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Lol......i'm sure you've noticed a guy like this at your hobby store too !!

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  • Member since
    January 2020
  • From: Maryland
Posted by wpwar11 on Saturday, March 14, 2020 12:05 PM

Gotcha.  Living in a Washington DC suburb it certainly doesn’t feel local driving the horrendous DC beltway.

  • Member since
    May 2011
  • From: Honolulu, Hawaii
Posted by Real G on Saturday, March 14, 2020 3:36 PM

Ha ha, you could probably make a sitcom show using all the hobby shop “personality” stereotypes - but only modelers would get the jokes.  The rest of the world would just stand there and look confused, kinda like me at a Star Trek convention!  Stick out tongue  

There would be the alpha male know-it-all, the guy who practically lives at the counter who is always talking to the owner, the socially awkward super-specialized guy (who knows EVERYTHING about German WW II jacking block brackets), the ever happy OOTB guy who is the only one that finishes his models, the enthusiastic newbie who gets picked on by the alpha male, and finally the two guys who come in and whisper criticisms of everything to each other but never buy anything.

I’m sure I missed stepping on a few toes, so feel free to add to the list!

Now to figure out which one I am.

Oh yeah, I’m the scale modeler turned leper because I build sci-fi.  “Because everyone knows you can paint sci-fi any way you like, because it‘s fantasy!”

“Ya ya ya, unicorn papoi!”

  • Member since
    July 2011
  • From: Armpit of NY
Posted by MJames70 on Saturday, March 14, 2020 7:34 PM

It's all fun and games to some here, but I believe the 'counter hangers' played a part in the demise of a local store. Mainly, they hung around the counter all day, talking nonsense to the store staff, who were too weak to shoo off these lonely folks who never bought anything anyway. They made the store an unwelcome and unfriendly environment for anyone who wasn't one of the ear benders, and definitely off putting to new hobbyists and customers in the store for the first time. Having to deal with a crowd of circling buzzards who were annoyed when anyone dared intrude upon their diatribes to get a moment's attention in the store isn't a long term plan for success. I'm not naive enough to believe it was the main or only reason the store failed, but that it developed into a lonely old non customers crowd circling the counter every moment the place was open WAS a factor. And the store should have done something - but they didn't...

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Fort Knox
Posted by Rob Gronovius on Saturday, March 14, 2020 7:52 PM

Real G

Now to figure out which one I am.

Most modelers fit into several categories. For instance, I am mainly a modern armor modeler. I tend to go all out on vehicles I have a connection to; i.e. modern vehicles I crewed in my younger days. Even among those modern armor subects, I will put more effort into more important (to me) subjects than into others. So, I'll want the best Abrams kit, but I am okay with a decent Bradley kit.

Then dip in to the WW2 German armor realm, and I am okay with any level of kit. I just want an enjoyable build and don't give a rat's behind about whether it has the proper this or that.

Go to a multitude of kits from days gone by, and I'll pick up a model that I built 40 some odd years ago, mainly for nostalgic purposes. Again, I only care that it is the kit I built in 1972 and not if it is accurate.

I also grew up building lots of sci-fi kits, those ones by Aurora, Monogram and of course the AMT Star Trek kits and MPC Star Wars kits. I loved those kits and love even the newer Bandai, Fine Molds and Polar Lights or Moebius kits.

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Saturday, March 14, 2020 7:58 PM

Gamera;

 I do believe we would wind up laughing so much our sides would hurt!

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Saturday, March 14, 2020 8:04 PM

Hey, Baxter;

 Is there anything better to talk about then Models, Sports and Girls! Well ! the last was years ago!

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Saturday, March 14, 2020 8:07 PM

Rob;

 What surprised me was I picked the old RevelloGram re-pop of the M48-A-1 about a year ago. Guess what ? the plastic under the engine louvers and grates was still almost 3/16 of an inch thick! Oh, the good old days.

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Fort Knox
Posted by Rob Gronovius on Sunday, March 15, 2020 12:46 PM

Tanker-Builder

Rob;

 What surprised me was I picked the old RevelloGram re-pop of the M48-A-1 about a year ago. Guess what ? the plastic under the engine louvers and grates was still almost 3/16 of an inch thick! Oh, the good old days.

I bought one of those about a year ago. It is the 1959 M48A2 in Vietnam markings. Yes, it is an ancient kit and I have one that I first built in the late 1970s and repainted in the 1980s to resemble the M48A5 tank I first crewed in 1985.

I had an old Lo Models M48/M60 conversion set made in Korea that was designed for the Tamiya M48A3 and Tamiya (original) M60A1. Any way, I found the Monogram kit in the clearance aisle of Hobby Lobby for $7.50 so I bought it and decided to use the Lo Models conversion to make an M48A2GA2. After Revell of Germany made that exact version into a brand new kit, I lost interest.

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Nashotah, WI
Posted by Glamdring on Sunday, March 15, 2020 2:58 PM

My LHS shut it's doors two summers ago, and boy did I go hog wild during the clearance sale. The owner's kid was heading off to college, and the kid must have been doing a good portion of the work with the store, so between rent going up and a dependable, inexpensive employee departing, she said it wasn't very profitable venture anymore. Even though they didn't have the biggest kit selection, and what was there was at full MSRP, but it was nice to have a well laid out, well lit, local source for supplies. To say nothing of it being located next to a Dairy Queen...

 

There's another shop a little farther away that caters mostly to railroaders, but their plastic kit and supply aisles are well stocked. But those aisles are so narrow, it is incredibly hard to maneuver. There are always people in there too, and a pile of outgoing online orders by the door for the postman to pick up, so I assume they won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Robert 

"I can't get ahead no matter how hard I try, I'm gettin' really good at barely gettin' by"

  • Member since
    July 2019
Posted by Robotism on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 1:16 PM

I quite like the pot belly chaps who hang around the counter talking about model train stuff. They're far superior to the cliquey jerks who give you death stares because you wanted to pay for your paints and leave while they discuss bum fluff and what the weathers like. I also quite like the Games Workshop guy sitting at the table painting figures who gives you a polite nod and lets you browse in peace, I haven't been in a GW in ages.

  • Member since
    January 2019
Posted by domer94 on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 7:01 PM
LOL, that guy was called the forum moderator before the internet when the local HS was the gathering spot for discussion. I remember my LHS as a kid "closter hobby" in NJ. they had the slot car tracks in the basement , train area with test track / repair shop , rocket area (you had to get a state license to buy the engines). good times
  • Member since
    January 2019
Posted by domer94 on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 7:08 PM

lots of nostalgia about hobby conversations here, but yes , to your point i know there is that type of hanger on who is better served hanging out at the gin mill than the hobby store. was in a place the other day , not to be named , and i heard these guys spewing some racist supremisist type stuff..  they were trying to talk in code, but i knew what the heck they were talking about (not directed at me by the way) , but disgusting none the less. like being at the bar, dont talk religion or politics. now i go to the further place, but if im in a pinch i have to bite the bullet

  • Member since
    January 2020
Posted by Space Ranger on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 12:23 AM

the Baron

 

 
modelmaker66
 
the Baron

Is this a cut-and-paste of an older thread?  I'm certain we had this topic before. 

Even if it is, then it seems to be appreciated so who cares!

 

 

Nothing wrong with it, just sounds like a familiar discussion.  Sort of like the ones you've often posted in the past.

 

Nostalgia just ain't what it used to be!

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