in this forum i have read about you guys going to your LHS and getting awsome things(decals,conversions,resin updates,zim sheets,PE,and about everything else) in my LHS and places by me they have none of that so is it just where i live or is it like that where you are
the only place i see all those marvolous things are online
I’ve been moving every 2-3 years for the past 20 years. Sometimes I live in an area where there are several well stocked local hobby shops (Boston, Mass.) within a reasonable drive (less than an hour). Other times I live in an area where the nearest LHS is hours away.
My current LHS ia about 40 miles away (Louisville, KY) and carries a full range of just about everything you could hope for.
Here on my side of Kansas city we have two hobby shops and a couple craft shops and such. One hobby shop is a Hobbytown USA. They have a fair stock of kits (mostly over priced Tamiya armor kits), a small magazine rack, a decent paint supply and a few tools. They are a better shop if your into RC. Then was have a Hobby Haven. Good selection of kits, decent price (by time you pay the crzy shipping from Lucky Model it adds up to about what they ask), a better resource section and a really good AM section. Tools and paints are good too. The AM section is cool. Stacks and stacks of Archers transfers, Cavalier Zim, resin kits, stacks of PE, boxes of turned barrels and about 50 or 60 fruil sets.
I look online and think “I wish they carried that local” but guess am fairly lucky to have these two.
…back in the “old days”—before the internet—most communities had at least one LHS where you could find most everything you needed…these days, in my experience, you have to go to a major metro area to find the same shop…like Atlanta, St. Louis, etc…and even these are dwindling…part of it is the effect that Squadron, Great Models, etc…have had on them, and frankly, I am partly to blame…virtually ALL of my modeling purchases are now done on-line…
My LHS is overpriced and not very well stocked, the only AM i’ve EVER seen was AFV Club tracks for the Leopard. The only thing it has plenty of is plastic figures. They also have a pretty good selection of paints which is good b/c i’m a little hesitant to order paints over the internet
One of my three LHSes is a veritable treasure trove (they even have the only Dora for sale in Finland), the flipside is that it’s in a distant part of the town, staffed by one guy and open two days a week. The other two aren’t bad for kits, but only the one place stocks serious AM stuff.
I live in the L.A. area in Orange County. Within a 30 minute driving radius, I have 3 great hobby shops, which each carry a great amount of kits, decals, reference materials, supplies, and after market resin, brass, etc… In Long Beach is “The Military Shop”, in Garden Grove "Brookhurst Hobbies, and in Orange “Military Hobbies”. Also over the years, I have seen some others come and go, some ok, and some great (Historical Models in Torrance was a true loss when it closed). Needless to say, any modelers around here are most fortunate as each shop has great selection and service. I do remember my days that were pre internet and I was stationed at Ft Polk and aside from the PX there were only occasional toy/hobby stores in the local area. That was a famine compared to the feast I have now locally. I think it all depends on location and population. If you are somewhere where there is enough of a group of folks to keep a good shop in business and well stocked it will happen. While I do like seeing all the nifty stuff online and the lower prices, it is not the same as getting my mitts on a new realease and examining the contents firsthand to decide it is really what I want. I dont mind paying a bit more to keep that alive.
I’ve been there (Hobby Haven)! We get to KC occasionally, and I make a point of finding “the” LHS wherever we may be. Last time I bought my first ever Friul tracks… they were in stock, on the shelf. In Seattle, we hit Skyline Hobbies. Cool place, also has Friuls in stock. Dallas seems a little weak these days, although been to a new place, very nice, called Hobby Annex. I will buy from a brick-and-mortar retailer before internet most times, partly because I’m also the owner of a business that faces stiff competition from internet sales.
In Austin, KIng’s Hobby is the place… very well stocked. AM, Vallejo, 20+ pounds of PE. Great about a wide range of scales for armor, figures, auto, a/c, RR, reference. If they don’t have it, I don’t need to order online- they’ll do it for me.
My only gripe is not enough selection of resin figures, but those I get cheaper than retail here.
I feel the same way, there are no hobby shops near me at all. The only thing close is this place about 30 mins away that is a pet/hobby store. They have model cars and I think I saw a jet there, but no tanks. Very small selection, the only paint is some dusty old tamiya paint bottles. So I have ordered all of my kits and supplies online. Untill I found out about a hobby shop in a town I was about to visit, about 1hr. 30 min. away from my house. It was an awesome experiance to see all of the kits stacked high, with books, paint, PE parts, cavelier zimm, figures, things I had only heard of or seen pictures of. I walked away with 3 kits and 2 sets of figures. Unfortunately Im almost never able to drive out that far, but as long as I can get there once every month or two I should be able to restock.
King’s is also cool. Was there a year or so ago, guy there popped open the Bronco French thingie, just to show me the cool tooling. Very friendly folks.
Walt’s Hobby up here in Syracuse is pretty well-stocked in Armor; a few hours east in Buffalo is Niagra Hobbies, which is billed as “largest in the USA” (?) and is pretty well populated with Armor as well. I don’t see as much conversion/accessories in either though. Maybe some Frooly’s, which are too expensive for my money.
Internet Hobbies, down 2.5 hours south where my parents still live in Pennsylvania, has a lot of AM goodies, but have given a lot of space to those *%&$! pre-painted metal models–more appropriate for a toy store, IMHO. Still, they always seem to have something that gets out my wallet! I usually do about 50% of my shopping online, mostly from Squadron and Internet Hobbies.
stikpusher, when I was a teen growing up in the South Bay of LA, Historical Models was my mecca for models and supplies! They used to be in the Old Towne Mall, then moved down the street to another location, then disappeared. That definitely was a major loss.[BH] Since then I’ve been to Brookhurst Hobbies, but that’s it. Brookhurst is pretty nice though!
We have a definite shortage of fully stocked LHSs here in the northern Bay Area. DJ Hobbies in Campbell is the best place for plastic kits, paints, supplies, reference mat’ls. They even have some Fruil tracks, Cavalier zim and they are the only place that carries Vallejo Model Air, Gunze Sangyo and Humbrol paints. They are also 60 miles away from my home!! Hobbies Unlimited in San Lorenzo is pretty good, but not much AM items. The rest are HobbyTowns. The one in Fremont is not bad, they have Archer Transfers, some Verlinden AM and Vallejo Model Colors. There is a hobby shop less than a mile from my home, but its tiny…mostly RC stuff, car models and a small selection of Testors enamels. Because of this I do most of my major purchasing online. I can’t justify driving 40-60 miles just to buy some AM parts or special paint
My LHS have no AM parts at all, it’s a Hobbytown so that doesn’t surprise me. The usual overpriced kits are the norm as well, but they always seem to have the “buy 2 get 1 special.” It still doesn’t beat the net though. I’ve never been to the bigger ones in Milwaukee, but I’ve heard their kit selection is amazing.
The last hobby shop I went to in Madison did have a whole wall of AM stuff and an OK kit selection. Great for references or wargaming though…
In my area theres a Trains and Lanes which is the place to go to find model kits, its dusty and disorganized but if your willing to dig around all day chances are you’ll find what ever kit you’re looking for, they are also resonably priced, but lack in the scratchbuilding materials, every once and a while you might find a resin kit or PE upgrade, but its rare. If you need sheet styrene or copper theres a place called Hobby Hangout which has every type of evergreen styrene they make, but again, very little PE or resin…I wish I had one of those places that sold fruil tracks and other AM parts
hey doog i went to niagra hobbies just last week while on vacation
What’d ya buy?! What’d ya buy?!?! What did you think of the place? Pretty cool, huh?
You guys are lucky - well, maybe not Rob, whose LHS apparently isn’t very L. But my LHS, Hobby Island in Houston, shut down in March. Now, you’d think that in a town of 4.5 million people, there’d be a decent shop to pick up their clientelle, but nooooooo…thinkin’ ‘bout movin’…I wonder if there’s a good LHS in Austin?
no am really here but some verlinden. nice tamiya selection. dragon also some am pieces for the stryker
WOW! a big city like that and no good LHS! Thats almost criminal! When I was stationed at Ft Polk in the 80s, that was the CLOSEST actual well stocked LHS at 2 hours away from post! I dont remember the name, but it was on the southern portion of town somewhere in the general area of Houston Hobby Airport (no pun).