Is a stash the wishful childhood dream fullfilled?

[Sir Desmond Glazebrook]

I think it is for me. And it is wonderful!

Now I am posting again (with my simple and healthy brain) I wanna build a Big kit!!! Post it here with mates looking on.

I have such a huge choice. I basically live in a hobby shop. There's bloody kits all over the joint!

What to build??? Ooh ooh ooh, should I build the Trumpeter SBD 3 Dauntless, or perhaps the Trumpeter Bearcat??? Or should it be the Special Hobby Yak??

 

Ooh ooh hang on! The WnW Junkers D.1??? Hobby boss Sturmovik? I have both single and 2 seater!

I am really glad I never grew up. Life as a 55 year old child is loads of fun. I think when I get home later I will surround myself with boxes on the floor and soak up the enchanting smell of cardboard and plastic.

What is your stash to you?

 

[smitty44]

Much like you, Dale, it has a childhood connection for me as well. Once and a while my father would pay me for doing some extra chores with a model. He would take me down to Brookhurst Hobbies, and I would literally stand there for hours trying to decide which kit to buy. Drove him crazy! Now I guess I can do the same at home, although my stash is not too big, maybe 50 or so kits. Also living in California I have this constant fear that everything plastic will be outlawed at some point, and I will need a sizeable stash to keep my until I can model no more. It is fun, planning, etc. It is also capital, much of what I have can be sold for more than what I bought it for if I was ever in a bind. I have actually been pulling out random kits the last few days as my current projects are progressing nicely.

[Sir Desmond Glazebrook]

That's awesome. I got really lucky at 9 years old when I moved in with an aggie pilot. Here I was in love with model aeroplanes only to live with a legendary pilot, Ben Buckley. I was then meeting all kinds of modellers, including this old legend of a bloke building and flying radio controlled planes with no hands. He lost them when a grenade he was holding blew up. I was flying with Ben and he landed on the little airstrip to say hello. I used to sit on his lap when he flew his Pawnee. My first aerobatics experience was in that plane. Ben is still alive. What a guy.

[BlrwestSiR]

I think my stash started because I would jump from one model to another. Before finishing the first one of course! It got to the point where just about everything in my stash had been started in one way or another. I still have some kits I bought at least 25 years ago that were started then. I keep saying I'll get to them one day. 

Carl

 

[ScottsGT]

My childhood dream would to be retired and the time to build all those kits in my stash.  My wife considers it hoarding, but I call it wise planning for the future.   Once retired I won’t be able to afford them and by the time I retire a lot of what I have in my stash will no longer be available.  

[Wumm]

Well yes, and no...

When I was young, I basically built whatever I bought or was gifted more or less straight away. The joy of completion was more important than accuracy, or the possibility of having more kits to look forward to for the next build. This was also the 1970's, in a Regional centre where all that was available was whatever the local Toy store got in... wonderful images of other kits in a Manufacturer's range that appeared on the sides of boxes were sometimes so out of reach that they may have well been on the Moon.

Now in this digital age, where I'm more in control of a disposable income and the next Überkit is but a click away, I find I'm more selective about what I purchase and save for later. My specific interests are somewhat tempered by the nagging tug of my own mortality on the back of my shirt, and the realisation that I'll never get to build them all... Unlike my ten year old self.

S

[Clunkmeister]

Well, I expect I’ll build every single kit I own. Based on my current rate of production, I should be done right around my Birthday, in 2189.

So yes, I think, barring immortality here on Earth, I’d say it’s wishful thinking. 

[smitty44]

1 hour ago, Clunkmeister said:

Well, I expect I’ll build every single kit I own. Based on my current rate of production, I should be done right around my Birthday, in 2189.

So yes, I think, barring immortality here on Earth, I’d say it’s wishful thinking. 

Wait, you only have 170 kits in your stash!!??

[Bill_S]

That's exactly how my stash got started. In the early 1990's I was in Flint, Michigan for business when I happened upon Dean's Hobby Stop; he specializes in old kits. I walked in, and it was like I'd been magically transported back to my youth. I made it a point to acquire every 1/32 scale kit I built as a kid. Once I got those, I went after the ones I could never find... the snake Stuka, Aleutian Tiger, Jack, Tony and George.  Then the 1/32 scale market literally exploded with kits - Tamiya uberkits... Trumpeter... WNW... Z-M... HK... Kittyhawk...  These days I can pick and choose, because there are SO many new offerings. It's a great time for large scale modelling!

[Clunkmeister]

Exactly, Bill!  I remember not too many years ago when building 1/32 meant taking old Revell kits and reworking them into something decent. 

[ScottsGT]

Wanting to make a purchase of a big ticket item, this thread got me thinking I should scan my stash of about 300 kits and see what I should move.  I couldn’t do it!  Not even one kit was I willing to let go.  Got 3 1/48 C-130 kits of different flavors.  AC-130, DC-130 and a C-130. Nope. Going to build all three of them.  (In all seriousness, I doubt it). About 9 1/32 Phantom kits (including a very rare aftermarket kit) I have plans for all of them.  Got a 1/72 B-52 Linebacker Vietnam era. Nope.  One day......

In a nutshell, I looked at each kit I though about and told myself I could save up cash over the next 4 or 5 months and have the cash I needed.  Some of these items can never be found again without really paying out big time.  

[HubertB]

On 9/2/2019 at 9:33 PM, Clunkmeister said:

Well, I expect I’ll build every single kit I own. Based on my current rate of production, I should be done right around my Birthday, in 2189.

So yes, I think, barring immortality here on Earth, I’d say it’s wishful thinking. 

Well that’s assuming you don’t buy any new kit until 2189 ... 

And, at my current building pace, my stash will still be here when they launch Picard’s new Enterprise ... 

Hubert

[ScottsGT]

And of course I caught wind yesterday of the crazy sale price at Squadron for the new Trumpeter 2 seater MIG at $59 to my front door......

and the stash grows.  

[Ryan]

(to all) I have a bunch of Armor I'm looking to get rid of.

Send me you wants, I'm sure I have it.

 

[1to1scale]

Yes, it is for me. But to be honest, I built them as fast as I could get them when I was a kid. There was little chance to build up a stash. Pretty much, all the kits I have now are what I want to build, I am not a collector, as the box, instructions don’t matter to me. I just want to build them. I was playing catch up after a 25 year rest from the hobby, I figure this will get me through retirement. 

[Mikester]

A good portion of my stash is just economically driven.  I bought a lot of Tamiya and Hasegawa kits when I lived in Japan simply because I was paying at least 40% less than I would in the US.  Bought of a bunch of Revell 109s and 190s when they were on sale at Amazon for $6 a piece.  I've slowed down considerably the last few years though.  At 55 I know I'll never come close to finishing these so I'm much more selective on my purchases.

[Ryan]

I think a large stash is depressing sometimes.

If you have started a few of them like me, then you are standing in a room full of ex-wives asking why I wasn't enough.

 

[Ryan]

I will say this though, I never have understood the phrase "It's your kit, build the way YOU want to" untill recently.

My modeling time is much more enjoyable if I dont preshade or try the newest wood grain technique etc. I'm worn out with that, I try and emulate famous modelers I admire forgetting in the process I have my OWN style and dont need to copy somones elses style to have fun,

Mind you, I dont want to crank out featureless crap, just neat clean kits.

We (I) also forget these are not real, they are models of a real objects and the kit is designed to be a (enjoyable) step by step build ending in a miniature replica.

Ok sorry for this, I hate the phrase rant so it is what it is.

Pass the tylenol.

[Clunkmeister]

19 minutes ago, Ryan said:

I will say this though, I never have understood the phrase "It's your kit, build the way YOU want to" untill recently.

My modeling time is much more enjoyable if I dont preshade or try the newest wood grain technique etc. I'm worn out with that, I try and emulate famous modelers I admire forgetting in the process I have my OWN style and dont need to copy somones elses style to have fun,

 

Ryan, truer words have never been written.   I've long thought that much of the enjoyment of the hobby is lost when we try to emulate something we saw, or strive for the unattainable perfection that's so often beyond reach.   After a marathon kit, I really enjoy the simplicity of an OOB build, just to get the juices flowing again.  Despite that, some of my OOB choices defy logic...  I've never been so miserable than when I was applying a multitude of placards and stencils to the cockpit of an F4U-1, and the absolute perfection of the kit fit bored me to tears. A double negative for me. So now this Corsair sits on the SOD and a dozen other Tamiya uber kits molder away in the stash.  

I guess I'm a bit twisted and touched in the head....

[Ryan]

Nope you sound normal to me.

[Ryan]

I dont mind a multi step assembly or decal task as long as I can look at step one, cross out all the parts needed for that and then move to the next step.

[[CAT]CplSlade]

On 9/4/2019 at 1:19 AM, HubertB said:

Well that’s assuming you don’t buy any new kit until 2189 ... 

And, at my current building pace, my stash will still be here when they launch Picard’s new Enterprise ... 

Hubert

That will be an extremely long time considering he won't be Captain of the Enterprise in the new crapfest--I mean show--he is doing, and he will likely be dead before he gets another Star Trek series.

[Wumm]

3 hours ago, Ryan said:

I think a large stash is depressing sometimes.

If you have started a few of them like me, then you are standing in a room full of ex-wives asking why I wasn't enough.

 

But, on the bright side...

Unlike an Ex-Wife, kits in you stash:

Won't complain that you never took them anywhere or bought them any accessories...

Didn't mind if you left them spread out on the table waiting for two hours because the Football was on TV...

Don't care if you fondled some other piece of plastic every once in a while, and left them in the dark about it.

S

 

 

[TJTX]

My meager stash is driven mostly by right price right time.  I just got 3 new kits for a stunningly good price.  But, my rule is, of it dont fit in my "stash space" I dont get it.  I'm now completely full so only trades or build more before I buy more.

[1to1scale]

I seem to have a space issue as well, I told myself that I would never exceed the 5x8 closet I had set aside, however I am now growing a wall of kits in my office. Although my current employment situation has dramatically slowed down my acquisitions.