The stash: A detriment to modeling?

Hans von Hammer

Last count, I think I have enough kits to last me until 2032... At which point I'll be 83...  So I'm done buying anything new..

Unless... I find a 60-70s Monogram or Revell kit that I don't have on-hand, or need another one of, or  just gotta have because it's THERE...

Did I tell you what I found in the basement of my LHS this time.....?

My main issue is that I aquire kits faster than I build, and in the last couple of years, have succumbed to AMS, rather than turning out dioramas... I need to re-focus on just suoer-detailing the areas that will show in the diorama, or are esstential to the story, and forget about building the unseen stuff (which includes stuff that may be exposed but impossible to see without lifting it up, which can't be done once installed on the diorama)..

I got caught up in scratch-building and super-detailing too much, trying to prove to the "Kit-Pickers"  that, with some imagination and bench-top engineering (Imagineering) and a well-stocked parts-box, one doesn't need to buy the latest & greatest $50-100.00 kits and another $40-50.00-worth of resin and photo-etch that a $12-20.00 Revellogram kit is enough to make a real head-turner...

Last count, I think I have enough kits to last me until 2032... At which point I'll be 83...  So I'm done buying anything new..

Unless... I find a 60-70s Monogram or Revell kit that I don't have on-hand, or need another one of, or  just gotta have because it's THERE...

No, my stash is not a detriment to my model building at all. Technically speaking, I have had one all of my adult life, as a few kits I had bought in high school were never built and put in storage when I left for the Ft Benning Finishing School for Boys. They were still there years later when I can home and brought back most of the kits that I had built while on active duty, and began to standardize my building- 1/35 armor and 1/48 aircraft. Any kits from my high school stash not in those categories were sold off and I began anew. For many years my stash was never more than a dozen kits, as my free time for building easily kept pace with my money available for purchases. Then came financial good times, longer hours away from home and hobby with work and the Guard, and the stash enabler- the internet and Ebay . My stash multiplied like breeding rabbits, while time demands and new building and finishing techniques resulted in fewer completions. Then with the recession the "happy time" ended. But like the ant of the fable, I now have enough kits stored in my stash to see me through the rest of my natural life. And when modelers block hits, I can go through my stash and its' variety of subjects until the building bug bites again and I have a kit that strikes my fancy in hand to jump on. Then the stash is anything but a detriment and instead an asset.

fermis

...I overthink the finished product.....and the amount of work needed to achieve that finish desired. It seems as though, the ones that I don't really have a final plan on, are the most relaxing and turn out the best. I guess what I'm trying to say is ....don't focus on FINISHING.....focus on DOING!!!

...its not the stash that stops you, its YOU that stops you...

I have definitely noticed a difference in my habits, since I aquired a stash. For the longest time, my "stash" was the kit that I was working on. When it was FINISHED, I'd buy another. Now, when I finish one, I tend to stare at the stash for a few days, talking to myself. I'll go through 4-5 kits, trying to get started, but just throw em back. The problem is, I overthink the finished product.....and the amount of work needed to achieve that finish desired. It seems as though, the ones that I don't really have a final plan on, are the most relaxing and turn out the best. I guess what I'm trying to say is ....don't focus on FINISHING.....focus on DOING!!!

I have a stash of about 200 kits and love it. I'm always looking forward to my next build and the best thing is that it's already waiting for me there on my shelves. If for any reason I couldn't purchase any more lits, I'd be perfectly happy to build the ones I already have.

There are another 30 kits I have that I've set aside for sale or trade. Most of these were not well thought out impulse buys.

Hercmech

I build the models in my stash in my mind way quicker and way better than they turn out in reality

Me too...but they never do well at contests...stupid judges insisting on seeing them...

Hercmech

I build the models in my stash in my mind way quicker and way better than they turn out in reality

Ain't that the truth!?!?!

I build the models in my stash in my mind way quicker and way better than they turn out in reality

Wow, interesting question.  I look at the stash (which grew WAY too fast last year) just ask my wife, and see a lot of great possibilities waiting.  Having gotten back into the hobby a yr ago it's still exciting (I hope it always does) and i've learned a TON on here from the members.

Nope, my stash numbers around 2000.  Almost everything is something I have a interest in.  I build and finish about 2-5 kits a month.  If anything, that number of kits to build keeps my creativity going.  I may be unusual in that I never had a gap in my life, (60 years) where I wasn't building or buying.  And this started at 9. 

  I have a good basement work area.  Plenty of ventilation and I can work all year.  My system is one under construction, one in the painting/drying stage, and one being pre-selected  to build.  I often end up with 2 being done fairly close together.   I usually can do my work in the pm and spend about 1 to 3 hours a night.  Weekends don't get a lot of build time in as that is time for my wife and other house things.

 I quit going overboard on details years ago.  I found that that stuff doesn't matter to me.  I just try to get a good build with a nice paint job and a bit of weathering.  Oh I will do some extra stuff here and there, but I could never take a year to finish.  Why be in the hobby if you never finish anything?  I never could understand that.  Might as well take up stamp collecting or some other hobby.

And I don't spend a whole lot of time on the net.  In fact I should be building now, got the Accurate Miniatures B 25 "Dirty Dora" going right now.  Just finished a Tamiya Me-109E and a Japanese Naval Tank and a Leopard 2 A6 M Canadian, with Bar Armor, among others.  So off I go!

Doug

It sounds to me that you're just in a place where modeling isn't at the top of your list of recreational actvities. We all go though it. I haven't completed a kit since 2009. I'm still interested in the hobby. I still buy a kit from time to time. I check several modeling sites daily and subscribe to FSM. I just haven't felt like building anything. As far as the stash is concerned, I don't have a large one, maybe 25 kits, but I definitely want to build every one of them. Seeing them just sitting on the shelf in their box is more irritating than anything because I want to see them built. I really hope that the bug bites me again and I get back to the bench. If not I'm not going to fret over it. It's just a hobby.

I do find that I have a tendency  to want to build the latest kit I have bought, instead of reaching for something in the stash.  However, at other times something peaks my interest- maybe something I see on TV, in a movie, or in a book, and I remember that I have something related in the stash, and that does then go on the bench.  Also, clubs I belong to are doing more and more challenge competitions, and I may have something in the stash that would meet the challenge.  But indeed I find myself building more of the recently bought stuff so my stash seems to age a lot.

under the strict parameters of allowable answers

No

having the kits you want to build for a set theme (a stash), is far less detrimental to the kits being built than any of the following

not having any kits to build

having a lot of kits, but, none of them fit your theme

there not being a kit of the thing you want to build for your collection

there once being a kit of the thing you want, but, it is OOP, and you can't find one for sale anymore, anywhere

there once being a kit of the thing you want to continue your theme, but, it is OOP, and there ARE some available,,,,,,but, they would cost more than the car you drive to get one today

there is a current version of the model you want, it is for sale today, but, you can't get one for any of the possible reasons for that happening to a modeler

not having motivation to build a model is rooted somewhere besides in "having the kit on your shelf at your place"

my own stash inspires me to choose a subject to start anytime I take a minute to look at it,,,,,the worst it could do is cause me to have too many going at once

I find its the painting of the kit thats the detriment for me. If i could just grab an airbrush and spray at my workbench, id be pumping out a kit every 2 weeks. But because i have to go out onto the balcony with a rattle can, and because i can only do it when my partners not home (it affects her asthma, doesnt affect mine for some reason) i get to the paint point and move on to another build.

I also find because i know what its meant to be like, i get nervous about screwing it up. So i put the kit to one side till i can figure it out. 

Not at all, in my case. Now, if I say I'm going to build kit X, kit Y, and kit Z next, odds are when it comes to it I'll actually end up doing kits R, K, and Q instead. The more I lock myself into a build beforehand, the less inclined I am when the time arrives. But that's a planning trap, not a stash trap.