Hey Curt, truly great topics to air and if they’re not in the back of every lurker’s mind, they probably don’t have a pulse.

The old hobby store memories are part of our childhoods and certainly precious to me, like many others who’ve already said so above. Hold the violins, but it was a simpler time then when fun was top priority and often achievable. But then let’s try to stop sounding like old fogies in rocking chairs, my early 1970’s store was pretty crappy compared to the one I visit these days in range, size, and any other parameter. So the child inside me is just as excited now as it was then, if not more so.

And I spend 80% of my budget in my local store because I don’t want to see it go bust on my account (and I’m OK it’ll cost 10 or 20% more for exactly that reason), and 20% on the interweb for obscure stuff it’s not worth the store’s while to order in.

As for (detrimentally) comparing one’s work to others, I think that’s a lose-lose attitude which has far more positive alternatives. I can’t think of a faster way to get discouraged or depressed than studying someone else’s brilliant work in direct comparison to my own. Firstly I only COMPARE my most recent effort to MY previous ones…and sure I’ll be disappointed if it’s worse, but that’s rare only because I like to think I learn and improve, either from others’ brilliant work of I just got lucky. I absolutely eat up someone else’s excellent work because that’s usually the only way I can get better. Looking at it and getting a sinking feeling is…well like you I’m struggling for the right word but it’s unnecessary to feel like that, it should be the opposite – inspirational, it gives me a boost because I can see that something I thought impossible is actually possible. And I don’t believe for a moment that some are more capable than others – NO, NO and NO again, it’s about attitude and the desire to do better. We’ve all hopefully got fully functional bodies and the materials are the same for everyone. OK availability of free time is the only excuse, I’ll concede that much.

As you might know I sometimes blow stuff up in my dios, usually kits I wasn’t particularly satisfied with, but in my display case I keep - in pride of place - the first 3 kits I did when I re-started modeling in middle-age. They’re frigging terrible, I’m talking really really bad – a Horch car, a Panther and a Sherman. And I love them, because I thought they were superb when I made them…

Cheers, and let's remember that the good old days were never always better, just sometimes.

Tim

So true, Tim, so very, very true!

Can only second this! Thinking of my first models as a kid I can only smile and think: How simple and easy the world had been back then! And how great it was to just finish a kit with some paint on it. I think we need to be critical with ourselves, but just to let us try for more each and every time we get to the bench. Most of the times it works, but sometimes it doesn't... and that's the moment we need to remind ourselves, that it is still a hobby! Others play football in their free time and will never win the Super Bowl... and they are still having fun to do so. And so should we when modelling: indulging ourselves with the work of the champs and trying our own very best to walk our way to their art!

To the hobby stores: Oh yeah, always when I enter one (and that's - sadly enough - only once or twice a year), it is like entering a parellel universe where time and worries of the "real life" don't matter. And then you stand there watching all the stuff for ages and then deciding for the one or two things to take... it's almost like being in a museum or arts galery where others would pay quite a bit of entrance and have fum for 2-3 hours... I have that in my LHS and I love it!

Or, more likely for the time, they had to buy case lot assortments from their distributor that included three each of six different kits. This was also a way of unloading "dog" items, for example "We can sell you six of A and six of B, but you have to take six of Z, too."

KL

Well, although I'm guilty of mainly using my LHS for top ups of glue, paint, brass wire, plastic card etc, I consider myself very lucky. Where I live, not far from Salisbury in darkest Wiltshire (southern UK), we are blessed with 2 model shops, which might make the town unique.

Both shops are well stocked, with different flavours as it were (one will stock diecast for instance, and one will stock slot racing models); ordering in items from both is normally effected in a 3-5 day turnaround. Both stock good ranges of paints, tools, accessories, and of course kits, ranging from space models, aircraft, ships, dinosaurs, armour in all scales, figures - you name it, we're pretty lucky in this part of the world.

One of the owners is a modeller himself and a former soldier, and he will always engage with the customer encouraging and answering endless questions.

Window displays in both are interesting and constantly changing.

My stash is such that I rarely buy in new unless of course I can't live without it (often the case!)and I must admit I tend to buy at shows; overall however, as I've said, we are very lucky with our 2 stores.

Brian

Here in Columbia South Carolina we are lucky to have a HobbyTown store that is very well stocked with the major brands well represented. Takom, Meng, Dragon, Tamiya, Bronco, Hobbyboss, Panda, Riich, Italeri, Minicraft and more, along with some after market items.

The paint selection is first class with two full size floor standing racks of Vallejo paints and washes. The normal run of Testors, model master and Tamiya as well.

All the pricing is very competitive to online and if they have a distributor that carries something not in stock they are willing to order it for you, no shipping fee.

A second HobbyTown is about to open in Cheraw, SC. as well.

Don't always think the brick and mortar hobby shop is going the way of the dinosaur. Many of them have much to offer, especially if the staff are also in the modeling hobby.

The AMPS Wildcats chapter also meets in the Columbia store.

It is a great store with a friendly staff and relaxed atmosphere, but remember it does sell all the other RC items that so many of you are not interested in as well. That is why it is a 'Full Line' hobby shop.

Keith

I remember my childhood and exactly how I started with model kits. My brother and I were into Star Wars stuff, and we saw an imperial AT-AT walker in a toy store. So we pooled our money and bought it just before Christmas. We had no idea it was a model. So my brother built it with what glue we had on hand and it was awesome to our young eyes. Then we bought an ESCI Tornado, painted it with school paints, and after that we used to go downtown every evening rushing to make it to some toy stores before they closed, to drool over the ESCI kits and Battle diorama sets.
I remember getting a 1/72 B-17 from revell and building it start to finish in 13 hours straight.
I remember hopping on my bike and driving down to a local hobby store just to see if they had white, black or metal paint (those were the they never had enough of). And then cycling back home with just that one pot in hand, happy that some model will finally get painted tires.

So to come back to your point, I now have only two hobby stores in my city, and I make a point of never buying any kit online that they have in stock, even though the cost can be over double what it is online. I feel like supporting them is a priority and look forward to taking my son to pick out his first kit from one of these stores when he is old enough.

Point number two has been addressed already. If you built and painted the kit, you will know all the flaws and mistakes you made and maybe hid under mud or tarps or some other weathering. But when I go to my parents, they still have some of my old kits, with missing parts after several rough landings and all covered in dust, and I always spend a couple of minutes looking over how good they were for a kid with limited access to the right paints, no internet to learn from, bad glue, and bad brushes. The 1/72 scale SPAD VII I built then I still believe is the best kit I ever built. So enjoy your work, and love it for all its little flaws only you can see, because that is what makes it yours.

This has been an enjoyable thread even though it was generated at your lament of your LHS' decline.

As to the 2nd point, I doubly concur with Robin Nilsson's advice about using a digital camera -- both for diagnostic purposes -- but also for inspirational purposes.

Because you're dealing with the model and its subassemblies so often, you become "blind" to certain things. Photographing your model (in good light) from many angles and then seeing the pics on your computer monitor will allow you to see things your eye previously could not notice in 3D. Something about the transposition into a 2D format (and often at a high magnification) on your screen will have things pop out to you. For me, my camera is as vital a modeling tool as my liquid cement.

Secondly, seeing your work on a screen also can allow you to become re-energized. I have a somewhat long online presence with build blogs and magazine articles. I look at those occasionally just to get pumped up again -- even though the exact same model is 7 feet away from my computer screen, over my shoulder!

Try it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

What a "nice" modeling memory of your youth (the package that arrived before your surgery)! Packages were a lot rarer back then, especially a package containing model kits! It's funny how a box of plastic parts can be part of such strong memories.

As a small child, I can remember Dad sitting at the table, working on a car model, while recovering from heart surgery, I think. He was only doing it to help pass the time, and once he recovered he never continued with modeling. I still have the banana-yellow pocket knife he used, which has a smear of brown Pactra enamel on it. He had brush-painted the car, and there was brown paint on more than just the interior, apparently.