The price of modelling,phew!

[PLC1966]

On 1/28/2024 at 10:57 AM, Bertie McBoatface said:

I have 19 plastic aircraft (1/72 apart from the one that I thought was 1/72 but turned out to be 1/48. I hate that anomalous kit!😡), nine wooden ships and one resin bust. That’s at least five years worth of building for me, possibly twice that (the boats take ages).
 

OCD alert.  I am with you, the one 1/48 would either need a second 1/48 to go alongside it or sell,  just having one is so....well, odd, I guess.

[PLC1966]

On 1/28/2024 at 8:07 PM, Keeff said:

What are these 'stashes' you keep speaking of? 🤔  🤣

It is something purchased , sneaked into the Garage or house, and hidden from daylight so the long haired General does not realise how big the aforementioned stash really is.  

[Bertie McBoatface]

27 minutes ago, PLC1966 said:

OCD alert.  I am with you, the one 1/48 would either need a second 1/48 to go alongside it or sell,  just having one is so....well, odd, I guess.

I am going to throw it into the loft and try to forget about it. 🫣

[Biggles87]

I set myself a limit on how much I would spend on individual 1/32 and 1/48 kits a few years ago and now my 1/32 limit barely covers the cost current 1/48 kits.

I also decided that I would concentrate on detail/correction sets rather than new kits ( Spitfires excepted ) but they are getting expensive too, especially 3D printed decals which are now sometimes more than the resin equivalents.

 

John ( super SABLE )

[RobL]

On 27/01/2024 at 22:31, stevej60 said:

Hi folks,popped into the lms for paint and as you do perused the kits on offer,my God We modellers have never had it so good with subjects but prices are jaw dropping ,looked at a few examples,Arma 1/48 Hurricane £50,

Trumpy 1/48 Firefly £49, yet HB 1/32 me 109,s £35 and 1/35 storch £35,I know some folk may only build one or two kits a year and spend months on each subject but wow this hobby is 

Getting very expensive.

 

 

Yeah, everything is getting expensive.  Problem is there are too many people who think nothing of dropping, what to you may seem like, significant money on a kit.  People keep buying, companies are going to keep pushing the prices up, until they reach a point of no return.

 

I was surprised to see Airfix's upcoming 1/72 B-24 is relatively reasonably priced (given Hasegawa's prices for a B-24), ditto Airfix's new tool 1/72 Chinook, if they weren't just going to get chucked in my late father's shed (I'm out of room indoors, and short on room in the shed also) I'd be tempted.  ICM's 1/48 Blackhawk is equally tempting as it looks like it might be a 160th SOAR bird oob...

 

I have mostly gone back to doing Games Workshop figures since 2020 (my bread and butter between 1993 and 2005, until I picked up scale modelling again in 2014, having bashed a few kits together in the very early 90s as an early teen), when my health issues aren't getting in the way, and that's equally as expensive at times.  Fortunately I don't play their current games, and I have a backlog (pile of shame) of figures to work through.

Edited January 31 by RobL

[Graham Boak]

I must admit that, although being surprised at the rise in prices recently, I will always pay more for a more accurate and less crude kit.  Compared with other means of passing the time, the kit is not particularly expensive - and you are not charged 20% booking fee for buying it.  A good book will be more expensive and take a lot less time to read than a kit does to make (OK, this isn't comparing large-scale kit prices there, but I'm not buying those.  The principle is the same.)   Of course, you can spend a lot of time on the internet without spending any money - as long as you're not paying for the provider, the electricity, the machine you are using.  or buying anything that is advertised on the net.  Just where do you think the money to run all this comes from?

[Hunker]

I have a theme for my builds so my small stash reflects the models I need for that theme - mainly WW2 British aircraft and airfield diorama vehicles and buildings. I will then move onto the German airplanes of that era and that's when the price hikes will hit hard!

However, more than the increasing price of models what bothers me the most is having to buy everything online since there are no LMS nearby. 

A case in point. I'm ready to start an MPM mk2 Wellington with Merlin engines. The decals look off colour and a bit dodgy to use, so I found an Extradecal set from a store in the Czech Republic for a good price. Great. I also want to try VMS glue for clear parts. He has VMS products in stock, but not the glue. Revell paint - a few bottles but not what I need. AK real colour - the same. so I have to pay full courier costs for a small package of decals - they won't use the mail.

Another online store has the paints and the glue but not the decals - so another courier cost. Neither of them have the mig one shot grey primer in stock so that's another courier fee!

The courier fees add up to more than what the model cost. And that's before you add in the cost of decals. Paints and such can be spread out over several models so that's not too bad. Thank goodness I don't use aftermarket parts - I'd be bankrupt!

[IanHx]

Someone raised the point about shifting from 1:72 to 1:144.

I suspect the main factor there is not so much cost, as  "Where Are You Going To Put That Once It's Built" syndrome.

WAYGTPTOIB is a terribly debilitating disease,  brought on by the combination of factors :

* ever decreasing size of British houses

* relatively cheap prices of 1:72 big subjects on offer 2nd hand "under the table"

* being married to someone more practical-minded when it comes to the subject of an Airfix V-Force

 

WAYGTPTOIB is highly contagious, once heard it rings in the modeller's head and prevents future Stash Appreciation Happiness.

There is currently no known cure.

 

But with your help, we can research this terrible disease. Please donate to Modellers Anonymous ,  so that we can improve the lives of ageing modellers with tea and biscuits, while they swap tales of The Stash as they descend into WAYGTPTOIB misery..  Just for the love of god don't donate that Revell 1:72 Blinder.......

[Biggles87]

My modelling cave is about 7m x 3.5m so I shouldn’t suffer from WAYGTPTOIB  but unfortunately half of it is taken up with horse paraphernalia and three large boxes of 1/72 kits donated to me by our farrier when his father died. Must start selling them, but probably not to the UK as the price of sending them there is also now becoming prohibitive.

 

John

PS: I wonder how many 1/72 kits I will need to sell to buy one in 1/48 or even 1/32!

[Hunker]

If you have any old Airfix, Frog, Matchbox I'd be interested.

[MikeR]

Another thing to add is currency fluctuations. Most of the Chinese produced kits were very cheap in relative terms to start off with, now they're very expensive. An arguably overvalued Chinese currency versus a weak UK pound means I have to very choosy about which kits I choose to buy.

 

I'd rather like one of the new Vee Hobby 1/700 USS Cleveland kits or the Flyhawk Matapan period HMS Formidable in the same scale, but they're both waaaaay too expensive.

 

Mike.

[IanHx]

Talking of expensive kits....

 

https://www.revilomodelcars.com/products/amalgam-1-8-scale-lamborghini-countach

 

[rayprit]

I remember the time when the best option was to buy from China as popular kits of the time were 25%-50% cheaper than UK kits even with postage, the only problem I remember was the time it took in shipping?  4-6 weeks....but that market has long gone and there prices are catching up with UK

[Mark Harmsworth]

When I were a kid we lived in a cardboard box. Very cheap.

[MRMRL]

13 hours ago, IanHx said:

Talking of expensive kits....

 

https://www.revilomodelcars.com/products/amalgam-1-8-scale-lamborghini-countach

 

Wowsers, 1 or 2 of those would buy you a real one to restore, different skill set mind 😉. I think I'll stick with my regular stash, lots more kits for the same money.

[Biggles87]

I am trying not to buy  complete kits any more ( I have about 50 years worth in my stash and I’m in my 7th decade ), just accessories, but as previously mentioned these are getting expensive also. My other hobby is target shooting and the ammunition for two rifles and a pistol is also getting very expensive. Caught between a rock and a hard place as they say.

 

John

[brewerjerry]

On 2/15/2024 at 3:55 AM, Mark Harmsworth said:

When I were a kid we lived in a cardboard box. Very cheap.

you had it good 

 

 

[Mr T]

A couple of things I have noticed about my buying habits, is that virtually all my kit buying is replacement stuff for things that have been in the stash, eg my Novo FD2 which cost me about 30p in 1978 has been replaced by the much more expensive, but far superior Dora Wings kit, and which is far more likely to be built for a number of reasons. Likewise I have bough conversion or improvement kits for stuff that has been sat around, with a view to convert etc. An example will shortly appear in the Baby Boomers GB. 

[Duncan B]

It's not just the kits. Recently I decided to replace my trusty old Iwata Hi-Line HP-CH airbrush after more than a decade of use and was gobsmacked to see that it now retails at £315, that's more than doubled in price. I decided to see what my Iwata Custom Micron would cost me now and it's £650 which is also double what I paid for mine. I certainly wouldn't be paying those kind of prices now as nice as those airbrushes are. 

 

Duncan B

[TheKinksFan]

On 28/01/2024 at 04:25, Karearea said:

That Arma Hurricane is $140 NZD at my local hobby shop, and in his defence the proprietor is very reasonable in his pricing across the board compared to the bigger stores- this equates to about 67 GBP.

I’d been interested but I’d rather just stick with 1/72, or make the jump to the Revell 1/32 kit which is around the $100 mark.

I’d also been looking for an Airfix Me262B-1a/U1 as I’ve enjoyed building the single seater, but the stores all have it at $50-60.

That $140 NZD sound really extreme, thats 80 Euros, the kit costs approximately 45 Euros here in Europe. What can explain this vast difference, are products imported from Europe in general really expensive? Or are there import duties that raise the price, this is a big problem in many Central and South American countries.

[Karearea]

6 hours ago, TheKinksFan said:

That $140 NZD sound really extreme, thats 80 Euros, the kit costs approximately 45 Euros here in Europe. What can explain this vast difference, are products imported from Europe in general really expensive? Or are there import duties that raise the price, this is a big problem in many Central and South American countries.

The mark up isn’t generally that expensive and there shouldn’t be any duties, I suspect it could be freight costs and he’s made a small order direct from Arma rather than through a supplier? I haven’t seen the 1/48 Hurricane appear anywhere else here yet. The shop in question has very reasonable prices usually.

[Giorgio N]

On 2/15/2024 at 1:16 PM, MRMRL said:

Wowsers, 1 or 2 of those would buy you a real one to restore, different skill set mind 😉. I think I'll stick with my regular stash, lots more kits for the same money.

 

This would have been true a few years ago. Considering what a Countach is worth today even a car needing restoration would probably cost 15-20 times that model...

[Karearea]

Just bought an Arma Airacobra from RedRoo over in Aus. Comes with RAAF decals (which I would have happily bought seperately) and still came out almost half the local cost even with postage across the ditch. Lucky Country indeed!

[Biggles87]

Not having a LMS any more, all my stuff comes by mail ( usually from France or within EU ) and it seems like some companies have a minimum charge. I recently bought some razor saw blades which must have weighed all of 5 grammes and was charge 10 € for delivery in a slightly padded envelope.

We’re off to the UK in June for a family birthday and I reckon I’ll be taking an empty suitcase with me!

 

John

[Giorgio N]

3 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Not having a LMS any more, all my stuff comes by mail ( usually from France or within EU ) and it seems like some companies have a minimum charge. I recently bought some razor saw blades which must have weighed all of 5 grammes and was charge 10 € for delivery in a slightly padded envelope.

We’re off to the UK in June for a family birthday and I reckon I’ll be taking an empty suitcase with me!

 

John

 

All shops I use have minimum charges, reason why any time I buy online I try to add more stuff to the order to spread postage over several items.

Now some in Italy and Germany have some very low postage for small flat items (decals and the like), in the €3-4 range but others charge much more.

I like shops that use GLS as delivery service as this is generally on the cheaper side. One of my favourite Czech shops would deliver a dozen kits for under€8.