Longevity of the hobby - what do you think?

[Guest Johnny]

My wife is like yours Mark! Supportive no matter what I am doing be it a 1 :1 or model! She will go with me to shop for models or supplies. I see something different and make a comment on it se will immediatly say "well go ahead and buy it" doesn't matter what it costs.

I remember her buying a modelfor me for my birthday. It was a Huey Heavy. It sat still sealed on a shelf above the desk for over 10 years. One day I realized it was gone. I asked her about it and she almost started crying and said she sent it to her little brother and that she was sorry for being so insensitive. Dumbie me didn't understand right away and had to have an explanation.

She said she thought I never built it and put it up on the shelf because it brought back bad memories and she was sorry! Now it was my turn to almost cry!

I explained like most modelers you always have models that you put ahead of older ones and the list seems to get longer. I had cars unopened that I had even longer at the time! She had done nothing wrong!

But in hindsight she may have been right and I didn't realize it bothered me when it actually did.

She is my soulmate 100%!

BTW she just said modeling will be alive and well long after we are gone! Sot it will, because she is never wrong and she will tell you so!

[highway]

I think depends is too strong a word. But I will say that having my better half support (and dare I say approve) of my hobbies sure does make my life a lot more enjoyable. After all there is a significant (albeit subtle) difference between your wife/girlfriend supporting your hobbies, and merely tolerating them.

I agree with you 100%, James, and there is a VERY fine line between my better half's supporting my hobby and merely tolerating it. My hobby room is actually about half of my living room, and she supported that idea when we moved in to our little house 5 years ago. When I might have been in a building slump or just not building but still buying new kits, she supported me by encouraging (and sometimes threatening ) me to get back to the model desk and work on something.

The fine line between the two, though, is when I bring a new kit home to the ever growing 425+ kit collection, she shows her tollerance, or sometime lack of, by saying "I feel like we live in a hobby shop sometimes!" But that is where that very fine line comes in again, because even after comments like the "hobby shop" one, sometimes within a few days, she will buy me yet another new kit I've been wanting, and I can always be guaranteed I get at least one new kit from both her and the in laws for Christmas and my birthday!

[Monte's Motors]

My response may seem more like a rant.

Collectors beware.

Here's what seems to have happened to the hobby.

Collectors began buying up to 10, 20, or have ever many more of the same kits, just for collecting. Collecting or hoarding? Now DON'T go off the deep end yet, til ya hear me out. The collecting that took place gave kit companies the idea that maybe as many as 10 times the number of people were buying model kits.

Now the surviving part. People today want kits like the old Jo-Han but they say their not out there. They are in hundreds if not thousands of hoarders closets and may never see what they were meant to be . A MODEL CAR. No that box filled with priceless plastic will probably be just a melted ball after the kind collector passes away.

I SAY THIS. Get those kits out there and REVIVE THE HOBBY. How many now have already TURNED AWAY from the hobby just because they can't find the old ones.

Thanks to ALL who support this GREAT hobby. Are you one of those "collectors" who keep the hobby alive?

We sure hope so.

"Build'm don't hide'm"

[Monte's Motors]

OK, collectors get respect too.

Here's the other side of the coin.

Suppose those collectors only built and never started collecting those kits BY THE DOZENS. Then the hobby might not have made it to it's peek.

I would call the peek model production in the mid 1990's. Stores like Wal-mart drop products that won't sell.

The lack of modeling interest could be BLAMED on the lack of real cars like the "MUSCLE CAR". With car not being exciting, why would anyone build a kit of it.

Maybe we SHOULD THANK the collectors for buying all those extra kits that made the model companys expand their choice to reproduce.

Making kits more available will get people excited about the hobby.

[charlie8575]

After reading how nice some of your wives and girlfriends are, perhaps I should start a dating/marriage site for women tolerant of model builders! Hey, it works for Russian girls wanting to escape the C.I.S. Why not? There have to be more of their kind out there, and it might cause me to rethink bachelordom!

All (quasi-) kidding aside, I think the hobby will survive. I've found there are a lot of younger people who are looking for something slow-paced and individual to do, but haven't considered this. I introduce them to my modeling. Through magazines, occasionally showing what I'm working on, and it captures their imagination.

The key to survival is publicity.

I advise De Molay and Rainbow. I'm working on putting together an exhibition for, of all things- hobbies! Not just model building, but all kinds of things. Fishing, bowling, ham radio, modeling, knitting, photography, game playing, painting and the list goes on. So many of our youth are looking for something to do during their down-time and modeling might appeal to a lot of them. School, helicopter parents and over-scheduling has burned our children to the nubbins and by showing them ways to relax and actually enjoy life, it might lead to a resurgence of many things.

We need to show people that this isn't a pastime for geeks, losers or whatever other negative stereotype those of us with a passion for soemthing other than work, sports or social vices seem to garner.

Sponsor a contest, start working with kids through Scouting, your place of worship if you have one, or volunteer at one anyway, many of them are looking for youth activities of various types, other youth groups, your school department, the ways to reach out go on and on.

There will be a future- if we're willing to try and ensure it.

Charlie Larkin

Edited September 18, 2010 by charlie8575

[robertw]

There have been a couple of posts suggesting that modeling is a thriving hobby its the car model element of the hobby that is suffering. If you look at some of the European model mags that specialize in a/c and armour they are full of new releases and interest in the hobby is strong.

At least one poster suggested that the loss of interest in car modelling is partially attributable to a declining interest in 1 to1 cars. This reminded me of a radio interview show that I listened to a couple of months back on that topic. By the end of the phone-in show a general theme was beginning to emerge that young (20-30's) and especially those from a fully urban background were seeing their car as merely a way of getting around and had more interest in the killer audio/video system then the cars performance or styling. Because engines had become so computer controlled and complex few had any interest in how to work on it or even how it worked and some admitted to having never opened the hood.

I'm sure there are numerous reasons why this hobby is not attracting young people to it as it once did but I did find this idea interesting and something that I'd never thought about before.

robw

[sjordan2]

Sad that interest in the hobby is declining, since there has never been a better time to be a modeler. The Internet has changed everything.

• We have forums like this for the exchange of a huge amount of different and quickly available information, from techniques and tutorials to new products, 1:1 reference, etc.

• If you can't find a kit or supplies in a bricks-and-mortar store, you can usually find them online.

• The kit manufacturers follow and sometimes respond to issues raised on forums like MCM.

You can probably think of many other benefits, but I think we have a lot to appreciate as modelers in 2010.

[impcon]

My response may seem more like a rant.

Collectors beware.

Here's what seems to have happened to the hobby.

Collectors began buying up to 10, 20, or have ever many more of the same kits, just for collecting. Collecting or hoarding? Now DON'T go off the deep end yet, til ya hear me out. The collecting that took place gave kit companies the idea that maybe as many as 10 times the number of people were buying model kits.

Now the surviving part. People today want kits like the old Jo-Han but they say their not out there. They are in hundreds if not thousands of hoarders closets and may never see what they were meant to be . A MODEL CAR. No that box filled with priceless plastic will probably be just a melted ball after the kind collector passes away.

I SAY THIS. Get those kits out there and REVIVE THE HOBBY. How many now have already TURNED AWAY from the hobby just because they can't find the old ones.

Thanks to ALL who support this GREAT hobby. Are you one of those "collectors" who keep the hobby alive?

We sure hope so.

"Build'm don't hide'm"

Hmmmmmmm.. Interesting post indeed and I'd regard it as more of a well voiced opinion than a rant. But consider this.. I collect and I guess that you could say that yes, I do hoard as well. There is a similarity here between real cars and models - it is the people who collect and yes, hoard ( I despise the word but oh well ) that make it possible for us to today be stilll able to buy old built and unbuilt annuals and kits that otherwise would no longer exist. In the world of real 1:1 automobiles, many of the "barn finds" that surface and go into the hands of people who will do something with them are cars and trucks that were never for sale and could be classed as hoarded. I am grateful for the "hoarders" because guess what? No one lives forever and peoples' lives change so sooner or later, 99.9% of the kits and models that belong to people who hide them away in their basements and closets will be on the market for the rest of us. Only a very small minority of those kits will go into a dumpster.. so it isn't all negative or bad. As for someone enjoying an unbuilt kit stilll in the box, I reckon there are those of us who can appreciate a pristine, unbuilt model in the box just as much as one that is done up by a very talenmted person and is sitting in a display case. There is something special about that unbuilt Nash Metropolitan still sitting in it's original box. beauty is in the eye of the beholder - and I do not judge anyone for what they wish to do with their proerty - be it build it or leave it virgin and in the box. Just my opinion..

[Brett Barrow]

There have been a couple of posts suggesting that modeling is a thriving hobby its the car model element of the hobby that is suffering. If you look at some of the European model mags that specialize in a/c and armour they are full of new releases and interest in the hobby is strong.

At least one poster suggested that the loss of interest in car modelling is partially attributable to a declining interest in 1 to1 cars. This reminded me of a radio interview show that I listened to a couple of months back on that topic. By the end of the phone-in show a general theme was beginning to emerge that young (20-30's) and especially those from a fully urban background were seeing their car as merely a way of getting around and had more interest in the killer audio/video system then the cars performance or styling. Because engines had become so computer controlled and complex few had any interest in how to work on it or even how it worked and some admitted to having never opened the hood.

I'm sure there are numerous reasons why this hobby is not attracting young people to it as it once did but I did find this idea interesting and something that I'd never thought about before.

robw

A recent issue of Fine Scale Modeler boasted something like "120 New Product Reviews - Most Ever!" across the top. I work in the hobby industry, and it really is an explosion of not only new kits, but new products for finishing models, new tools, new accessory parts, all kinds of stuff. The hobby is changing, that's for sure. What you're seeing in car modeling is that it has to get "wider", meaning that it used to be about getting the most number of people to buy just a couple of kits, but now you're trying to sell fewer and fewer people a bunch of different kits each, and to do that, you have get wider with your subject matter and give these few guys left a reason to buy new kits by offering something different. You're going to sell fewer pieces, which means the price goes up, but new tooling sells and new tooling is what is causing this explosion you see in other areas.

[Monte's Motors]

Hmmmmmmm.. Interesting post indeed and I'd regard it as more of a well voiced opinion than a rant. But consider this.. I collect and I guess that you could say that yes, I do hoard as well. There is a similarity here between real cars and models - it is the people who collect and yes, hoard ( I despise the word but oh well ) that make it possible for us to today be stilll able to buy old built and unbuilt annuals and kits that otherwise would no longer exist. In the world of real 1:1 automobiles, many of the "barn finds" that surface and go into the hands of people who will do something with them are cars and trucks that were never for sale and could be classed as hoarded. I am grateful for the "hoarders" because guess what? No one lives forever and peoples' lives change so sooner or later, 99.9% of the kits and models that belong to people who hide them away in their basements and closets will be on the market for the rest of us. Only a very small minority of those kits will go into a dumpster.. so it isn't all negative or bad. As for someone enjoying an unbuilt kit stilll in the box, I reckon there are those of us who can appreciate a pristine, unbuilt model in the box just as much as one that is done up by a very talenmted person and is sitting in a display case. There is something special about that unbuilt Nash Metropolitan still sitting in it's original box. beauty is in the eye of the beholder - and I do not judge anyone for what they wish to do with their proerty - be it build it or leave it virgin and in the box. Just my opinion..

I replied to my own post, "the other side of the coin".

Paying respect to collectors. A short version of what you said.

I agree with you statements.