up getting thrown away. Of those that I have built as an adult, most have survived to this day. Those that have not due to some form of damage have been stripped down of parts and thrown away.
I get rid of my older models which I don’t belive are worthy of being viewed anymore. If they have any useful parts as spares I take them off, and sometimes they serve as test beds for my next build but ultimately they go in the bin.
In almost 13 years if have 80 or so in display cabinets in my basement,and I still have surplus room left,so I have not got to that point where a decision has to be made.i have relegated a few older kits which I was not happy with to technique practice though.
Well, half of my early stuff was built as displays for a local toy store. The other half were built with firecrackers in them, and every so often, I’d have an epic “battle” with Cox glow fuel induced fires & “blackcat” fireworks explosions. That was over 40 yrs ago. The new stuff is just a handfull now, & I can see “recycling” parts as required.
After I’m “gone” - I don’t care what my wife does with em.
The plan is to keep them. Have a big ol’ empty nest of a house. As skills progress (just started up again recently, after nearly 49 years), I might display some more prominantly than others. I’m going to will them to institutions, if they’ll have them. For me, that’s something to deal with sooner rather than later. I suppose I may raid the stuff I’m building now for parts someday, or maybe give one or two away sometime. But,in general, I’m keeping it all. - I share them with others, but mostly they’re for me to look at.
The models I made between the ages of seven and 14, I blew away, much as OMCUSNR has described, when I was 15-16; ladyfingers and better over, under and in 'em, with a little lighter fluid in the mix. Lots of Aurora, Hawk, Revell and Monogram stuff, blown up and burned. LOL.