Jim N

Great job! Looks really nice.

Looks real nice!

Great job! It's good to see some of these cars showing up with the 500 being run next weekend.

Very nice.

You did a very nice job on this.

Great job!

Great job! The detailing is superb.

Great job with the two tone paint. Very clean paint lines.

Looks very nice! That front bumper would do a lot of damage to an old car too. That is a serious piece.

You're off to a really great start. I like it.

Looks superb! I really like it.

You are absolutely correct, Bill.

Very cool concept. Great job!

Very nicely done!

You did a great job!

Looks very nice! You did a great job.

Very cool concept. Great craftsmanship!

Interesting idea. Great work!

There are a lot of factors that go into this discussion. What I believe we have to look at are demographics, competition for entertainment and finally the cost of the hobby may be getting prohibitive. I started building models in the 1960’s when I was a kid. Many others started in the 1950’s and others in the 1970’s. That seems to be the sweet spot when models were very plentiful, relatively inexpensive and there were many subjects. The mid 1960’s marked the end of the baby boomer generation as we all know. We CANNOT underestimate the effect the number of kids coming out of this era had. In every group of friends I had growing up; I was the only one who liked building models. But with the huge population of kids from that time, the model companies did not have to get a large number to build in order to have a large market. Every generation of adults since has produced fewer kids. The model companies now have to get a much larger percentage of these kids to build in order to maintain let alone grow if future generations are going to keep this hobby going. The competition for entertainment is a big factor as well. When I was growing up the television was off a lot of the time. That was only because there was not much to watch. There were only the 3 network stations, PBS and a few local stations on the UHF band of channels. Keep in mind that I grew up in the second largest city at that time. We had to find other avenues to keep ourselves busy and entertained. The only sports available to participate in were baseball, football and basketball, but there was not that much organization involved so not many kids that I knew participated. It was very common for my parents to send me out of the house and tell me when to be back home. I could do pretty much what I wanted as long as I didn’t get into trouble. It was common for parents to raise their kids this way. Anyone who does this today faces the risk of being turned into the government and those busybodies will be more than happy to get involved. Today there is much more competition for leisure time. There are the video games and the internet that a lot of us complain about. But the other element is that kids are raised differently. Parents take their kids to organized activities and there are a lot of them. If a family has more than one kid, the parents seem to be always shuttling the kids to their activities. When our kids were young, my wife wore out 2 cars primarily because she was driving them to their activities. The same applies for adults. I live in a much smaller city now, but within 60 miles of where I live there are many entertainment options available. I could keep busy and be out of the house every day or night of the week without any problems if I wanted to. The last point is that there is no such thing as a cheap hobby, but building model cars has been rather inexpensive until lately. With the model manufacturers raising their prices to a minimum of $30.00 per kit, this hobby is getting costly. The other thing we have to keep in mind is that building models is difficult. It takes time to develop the skills to build a model well. With all of the competing activities for anyone’s time, the model companies do not have the luxury of having a person buy and build a dozen or two dozen kits before a person sees improvement. Model companies are moving toward the snap kits or the modified snap kits because they know they do not have the luxury of time to attract and keep a customer. Too many people will not put up with the frustration of building a significant number of models before seeing any real improvement. The cost of the kits is getting too high and there is just too much competition for a person’s time to put up with a long period of frustration for an activity that is supposed to be a hobby.

This sadly happens in all social situations that require manners and it goes beyond cell phones. Our great niece had a preschool promotion last week, and with a lot of the parents or relatives, they started talking and socializing as soon as their kid's name was announced. Soon it became almost impossible to hear the teachers announce the names of the other kids. No one created a scene, but I really felt for the parents or relatives of the kids who were announced later in the ceremony. It is truly amazing how this level of buffoonery has become normal and largely accepted in our society.

Very cool! I really like it. Where do you buy these kits? I did an internet search and did not come up with anything.

Great job! I think it's really cool that you were able to meet Mark Worman and get him to sign the model and the box.

I have wondered the same thing. I will read the photo spread and see the same builder over and over. I would think that the photographer could take pictures of other models. The only time I guess this practice is okay is when the one builder's models are far superior to everyone else, but what harm is it to include other builders.

Very sad.

Congratulations!