Your Most Expensive Kit ? or What's your Limit

I bought a Model Shipways 1/64 Prince De Neufchatel for around 300 bucks many years ago.  These days my max is around 50 plus AM but I don't build nearly as much stuff as most of you guys.  I've vowed to build a big Wingnut Wings kit before I take the dirt nap but there's a lot of stuff to hack through before I get there.

Although I don't have a limit, the most recent biggest purchases have been the 32nd Academy F-18A+ at $170 and the 32nd Italeri Starfighter at $160 - both in Canadian funds.  I have enough kits, as others have noted, to keep me busy until the Final Exit.  I don't think I'll be spending $250 + tax for the 24th scale Typhoon or the 32nd Mosquito and the likes.

My limit is no more than $65 for a kit unless there's one I really want. I will admit, I once spent $125 on four kits as part of a package deal with a LHS owner a few months ago.

I have a top three,

Tamiya Yamato 1/350 which cost £180 but add in the extras and I'll be over $300 easy

Wingnut Wings 1/32 Felixstowe which was £170

My biggest is a Space 1999 Swift scihighmodels.com/swift.html which cost me £220

one day they will all get built (honest)

Phil

I'm like Sprue-ce, cant go past $100.  The 1/32 Heinkel 111 and  Ju 88 came close, including postage.  Guess I'll never get that 1/24 Mosquito or Typhoon

Aggieman;

I usually find the planes I like fairly reasonable . I found out that one a friend sent  me , sells ( if you can find it ) for around $45.00 bucks . Considering It's a Fleet Air Arm FR 46/47 - A carrier-capable Spitfire . It is unique . T.B.       Oh ! it's 1/48 scale too .(That's my preferred aircraft scale )

That Falcon was about 300, the Mossie was more than 200 and the Typhoon came in around 130

Most expensive is the Fine Molds 1/72 Millennium Falcon, after that 1/24 Airfix Mosquito and 1/24 Airfix Typhoon, then the Tamiya 1/32 series of warbirds at around 100 each.

So far my most expensive kit was the WW2 US Navy Fleet sub in 1 72 scale.
If I remember right, it was about $90.

Sometime this year (I hope) I want to get a resin Yak 1B Soviet fighter in 1 32 scale. Were talking in the neighborhood of $140 plus shipping from England

That will definitely be my limit

I spent $200.00 Canadian (about $175.00 U.S.) for the Airfix 1/24 Typhoon. Worth it by the way. Generally $75.00 was my upper limit and usually a lot less.  But now that a precident  has been set??  

Hmmmm ;

        Promise you won't get upset ? There was a time , Price was no object .Yeah Really ! So I bought a Kit of a Car .Took me five years to build it .And $ 27,000.00 bucks later I had a 1;1 replica of a Austin 3000 . Just like the one on Revell's old box cover . Except Ford powered  . Yep . Put a 289 in it !

      Nowadays if it's more than say , twenty five bucks I have to watch the old budget. To say that there is a limit is the truth now .My client wanted a Trumpeter 1/200 Arizona along with his other build . Knowing I would want one too,  he made a very simple deal here's yours , if you'll build mine . I usually , now , buy off the consignment table at my L.H.S. and usually that is a once in six months deal .

     I get a lot of books now and enjoy reading about the past in modeling , and the genres we went through . I still can build mean scratch-built stuff and this is what drives my client nuts .If I can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear , I scratch-build it instead .Takes longer , but is dead on correct !

I would say that between all my hobbies .Trains , Ships and Cars of the model variety the trains are the costliest so I always look for orphans .( Non - Popular rail lines or engines etc.) So what I have is eclectic , but fun !  My main budget for a show is always $ 250.00 and that includes gas , round trip , and food for the day .

    I still find some wow ! yard sale goodies . Like a 1/8 scale Jag Coupe for a buck ! Yeah , I said a buck ! .Lotsa work ahead but now I have a body for my running gear !  After all , you can't really hurt any level of glue bomb , can you ?       T.B.

The Tamiya 1:32 Mustang $128.00, Tamiya 1:32 Corsair $115.00, and a Tamiya 1:32 Zero $110.00.  Mrs. Toshi doesn't give me a limit amount, but I figure if I stay within the $100.00 to $150.00, I'll be safe.  

Toshi

UKP£300 / USD$460 on a compressor/Iwata airbrush, but thats Tools, right & 'essential purchases'

£120.00 GBP = $186.987 USD on some Resicast kits, £40.00 GBP = $62.36 USD is usually my limit, unless....  

Although a hobby club mate dropped £1,400.00 GBP = $2,183.14 USD at the IPMS Nats at Telford, & didn't get all he wanted...

I can't think of a kit I've spent more than $60 on. I'd really like to pick up that 1/350 TOS starship Enterprise, but of course you need the lighting and accessories and ain't nobody got credit fo dat.

i have the HobbyBoss 1/72 DORA at $275, 1/35 S-Boat at $185 from quite a few years ago. Currently  I will get the Trumpeter 1/35 SA-8  and Trumpeter PATRIOT which should be  in the high $150s. Good thing i don't do wooden ships.

Several r/c submarines built from fiberglass hulls  (PERMIT Class, SKIPJACK class, GATO Class) and several built form plastic kits (Trumpeter KILO and SEAWOLF, Moebius SEAVIEW) - after  figuring in the electronics, watertight cylinder, paint, adhesives, etc - rough cost is $1,000+.  KILO came in around $500.  I have also built and r/ced the Tamiya Knight Hauler, with Tamiya Multi Function Unit, 3 sets of oil shocks - even with my employee discount at the LHS, cost was still around $1,000,

I think that I spent something like $100 dollars on the huge Trumpeter  Geschützwagen Tiger für 17cm Kanone kit? That was the most expensive NEW kit I've bought, and probably my limit for price.

But I think I spent something ridiculous for an old AMT SMX Javelin car kit---they're like, the Holy Grail of car models on eBay. I believe I bid up to something like $140? And then I utterly ruined it with incompatible paints. Utter devastation!

Typically I don't spend more than $40 on a kit.  I buy most of my kits at shows, and tend to stock up there.  My wife says I'm getting to the point where I don't need any more kits, but I may steal the fixed income idea mentioned earlier, it might work.  I can't remember the exact price of the most expensive kit I bought (probably around $50-60), but it was 60% off at Hobby Lobby and it's the 1/32 Academy F-16CG/GJ.  I'd been looking at it for a long time and had to get it when I saw the sale price.

Paid about 120 for the Tamiya 1.32 Corsair as a back door Christmas gift.  Best deal  I had was when I got the Academy 1.32 Hornet for $27 after gift cards and a 40% off coupon. I think it was 130 at the time.

Tojo72

Didn't know what a "Pocher Kit" was.Did an Ebay search and all I can say is Wow !!!  1/8 must be pretty big.

The most expensive kit I've got would be 1/72 Airfix C-47 Skytrain. Can't remember how much I paid for but I'm not stopping there. Gonna pick up some PE and aftermarket stuff for it too.

Didn't know what a "Pocher Kit" was.Did an Ebay search and all I can say is Wow !!!  1/8 must be pretty big.

A couple of Pocher kits, Alfa and Mercedes, can't recall amount for certain, but a few hundred bucks.

Bell 47 helicopter, 1:20th scale, I think around $150. Built the cars, not the helicopter, 74 years old now, probably should consider starting the build one of these years.

Patrick

Well, at least loincloths didn't cost much back then.

Don't forget that there were no MicroLux table saws.

Everything was measured, cut and assembled by hand.

LHS kept running out of gopher wood, and the internet hadn't been invented yet...

GMorrison

Well Noah was 950 by the time he finished the Ark. Way too much AM on that puppy.

That was 1:1 plank on frame. Those builds take awhile.

Im currently building the DeAgostini Millenium Falcon.  The completed model will be north of $1000....my guess is I wont spend that kind of money ever on another kit, or who knows! Right? LOL!

I am saving up for a Micro Lux Digital Table Saw. That'll be $ 379.00 plus...

Well Noah was 950 by the time he finished the Ark. Way too much AM on that puppy.