Hi!
I am sure you've all thought about this. Things ain't getting Cheaper! Why, I can remember a decent plane model back in the day, Might set you back one lawn's worth of cash. Now you have to Budget for it and the supplies to build it.
This is true of any model really. Those of us who Build are really getting close to the reality of both Inflation and the cost of anything that has it's beginnings tied to the price of Crude-Oil, Of which plastic is made!
BUT, and this is serious. I believe I wrote a post many years back about this subject. The Hobby has changed. Now many of us use not only Glues and Paints we never heard of thirty years ago, We are also cramming our models with After Market resin or Brass items the cost of which, has gone up exponentially.
Still, The Value put on Modeling Time, whether it be solitary or with family around can not really be measured in dollars! Yes, we might have heavy metal emitting from our sound system and the laptop nearby for research, We are getting that time away from the Madness which surrounds us!
To use an example of what I mean. One Sunday Morning not to long ago I stepped out on my porch( Well,That is what the builder called it) and was shocked by the absolute silence!!! I had no Idea our world was so full of Noise. It's no wonder we hustle to the bench to get our minds off the conglomeration of Noise, and just sheer Busyness out there.
Now , that brings us back to the costs involved. Did you know that one of the strings of reality is that moderately creative folks are likely to live clear minded and mobile far longer than someone who falls for the Cyber life we are being pushed into! So in that regard, The Fifty dollar plane, Forty dollars worth of Paint and so on is, far more reasonable in that context.
Sure, it's fun to remember "the Good old days" But those days brought us here. Modeling with a level mind and surrounded by that which we like, Personal Time! No price can be put on that!! So go forth and set up the budget for the next model, the Cold refreshments, and forge on knowing that you ain't nuts after all!