So why do you or we stash kits?

[Mr Dedo]

Have combined boxes of the same kits to free up shelf space for more.

I swore after the first of the year I would stop purchasing kits but

keep adding to the parts box for projects down the road. Every

car or truck on the work bench has some kit bashing. I'll keep

buying them for the parts. Headers, valve covers, frames,

wheels, tires, blowers, radiators-you get the idea...

[PARTSMARTY]

I HAVE ABOUT 900-1,000 KITS LEFT.TONS OF RATTLE CANS-RESIN-AIR BRUSH AND I LOVE IT.THE ONLY PART I HATE IS WHEN WE MOVED FROM ONE STATE TO ANOTHER-MOVING IT ALL IS A ROYAL PAIN.WE DON'T PLAN ON EVER MOVING AGAIN-LOL.

Edited May 3, 2013 by PARTSMARTY

[disabled modeler]

now, the real issue isn't stashing kits - it's finding room to display the kits after they're built. i find that i'm rapidly approaching the point of giving away built models just to make room for newly completed builds. or buy more shelves and move them out to the garage.

I have a disabled builders group here I help that would love any models,parts,etc. that get in your way.

[wgflatliner]

i'm thinking about the completed builds here. i'm just running out of room! i'd like to get some decent builds done before i start just giving them away. i'd hate to send poor builds to anybody with the knowledge that i was the person that sent them.

hope that makes sense

[chev12olet]

Okay, here lets bring up an old subject. I have close to 200+ kits in my stash. I intend on building them all plus the new ones I will buy on my journey in the years ahead of me. At least that's what I think and I tell my wife, lol. But really the kits and the cars I like are always changing, so I will always be $$$$ buying and increasing my stash. That's just how it is since I can afford to buy my own hobbies like most adults can (or anyone with the means to support their addiction to plastic can ) and I enjoy creating something different and even making it my own at times.I remember when my stash was well over 800 just 6 yrs ago. When I moved I sold all but 100 and now I'm starting over, lol.so why do I stash, well cause I can. He he he

[clovis]

I am new to the hobby after a 25 year hiatus.

I have a total of 3 kits in my stash. One is being built right now, and one needs to find a new home since it is incomplete. The third one is a Ferrari, and the little one wants to paint it gloss pink and add glitter to it when it is built.

I am trying to stay very strict with myself about building what I buy.

But then again, that could all change if I found the right deal on ebay, or found a stack of kits at a flea market or garage sale.

[Greg Myers]

George, here is another way to look at why we stash our kits, with model kits, you never know how many times a kit is going to be issued, some get reissued for 40 plus years, so get one run and they are done, so if you want a kit, its best to buy it when its first issued, because you may not see it reissued again. Sure, most of the kits that have OOP for long periods of time can still be found online, but how much as the price gone up on that kit.

And if you are a builder of Japanese kits, they almost never reissue kits, so once they done, they are done, and once the supply runs out, good luck, and when you do, they are going to cost you.

So buying now ensures us we will have the kits that we want , and not have to take out a second mortgage on the house to buy that kit that we passed up years back

Best answer yet

[Blown03SVT]

I try to buy them while they are new, so I don't get caught up in collector prices later. The stashing is an unfortunate circumstance of life interferring with my build time.

[Greg Myers]

Stack neatly,(considering weight, keeping them dry and cool) categorize them, so you don't end up buying multiples. I'd bet there are a bunch of other considerations.

[Pete J.]

I learned a lesson the hard way. Years ago(probably 20 or so) not long after I returned to the hobby after a bit of a hiatus, I really wanted to build a Tamiya six wheel F1 car in 1/12. Well, Tamiya has a cycle that they go through and I was at a point where it just wasn't available from a dealer. Frankly, we had not yet developed the internet network of dealers and small shops so I wound up on a new fangled thing called eBay. I found one and paid $120 for it. A couple of years later they reissued it for $60. Lesson learned. If it is available and I am interested, I buy it. I never know when the urge to build a specific model will hit me and I don't want to pay eBay or collector prices. So, the stash grows. I am at the age where I am going to become a seller on eBay as frankly, I have some subjects that I am just not interested in anymore. So perhaps it is time to let someone else enjoy them. Not going to put them up to make money but if the market makes it valuable to someone then so be it. Oh, just fyi, I am in that 700 to 1000 kit group. That is a lot of plastic.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Pete J.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Ummm, like a dog....because we can ?

[martinfan5]

I think the biggest reason we stash kits is because we see a kit that we want to build, so we buy it, and then for whatever reason, we dont start on that kit right way, but in the mean time, we find more kits that we want to build, so we buy those too, and that cycle just keeps repeating its self.

[Tom Geiger]

Why not? It's not drinking or running around with women. As long as you're not taking food off your family table to buy kits, buy what you want, stash it until if and when you build it and just enjoy the hobby. It's not like model kits go bad. I have models mint in box back to the 1950s that are still just fine. And if it wasn't for the folks back then who stashed it and didn't build it, I wouldn't have it today. So if you must get over the guilt, you are storing kits for future generations of modelers. Later in life you can always sell them, or if you fall off your perch, your family can sell them.

[niteowl7710]

Why not? It's not drinking or running around with women.

I dunno depending on how much vintage and import kits you own once you start getting into the mid-three digit amount of stash kits drinkin' and chasing women is probably less investment with about the same result.

[chev12olet]

Why not? It's not drinking or running around with women. As long as you're not taking food off your family table to buy kits, buy what you want, stash it until if and when you build it and just enjoy the hobby. It's not like model kits go bad. I have models mint in box back to the 1950s that are still just fine. And if it wasn't for the folks back then who stashed it and didn't build it, I wouldn't have it today. So if you must get over the guilt, you are storing kits for future generations of modelers. Later in life you can always sell them, or if you fall off your perch, your family can sell them.

Amen brother I see the styrene gates to heaven !!!!!!!

[Scuderia]

I think the biggest reason we stash kits is because we see a kit that we want to build, so we buy it, and then for whatever reason, we dont start on that kit right way, but in the mean time, we find more kits that we want to build, so we buy those too, and that cycle just keeps repeating its self.

This is true for me, and on a side not there's nothing wrong with drinking and skirt chasing if you're a bachelor lol

[ERIK88]

I stash kits because when there is an opportunity to same money on some kits I've been wanting specially if they are quite old I buy them, as I know I won't find them again that easily. I hardly get time to build, but I know one day ill get to them, and feels good knowing you have that certain model that's hard to find or that model you've always wanted to buy in the 90s which you couldn't afford because you were just a kid and had a allowance of $5 a week lol.

[Dr. Cranky]

For me, it is usually more of a building need. I usually buy two copies of the same kit and paint them both. I might not necessarily build both, but I paint both and then build the better looking one. It's a little insurance against having something go wrong. And I tend to build the same 10-15 kits over and over, so I like to keep plenty of copies of the kits I like, the 41 Willys for example. That's a great kit and I love to build it so I keep half a dozen on my shelves at all times. Then there are kits I rob parts from like the AMT 66 Nova, so I keep a few of those. Well, you get the point, the kits start gathering and filling the shelves. I do not collect. I build. So what I have are kits I intend to build. Having said that I now have over 300 kits and not enough lifetimes to build them all, but so it goes.

[Greg Myers]

See "Revell Question" above http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77328

[Gramps2u]

I buy them with full intent to enjoy building them. I often buy multiples of the same kit for parts & other build notions. With the way some kits end up on the MFG "short runs" I buy them while I can to avoid the high collectors prices on ebay.

[mademan]

I just buy what I like..... If I like a kit then ill buy a case or 3 . Last first of the Revell Lowrider Cadillac (then Donk) was supposedly the only run, so I gathered up 20 or so of them.... then a few years later the California Wheels lowrider one came out, It is by far one of my favorite kit, so I bought 2 more cases of them. Same with the Revell 2010 Camaro SS kit.... Great kit, In MY OPINION one of the nicest newer kits in years, I also have a 1:1 2011 and many ideas for them, so I bought 3 cases total. So for me its a matter of just having what I like to build on hand.

Then you find the older issues that are harder and harder to find, and increasing in cost. The revell Tuner series Honda Civic coupe and Acura Integra, the Monte Carlo Aeroback, the AMT 454SS truck, AMT Baldwin Motion 70.5 Camaro..... I buy/trade for every one of them that I find. Ive got some kits in my stash that I have 10-30 of,just for the fact that I like the kit and have lots of ideas.

Edited July 24, 2013 by mademan

[greymack]

Hey guys I think I may have a good and or bad problem with buying too many kits. I was offered a deal I can't refuse by a good friend in the model retail end and a hobby shop near my location is going out of business. So the deal is 350 new kits plus my choice of a near full testors or humbrol paint rack for a huge total of $0,000.00 .. Can't give you guys a total yet ha.So need some advice guys buy or leave it?

[Mike Kucaba]

I stash kits and supplies so I'll have something to do when the Apocalypse (or Rapture) hits. I'll be in my fortified bunker in a remote

location while everyone else is foraging for food.

[Tom Geiger]

Hey guys I think I may have a good and or bad problem with buying too many kits. I was offered a deal I can't refuse by a good friend in the model retail end and a hobby shop near my location is going out of business. So the deal is 350 new kits plus my choice of a near full testors or humbrol paint rack for a huge total of $0,000.00 .. Can't give you guys a total yet ha.So need some advice guys buy or leave it?

Buy it all! Depends on the deal of course, sometimes a percentage off retail is still more than we're buying kits for at shows and eBay. If bought right, you may be able to get your investment back by selling extras to friends.

[mrknowetall]

For me, it is usually more of a building need. I usually buy two copies of the same kit and paint them both. I might not necessarily build both, but I paint both and then build the better looking one. It's a little insurance against having something go wrong. And I tend to build the same 10-15 kits over and over, so I like to keep plenty of copies of the kits I like, the 41 Willys for example. That's a great kit and I love to build it so I keep half a dozen on my shelves at all times. Then there are kits I rob parts from like the AMT 66 Nova, so I keep a few of those. Well, you get the point, the kits start gathering and filling the shelves. I do not collect. I build. So what I have are kits I intend to build. Having said that I now have over 300 kits and not enough lifetimes to build them all, but so it goes.

Exactly! To expand on the Doctor's viewpoint, I tend to buy ancient model car kits solely because I want them. Eventually they get re-sold, but the cyle is endless. These purchases don't come from household funds, and I like to score old kits that I've never owned. I'm simply the current caretaker. The same goes for newer kits. Some get built (or that's the plan), and others are stored neatly away, like any good caretaker would and should do.

Ain't it insane, but fun?