I rememeber when I was about 13, about 13 years ago, I could go to a grocery store or like a general store and buy model airplanes and paint.
I am getting back into this hobby and noticed I can’t find any place that sells plastic model airplanes or cars except for the nearby Hobbytown.
Have this hobby kind of died down alitte?
First, [#welcome] to the forums! Pull up a keyboard and stay a while.
Second. I’m afraid so, kids these days would rather buy video games.
Michaels, Hobbytown, Hobby Lobby and Walmart all carry “some” kits, many of the Local Hobby Stores (LHS) have shut their doors for one reason or the other. There are plenty of places to buy online, if you don’t mind doing that.
A short list is:
http://www.hobbylinc.com/index.htm
http://www.internethobbies.com/
I’ve purchased from only a couple of those sites myself, others have been recommended to me. The list is provided as a source of online hobby stores and no warrenty or guarantee is implied! Good luck kit hunting!
First off welcome[#welcome] Post here often and share your wisdom.
This hobby is in a boom and growing fast. It has become more specialized and detail oriented. The grocers and general stores can’t stock the needed items to support a modeler anymore. Paint has to be the hardest, due to the hazardous material restrictions on shipping it. Enamels especially.
Local hobby shops (LHS) have been falling by the wayside also due to the online shops offering “discount kits” and evil bay. Nothing is certain in this hobby anymore though. There are an ever increasing number of those who will never set foot into a hobby shop again due to price only. They are also ones most likely to “whine” the loudest when it closes its doors and they can’t go there to buy paint and supplies anymore.[soapbox] Ok, I’m off it.
Everywhere you look, hobby shows are getting record numbers in entries and walkthrough traffic. Online shops are getting larger by the day and new ones appear to opening every month. There is nothing to suggest that it has died down. This forum is proof that it hasn’t. Look at the number of members it has. Like you, it has people joining every day. Thanks for being a part of it![tup]
Drew
I’m fortunate to have a hobby shop locally that carries A LOT of kits, especially aircraft and armor. And it’s a complete place- resin, P/E, building supplies, airbrushes, the works. Of course, they also sell trains and R/C aircraft, so they have a diverse enough set of clients to really keep it going. And the people there really make you want to come back- I spend a few minutes browsing, a bunch of time talking. I always try to buy something. OK, try heck- I do. LOL
I do know what you’re saying though. I can also recall going into a grocery store and seeing airplane kits years ago. The two “Marts” (Wal and K) used to have stacks of Monogram and Revell kits.
The audience for building airplanes has really shifted. Almost 100% of the people I see in the LHS are more like me: 40-ish dads who still enjoy their childhood hobby. My son builds every now and then, but most of his “play time” is spent on the Playstation or sports or other activities.
I do think what is neat is the number of “young men” I see coming into the hobby at the LHS. You get a guy in his 20’s- even if he’s never built many kits- into the LHS, and almost inevitably, they get hooked. If that is truly the trend, the hobby will continue to thrive, I believe.
[#welcome] !!!
Is your nick your home team, or are you just a Charger fan? I lived in the greater San Diego area for many years and watched as the supply of model airplane kits dried up. Armor and cars seemed to be available.
I transferred to the greater Portland, OR area in 2002, where I subsequently retired (living outside Vancouver, WA) and I can tell you that a LHS is a rare bird here. I get most everything on-line, of necessity. Lets’s all be thankful for Squadron, Great Models, Roll Models, etc.
Brian [C):-)]
I have to agree with Drew on the issue of LHS’s and prices. My main problem with the one decent LHS in our area is that the guy is not the most personable and seems to be really more interested in his R/C customers. He has nice stock, some of the prices are high, which I wouldn’t mind paying to help keep it around but he needs to be a little better at customer service. Unfortunately, because I don’t feel as welcome at that LHS I tend to do more shopping at Hobby Lobby, about 50 miles away in their LHS’s, or online shopping.
Jerry
From reading this and other threads it seems that I must be spoiled. I have two LHS’s within a 15 minute drive. Both are well stocked and have friendly and knowledgable staffs. They are Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove, Ca. and The Military Shop in Long Beach,Ca. It sure is nice on a Saturday afternoon to just take a quick drive to the shop when I just need that certain paint color to finish a project.
First off, [#welcome] my friend. It seems like anything these days may decline or increase w/out warning.
But as mentioned, I beleive this hobby too is growing. The one thing that gets me is how far along the diecast has come. Thats the only thing that may hinder the hobby just because they look identical to a built up w/out actually building it.
I am fortunate to have a LHS in my neck of the woods that has been around since 1948 “Ace Hobby Shop in Niagara Falls NY”. Actually it is a block and a half away from my house[:D].
You name it, Ron has it from HO, N scale trains, armor, aircraft, cars, after market update sets, AM decals and all the reference material to build the real deal[:P]
So in all, I totally support the LHS and it is sad to see that evil bay, on line stores are growing since LHS made this hobby what it is today…!! If it was not for them, where would we be??
Flaps up, Mike
I am optimistic that things tend to happen in pendulum swings. It swings one direction, only to swing back the opposite direction some time later. The trick is waiting out the ‘some time’ part.
I don’t believe that LHSes will completely disappear. I do believe the true hobbies like modelling are becoming more and more rare, due to video games and the activities now popular with the younger crowds. However, I don’t think it will ever die out. It will become more and more specialized, and who knows, maybe those that do it well will be commodities for museums, special interest groups, clubs and the like to call on for special presentation commission pieces? Wouldn’t that be cool?
Welcome to the forum. These guys know everything. In my area too LHS’s are going by the wayside. I depend heavily on internet stores like Sprue Bros., Squadron and Hobbylinc. Dean
Welcome to the forum,these guys know a lot and are more than willing to share their information with you.
Tulsa has lost two LHS’s within the last year that I know of,one of which hosted the club I belong to.Hobbytown and Hobby Lobby are the only ones unless I take a half hour drive north to Owasso.
I’m lucky in that I have a good LHS 15 minutes from home, and a great one 5 minutes from work.
The one near home is mainly RC and Trains, but they have a good selection kits at a reasonable price, as well as a great selection of tools etc.
As for the one near work it is plastic kits only, and only aircraft at that.
I still use online retailers for a lot of stuff though, such AM goodies and paints.
The hobby may now be enjoyed by a generally older cross section of the population in the US, Europe and Australia, but it looks like its reaching new blood in the Far East and other rapidly developing parts of the globe.
And it makes sense to aim kits at those of us old enough to work, rather than just at kids, after all we have more to spend. Not that I’m saying there isn’t a place entry level kits as well.
Karl
first off support your local hobby shop! in the delmarva area we have really good hobby shop in dover (delaware, thanks perry!) we have a scale modelers club meeting there every 2nd saturday of the month (i drive about 75 miles plus tolls just for this! well worth it in my book) and perry is not just an owner but a builder himself he has closed and reopened twice since i have been attending the meetings so if your having problems with your lhs let them know! constructive critisism only hurts if it is unheeded! dave
[#welcome] to the forums [:D] You’ll find there are a bunch of helpful, friendly people here. I guess it depends on the area you live in as to where to find kits at. My LHS shut down about a year ago[:(] only place in town that carried Model Masters paints & the guys were friendly & great on Customer Service. Now, I have found a great LHS in Reno,Nv that I frequent whenever I get up there[:D] I just discovered a mom & Pop Comic book store in town that has some models on their shelves & I’ll have to check them out when they’re open.
We have a number of LHS here in the Houston area, although if you’ve ever been to Houston, you’ll understand that a shop in Clear Lake isn’t exactly local to Katy (SE Houston vs W Houston). There are a couple of shops I frequent, one in Bellaire and the other near my office in SugarLand. On occasion I make it to some of the others. Mostly I purchase paints and modeling supplies at the LHS although I have on occasion bought a kit or two. I typically take advantage of the Hobby Lobby sales whenever those run - recently I acquired 4 kits from the Katy HL at half off.
I remember being able to go into any Target, KMart, or similar store, heck even Sears or Montgomery Wards, to get a kit for a real cheap price when I was growing up. Those days are long gone, replaced by LHS or on-line, or EBay. What I miss also is being able to go into the mall and gaze at the kits in the LHS, such as a long-since OOB place called Jean’s Model Shop that used to be in Sharpstown Mall. That place was like my personal heaven or something when I was a kid.
Now I tend to get most of my kits on-line from a variety of sources - it’s not nearly as exciting now to acquire a particular kit as it was when I was younger. Oh well …
I’m one of the lucky ones in that I’ve got two good hobby shops in my area (Phoenix). One is Hobby Depot in Tempe, at the corner of Southern and Mill, just a couple miles from Arizona State University. The other is a relatively new place called Andy’s Hobby Headquarters, near the intersection of Greenway and 59th Avenue in Glendale. I find this place convenient to stop by on my way to Mother’s house. Both hobby shops are different from one another; Hobby Depot is the better-stocked one in terms of kits and paints. They also carry RC and some model railroad stuff. Their tool selection leaves something to be desired; although they have lots of shelf space for them, it always seems to be empty. If you’re looking for basic tools, Andy’s, which is strictly a model shop–no trains or RC-- is probably the better choice, although sometimes if I want a certain special tool, I just have to plan a stop at the Whistle Stop, a model train store in Pasadena, on my next trip to California. If you’re into model cars, Hobby Depot is the better choice; Andy’s does very little with model car stuff; they don’t even carry the “Colors by Boyd” line.
I remember getting a bunch of Monogram planes at K-mart back in the 70’s. Sheesh, seems like a byegone era. Think it’s hard to find planes, it’s even harder to find armor.
Here in “North Texas” err … I mean Oklahoma City, OK we have two Wally Worlds and they dont sell S*IT in thier model dept. Thier models sections are crap… all you see are a few car models ( NO Aircraft models at all ), Testors spray paints for cars, hobby rockets, and RC cars. We also have Hobbytown USA and Hobby Lobby, however they do not stock enough models and materials for the serious modler. I recently found a small Mom and Pop LHS called Woodward’s here and found them cheaper than the chain stores. I agree its getting harder to find good hobby shops locally anymore. I stumbled across Woodward’s while surfing for shops online and was glad I did.
Air Master
I’m 22, not that old, but I do remember the days of models being everywhere. Even the dollar stores had some crap. Even when I was seven I could tell those ones were bad.[(-D] From what I’ve seen here, the 30-40-50 group is the ones with the numbers these days. Like he said, it’s the childhood thing, just like the model RRs. Sadly, everyone I know that is my age, or close, has stopped building for what ever reason. I don’t think that the young children are being brought into modeling as much as in the past. Perhaps, it has to do with the quality time parents spend blah blah blah… Anyway, I think that people are starting later in life, when there is more money to spend and less energy. I know all the dads in here are hoping to pass on their hobby.[:)]
The internet is where the ALL the hobbies are headed these days.
SD_Chargers,
You’ve made 2 of the best decisions in regards to your return to this great hobby:
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You decided to come back.
-
You created an account here at FSM.
The forums here at FSM have become such a resource to me; my modeling techniques, skill, tools and resources have improved 2 fold since registering.
I have a 1/32 scale Tamiya F-14 sitting in my “hangar” awaiting maintenance. Well, the cockpit $uck$! Over $100 for the kit and you get a plain tub with decals? Come on! So, I want this “investiment” to look $h!t hot when I finish it, right? I’m a former F-14 mech. and I want my big Bombcat to look extra special. So I’ve been searching for the Teknics F-14B Bombcat super set for weeks with no luck. I come in here and BGRIGG gives you a bunch of links to buy models on line. The first one I click on and do a Teknics search and bang, there it is, the Bombcat set I need.
So, use this forum to your advantage. What used to be a tight lipped hobby isn’t anymore. Folks in here offer advice and share their techniques with all who ask. By the way BGRIGG, thanks a bunch for those links!