If I only was making my paycheck now when kits were $5-20 a piece not $25-100. I’m at about 200 give or take.
My stash started to grow a bunch of years ago when my best friend got into a nasty divorce and gave me his stash and modeling supplies (maybe 150 kits to add to my dozen kits). A few years later, I met a lady whose modeler husband who had passed away, leaving her with a couple hundred assembled kits (which she donated to her local airport for dispay) and something like 625 stash kits. I bought the stash for 500 bucks, then sold all the 1/48 kits (mostly Aruroa (sp) which left me with some 400+ kits and 600 dollars. Now adays, my stash hovers around 450 to 475 kits. I build a few, swap afew (even give one away on occasion) and add new kits that I really want to build. I understand I will never build all of them (I’m 72) so the wife and I are planning what she can do to sell most of them since neither of the boys are interested in modeling, (it beats simply throwing them away!)
UhOh ;
Does that mean me ? No , not really . At 73 I realize I have many , to many to build in the Garage and my Closet . Sooo… I have been winnowing them down by giving them to the Veterans Recreational dept at my local V.A. These guys are even appreciative of ones I’ve started ! .
That said I still have way too many to keep . I won’t give them away to anyone except folks who can’t afford them or the supplies . I expect that my landlady will be able to find homes for the remainder at the same place .This includes the tools and paint too .
Now there some I fully intend to build for the sheer pleasure of doing so .These can be given to whomever wants them . I won’t be here to worry about that . But , I will be able to make the crossing knowing that my hobby has brought pleasure to others .
Yes , maybe it sounds trite . You know though , I get as much satisfaction seeing someone’s eyes light up as they receive a kit I donated . It makes me feel warm and fuzzy . Model On ! ! T.B. P.S. Some will of course go to my model building Adopted son .
It doesn’t make any sense [8-)]
I guess anyone that keeps 1,000, or 2,000 kits is their business. To each is his own. I personally don’t understand this but that is just me.
I’ve been modeling since 1977 and I only have 15 or so unbuilt kits in my inventory and they are all special kits.
For most of these years I would have no stash at all. Build one then buy the next one.
Kits are crazy expensive now. I’ll buy the Hobby Boss M1070 plus finishing supplies and figures is $250. and that is one kit with Black Dog figures. I have the Trumpeter Leopold in 35th scale with two boxes of figures. The Revell Germany 72nd B-36 with the special decal sheet.
These kits are special kits and that’s why I will buy them to build at some point.
I always liked the Verliden Napoleonic 1/16th figures which are pretty incredible. Now he is out of business so I will probably buy several of them before they dissappear.
I will also never be working on more than two models. One being a years long build like the Revell 1/400 QM2 ongoing, and a few smaller builds per year while that long build moves forward.
Hey, whatever works for the individual.
16 years. That is how long it would take me to build out my stash at a rate of 1 kit every two months. That won’t happen in the forseeable future! I had no stash when I joined FSM back in the day but once I was fully back into the hobby it didnt take long to form. It is not intentional as I never thought to myself to have 100 kits on the shelf, it just happened… mostly on impulse more than likely. It is what it is now. I know that I will likely never build my entire stash and will probably start bartering/selling some of it to purchase some of the higher end stuff that I am interested in.
Back to the topic, I can’t come up with a good reason to buy a kit with no intention of building it.
I have 548 unstarted/unfinished kits. 127 are “started”, some won’t ever be completed, but most of these are kits that I hit a step that I didn’t feel like doing at the time and will definitely come back to. Having a large stash enables you to avoid that kind of block. Also, if you’re like me, you like to look at how the kits depict the real object and also go thru them to imagine how to build and what details to add to them. Its fun sometimes to go thru some of the boxes and just look at the plastic. So my hoard serves purposes beyond just sitting in a closet.
I suppose the purpose “is” that – 13 years later someone can come along and drag a thread about hoarding kits back to the front. [:^)]
On the other hand, the question should be, why do YOU still have a hoard after 13 years?
The best response: “I’m not hoarding! I just haven’t built them yet!”
Take care!
Gary
I’ve got a stash, too, accumulated like so many others–“I’ll build this, someday.” I’ve got a couple of themes that drive my stash, too-a theme for “All US Aircraft Used in the Battle of Midway” including the separate but adjacent Aleutians invasion, and General Tinker’s ill-fated attack on Wake Island; a “Doomed at the Start” collection of US aircraft in the Philippines during the Japanese invasion; a yellow-wings collection; a collection of USN aircraft from WWII, and on and on. And mostly I stick to 1/48 scale.
I also have a stash of 1/700 ship kits, and Maschinen Krieger kits.
But lately I have been thinking more that I will never build them all, and also, I just don’t have the room to display all of them, even if I did build them all. So I may start shedding kits and pare the stash down to a more reasonable size.
As far as reviving old threads go, I don’t have a problem with someone resurrecting one. But we’ve hashed that out, too, in some other discussions.
Best regards,
Brad
What’s worse; Having a massive hoard of kits or a bunch of started kits that probably will never get finished? The latter could very well be me in the future, LOL! I am bad for starting a build then either forgeting about it or losing interest.
Here! Here! my feelings exactly. my stash is well… 500+ I too go out and look at it late at night and revise my build list for the year as my interests change. Hopefully my wife never goes out and looks at it or I’ll get the look for sure.
Funny thing is I love the raffles at our yearly shows, And now I’ll sometimes build what I’ve won rather than what I’ve purchased!
John
There is no point in it. It is a mental disorder.
Before I buy, I ask myself the ff questions:
Do I have this in the stash?— if yes—> Did I enjoy building it?—yes---- take it
If no:
Is it rare? Do they have plenty in stock? If there’s plenty in stock, come back for it next time. If there isn’t, best to take it or reserve it before someone else does.