Filler Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 I was recently considering joining another group build (that I would not complete), but I looked at the collection of half-ish built models gathering dust on top of a bookcase and thought that it's about time I stopped starting and started finishing. This then made me think of what I have finished since I started building kits as an adult. I have worked out that I have finished a total of 6 kits in 12 years. Four of them are now in landfill due to various moves and changes of circumstance. Even the two finished models I do have are a bit dusty and have various bits that need reattaching. Currently I have 7 started kits on the on bookcase of dusty doom and in the loft I have 58 unstarted kits (all 1/48 scale aircraft). So even without counting the seven started kits, with build rate to date I will need 116 years to build my stash. I'm sure there are plenty that can easily beat that, even with a faster build rate! 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 "How long to finish your stash?" Longer than I've actually got, I imagine Cheers, Stew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_davros Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Do you mean the whole stash or just the ones I bought today? 1 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckw Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Too depressing to work it out - lets just say someone other than me will have to deal with it! My big mistake when getting back into the hobby was assuming that as my skills improved, so would my build rate. What I failed to take into account was the fact that as my skills increased I'd try and be clever and start modifying the kits. Even minor mods can add days to a build. Now I have to decide whether the sum of the parts of the completed kits is more or less important than any individual build. Cheers Colin 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filler Posted May 18, 2021 Author Share Posted May 18, 2021 42 minutes ago, ckw said: My big mistake when getting back into the hobby was assuming that as my skills improved, so would my build rate. What I failed to take into account was the fact that as my skills increased I'd try and be clever and start modifying the kits. Even minor mods can add days to a build. That really is a huge issue for many of us I think. I have two unfinished kits that ground to a halt when I attempted rescribing. It is the most difficult and tedious task imaginable - yet I have tried it twice! And the Revell Tornado kit. It's good, but once I researched and learnt that the wing sweep angle is wrong and needs surgery and that the wing glove shape is wrong and needs surgery, and so on, it's back in the loft. And then I researched the Revell Learjet, as a USAFE C-21A the kit doesn't have the thrust reversers, so after spending ages looking into how to possibly fix that, I stuck it back in the loft. Basically; I blame the internet!!!! It entices us to buy more kits and simultaneously teaches us that they’re all terribly inaccurate and need tons of aftermarket and surgery. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Yeah, it's not gonna be my problem. I ceased worrying about it decades ago. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six97s Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 About 250 years at my average completion rate. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 My stash is around 720. I make/scrap/sell kits at the rate of 12 a year. Nowadays I buy them at half that rate, so we are looking at around 90 years: I'm 74. I am trying unsuccessfully to boost the first rate and lower the second. My will says my kits go to IPMS-UK, but I haven't actually asked whether they'd want them, even without considering the part-made ones. My surviving family will have a problem, but nothing compared with getting rid of my books. Although at least even a bulk taker will offer some money for them... The alternative is to spend lots of my remaining spare time trying to sell them off in small numbers/batches rather than spending that time modelling. OK, watch this site for a few sales, but not too many. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplasticsurgeon Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 I'm going to put a statistical slant onto this question. I maintain records of how many I've bought, and built. From 2006 to 2019, I accrued 252 kits, built 269 models - and sold or gifted another 25. Net decrease in stash of 42. Over 14 years, average stash reduction of 3 per year. With a stash size around 140 kits - plenty to be getting on with, and I'm not going to be working for a living forever. 2020 changed the dynamics entirely. No model-shows, so I was only able to buy 10 kits. Plenty of lockdown time, I built 45 models, and sold of gifted another 6 - net reduction of 41. Current stash size is 102, they could all be built in 3 years time! Oh and I made a concious effort to clear my shelf of doom. Never very big anyway, but an Airfix Nimrod completed during KUTA GB 2019, and Academy Catalina in 2020. So all my WIPs are current. Edited 05 Oct 2021. Working mostly from home, with average 1 day per week in the office. Completed 31 so far this year. Bought 5 at IPMS Avon model show - great to see some normality return! Currently on builds 32 and 33. Stash is currently 100 kits. They could all be built in 3-4 years time! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davecov Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 I am in my Sixties with failing eyes and dexterity issues and as I am now suffering from Long-Covid even simple OOB builds are proving to be a chore right now. Before I caught Covid, I had planned to make a huge dent both in my stash and in my Shelf of Doom. I now feel that the energy, time and money that would be needed to complete my stalled builds is no longer worth it, especially as some of them have been stalled for over a decade! In January last year I decided to sell half of my kits leaving me with less than 100, many of them being large kits. However, my plans went wrong during lockdown and by the end of 2020 I had double the number I started the year with! I am glad that I did though because I am currently knocking out old Seventies' kits OOB with very little in the way of alterations or additions. Many of them to be honest are not worthy of showing pictures of but at least I am enjoying modelling again. I still intend to build some of my larger kits though (HobbyBoss 1/72 Dora Railway Gun, Revell 1/72 Flower Class Corvette, Revell 1/144 Fletcher Class Destroyer, Italeri 1/35 S-38 and an Airfix 1/24 Hellcat), build 60 Airfix cars in my stash and complete a couple of scratchbuilt ships. Those alone should keep me busy for another twenty years!* *I have put a note in my diary for May 2041 to check how I have got on! Dave 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim R-T-C Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 The irony is that as a new modeller you have a small handful of kits, but can produce models quickly because you follow instructions and don't add too much extra. As an experienced modeller you have a giant stash but spend much longer on each build - doing research, adding aftermarket, using loads of different weathering techniques etc... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 I don't understand.......finish? 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Timmy Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 (edited) If everyone would leave me alone... and I stopped working for a living ... I "should" be done in about , 40 years. ( I have ,at last count 177 kits in my stash... most of them large, high parts count kit's ) But, the way things pile up around the house ..... I might finish the stash by the year 3295 ...( we should have android body's by then... right???...) Edited May 18, 2021 by Little Timmy Had to do the "math" in my head. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tzulscha Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Well, let's see. This year was more than usually productive for some reason and I completed about ten kits. If I were to include all of the kits I currently own and all the conceptual modeling I have in planning stages I expect that it will take me around seven hundred years to finish my stash. Complicating this are the three Meng chibi-tanks and the Bronco Seehund that I just bought... I am beginning to wonder if I might have have some mental problems 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 (edited) A year or two if I have any enthusiasm to build them. I only have about 12 kits in my stash. Edited May 18, 2021 by RobL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 If you had asked this a couple of years ago the answer would have been 10 to 12 years at my build rate back then At this year's build rate, about 75 to 80 years That is without adding any to that stash. I plan to be around to build most of them 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoenixII Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 1 hour ago, bentwaters81tfw said: I don't understand.......finish? Yeah, RIGHT! Remember, I've seen quite a lot of your builds, down at Telford. Now if you want a serial starter, look no further than ME! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul821 Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 I don't understand all this talk about stashes - I have a carefully curated collection of unbuilt models in the loft all of which have been purchased within the express intention of building them within a short spaces of time, although some have been there 20+ years. That is not a stash - OOP's. Back to the question I could clear the stash carefully curated collection fairly quickly but the numbers of models for a future KUTA GB would rise by the same rate. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 About a squillion years at my current rate of completion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skodadriver Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 I normally build around 10 models a year although productivity is badly down so far in 2021 The last time I did a proper stash inventory the count was about 380. If I don't buy any more (a very big if) and if I get back to producing 10 a year it will take me 38 years to build what I have. I'm currently 68 so I should have finished the stash by the time I'm 106. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 If I finished one per week, it would take me about 15 years to build them all. That would put me in my early 80's when I finished. Chris 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filler Posted May 18, 2021 Author Share Posted May 18, 2021 10 minutes ago, dogsbody said: If I finished one per week, it would take me about 15 years to build them all. That would put me in my early 80's when I finished. Chris Around 780 kits in the stash? Blimey!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Bryon Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 175 in the stash. Average of 8 finished per year for the past four years. 22 years to build them all. I'm 43. My dad died at 68. I think I can do this... Jon 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 20 minutes ago, Jon Bryon said: I think I can do this... Jon But how many are you buying each year? Must be considered.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarWarsModeler Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 5 minutes ago, Graham Boak said: But how many are you buying each year? Must be considered.... The urge to buy that kit is hard to resist 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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