Hey All,

Last Friday, I made a too infrequent visit to my local hobby store. It's been quite awhile since last I was there, but I have always appreciated that it is, in fact, present, a real brick and mortar store, becoming rare these days. And, sadly, it appears as if this one is on the way out as well. I had always been impressed by the inventory this store always had on hand in all areas, models, paint, books/magazines, the whole thing. I was left with an awful feeling, as half the shelves were empty, and it looked like everything that used to be fully stocked was being left to sell out. Almost no Tamiya paints at all, the model shelves about 1/2 full, just a sense that everything was being left to reduce to minimum prior to, apparently, closing the doors. I wanted to ask someone if that was in fact the case, but I didn't have the heart... I was, and am, very sad.

On another completely different topic, I was looking at the small case of local builders' models on display. I have to say that I while I rarely get the chance to see other builders' work in person, I am always impressed, and always seem to note that these builds are always hugely better than my own work. Maybe, not sure that's what I"m really feeling. And, I don't know how to describe this, but these models always seem to have a 'look' that is something I simply don't attain. It's almost impossible to describe what I see, but it's almost as though the work has a very 'deliberate' look to it. Compared to my own builds, and more than the builds, I'm talking about the painting and weathering, compared to mine, the work looks, I don't know how to say this. precise, but that's not the right word for it, either. My models just look...not the same as others' work. I can't even necessarily say that I think their work is 'better', but it has a 'feel' that is simply different that mine. It's frustrating not to be able to articulate this feeling, but it is very much present when I look at others' work. Does anyone else get this kind of feeling? I know doesn't make much sense, if I can't really describe my thoughts...

Hi; Curt.

What you are Expirenceing is very natural, its bieing the syndrome of being critical of your work. "Dude" Don't fret over it. Being A-self critic when looking at other's work is natural. Ive been building models for over 50+ years & every time I go to shows and events and see other people's work I always feel like that. And if you feel the need to improve your work then you make that choice several ways ! ie;) Different paints, tecknics, subjects, tools. etc; !!!! Try and see if you have A Local Hobby Club in your area, shareing your Hobby with other's is A gteat way to make new friends & Learning new skills.

GOOD LUCK; MIKE.

But the other message is clear, we have to support our brick and mortar stores!!!

While I acknowledge that the LHS is becoming more rare every month, I'm stubborn enough to believe that there are some things that on-line shopping cannot satisfy. The two closest ones from where I live is a two hour drive one way, so I don't get a chance to stop there very often. But when I do, I always buy something hoping it may help out. As to those self-critiques, it's kinda like baseball. Not everyone who walks up to the plate is a home run threat, but you can still contribute.

if you run out of a jar of paint, or need a bottle of glue , or just talk to someone about the hobby . you cant do that online !!! We had numerous LHS around here now we have none that I know of ! and with the shipping charges being what they are I miss the hobby shops !

This is a case of things being bigger than me or you. The economics just don't justify the stores. Around a decade ago, most of the LHS in my area dropped like flies. When they were open, each had a market focus that wasn't scale models; radio-control, trains, whatever. The only place left generally has 6-8 1/35 kits. And with the current tendency for manufacturers to leverage their molds into several kits based on a vehicle, plus competition, like with the crop of King Tiger kits coming out, which kits to stock is a gamble for them. So what did this shop do? It got some old KT kits, which must have been discounted by distributors. It's sad to see the shops gone, but none of the owners were scale modelers, so it's not like there was much for me to miss, at least not from a personal perspective. The last shop that sold models that I really miss was about 25 years ago; it was a gun store run by a guy who built and kept a rack of them for sale and we'd hang out there some evenings and build.

Curt,
I totally empathize with you on your second point. All the hobby shops I used to visit in Tokyo had cases full of finished models that were astounding to look at. By comparison, mine never seem to look like anything more than what they are: blocks of styrene. That said, nearly every time I complete a model I still get a sense of pride because as often as not I can see that it's a little better in some way than the previous one. Now if I can just get consistent I might actually be on to something.

I really miss the hobby shops in Japan. By comparison, the one hobby shop in the area where I now live has just enough kits to call themselves a hobby shop, but they really aren't interested in you if you aren't there to buy RC car supplies or drones. Heck, they didn't even know what I was talking about when I asked for Tamiya Extra Thin and made clear they really didn't care.

I second the part about not being interested in the scale modelers and making it very clear.

Nowadays, I get questions answered here at Armorama and elsewhere on the internet. In addition, I purchase from an online vendor who provides extremely good customer service and fast e-mail response to my questions. I find that one can either pay high markup at a LHS, or pay shipping, which actually works out cheaper for me in the end.

I have an LHS just over an hour away. When I first got back into the hobby, I visited the shop several times. In hind-sight, I feel the owner (not the staff) was directing me to merchandise that had been sitting around on shelves for many years. And some of my questions just fell on deaf ears. The folks at the shop were nice enough, but I just wasn’t getting anywhere. I’ll still support the shop whenever I’m in town, but making the two-hour trek for a few strips of ‘Evergreen’ is out of the question.

Cheers!🍺
—mike

Yes! I get that feeling all the time, yet when my neighbor comes over and sees what I'm doing (my workshop is in the garage) he always compliments me on how realistic my models look. I think we are all very self-critical and subjective about our work. Sometimes we need to see it through the eyes of others. I think that is why so many modelers enter their work in contests and shows. it's always nice to have your work validated by others. There is always the opposite side of the coin.... . Regardless it's a great hobby and, as long as I'm happy with my work, I'll be fine.

As far as the brick and mortar stores are concerned I have 2 well stocked hobby shops within a 30 mile radius of my home. Both have a fantastic selection of armor kits, resin AM kits and paints. One of them charges MSRP+ and the other has reasonable prices and occasional sales. Guess where I am shopping? Most of the stores I visit have prices that are way too high and I can't justify buying anything but paints and brushes, and only when I absolutely need them. The fact that I can get a new Tamiya kit from Japan(including shipping) for $20.00 less than a US hobby shop charges is absurd. I know there is overhead and rent, etc. but don't try to make your rent with the price of one kit. I absolutely think that most hobby shops have priced themselves out of the market.


Just my 2 cents.

How about a couple of hobby shop memories

I'm lucky that I've got a good model store (Piper Hobby) about a half hour from my house and another one (Hobbyland Columbus) that I can visit on my yearly vacation. I still keep an eye out for 'Hobby Shop' at every single strip mall I pass by, and I miss - to this day - Walt's Hobby Shop in Casper Wyoming, gone probably 30 years at this point.

Once I actually lived within walking distance of a hobby shop with a good selection of armor kits.

I know the feeling of being too critical. When I am building a kit and then painting I know every mistake and flaw, but I have found out one thing though, if I look at a model that I have built in the past, I am often surprised by how my own work looks so great to me. I think after being so engrossed with a kit building it and then painting it. We know ever little flaw and accepted things that we may not be happy with at the time, but if you look at it in a month or two you will have forgotten all that. And then you will see your model for what it is, with fresh new eyes, and sometimes you will be amazed with your work!

One thing I do remember is that every little mom and pop grocery store had a toy section and you could find some real gems as far as model kits were concerned. I remember the Sears Wishbook had Tamiya kits. K-mart had Bandai 1/48 armor kits marketed under the K-mart label. The 60s and 70s were a good time for kids that built models. The 2000s are a great time for us old guys...the selection, accuracy and availability of kits is amazing. I miss my youth but I'm happy to have the selection available today.

My home town hasn't supported any hobby shops, in 13 years. Even when I lived in Florida, there was only one(it didn't cater to scale models). It had something like a 300% mark up.

I guess we are pretty lucky here, our local hobby shop is expanding. The owner has been expanding lines, and is now expanding in size. He always has a great stock level, and will bend over backwards to help you find something. And the best part is his prices are reasonable!

Hi; Everybody.

The main problem here is one of Economics ! The Mom & Pop type of Store were Doomed. And there are just to many products to cope with in order to try to stock to draw customer's ! The need to know everthing that you have to keep in stock is overload for this type of store. Even today to walk into A store and find someone who is up-dated on new products is near impossable !! For A Hobby store to stock products that draw customers in Mind Blowing, everything from A-Z is just to Expensive ! Another Major problem is we don't make anything locally anymore, everything has to be Imported from overseas ! The need to pass this along to customer's was just to great in order to stay open ! In my own personal expirence, I was very lucky while Growing up to have Eight nearly all Military Hobby Shop's And Two that were all Military; Brookhurst Hobbies that were in Garden Grove that I could Walk to and Military Hobby's that were in Tustin, and are still in business to this day.
CHEERS; MIKE.

Donald Trump quote ... "We want them to make a lot of money but not that much money"

Sorry, I couldn't resist! Lol! 🤣

—mike

Local Hobby Store: There is simply no way to run a store where people can walk in and talk to the staff as cheaply as a warehouse operation where the staff is busy dispatching orders all day long and no floor space is "wasted" on customers looking and talking. With computers and internet the logistics of running a "mail order" operation has become even cheaper.

Comparing your own models with the ones built by others:
1. Being Your own worst critic has already been mentioned above.
2. Take digital pictures of your model and check them on the computer, this will reveal most flaws so that they can be fixed before it is too late (regardless if you build for contests or not). Edges of putty detected before final painting et.c. Decal silvering ? All the roadwheels aligned and definitely not hovering in the air ?
3. Try to work as a judge at contests, this trains the eye and brain and makes it easier to give your own models a fair judgement. Maybe they can be improved now that your "judges eye" takes a "professional" look at them.

When I have judged I have sometimes talked to the builder after the judging and told them what I have seen and judged.
"If you take care and get the roadwheels aligned you can avoid having 3 points deducted for sloppy craftmanship the next time"

/ Robin

I'd say we are lucky here -- I can count 4 LHS here, each having at least a couple of shops thus 8 locations to go to. Well stocked and updated in terms of kits, and very competitive in prices compared to the money I would shell out if ordered online. One of the LHS can even order online for you (selected stores in UK and Asia) -- yes you pay a bit more, but still beats the total cost if you have done it yourself.

I did too . it was in the late 50s early 60s mostly Aurora,revell,and monagram ,lindberg,models but I loved that place !

Can you really fault them for that? What if they the shop was predominantly military tank and airplane models with a a couple of fly-out-of-the-box R/C items and someone came in asking for a coreless servo? Would you support them cutting back on tank kits to make room for products that make up less than 1% of their sales?

KL

Same here — walked through a bad neighborhood to get there — a meager few bucks in my pocket! It was Model Railroading for me back in the 70s. I loved drooling at the HOn2 brass! ... Now I drool from the comfort of my keyboard! Lol!

—mike

Hi All,

Wow, what a great response...and thanks to Anthony for posting the pictures...and the precious diorama of a hobby store...(look at how many boxes of the same kit were stacked up on the shelves in the photo, indications that they needed that many in inventory because they were selling them!!!)... The hobby store I mentioned in the original post is the Hobby Town in Las Vegas. I understand the economics of it all, and I imagine that the competition makes it almost impossible to compete with the internet, and sharing thoughts and ideas is much greater here on places like Armorama, but there is still no substitute for walking into a store and seeing, in real life, all those items we see on the 'net. It's almost unreal.

I remember, when I was young, there was a great hobby store in the town next to mine, in Skokie, IL, pretty much across the street from the Skokie Swift that ran into Chicago. I wish I could recall the name of that store...if I think about it awhile, it may come to me. But that store had, as I recall, pretty large display cases, compared to the square footage of the store, and also, as I recall, most of the models on display, in dioramas, were armor. And as a young boy, maybe 10 or so, I remember being absolutely dazzled by the amazing models. This had to be about 1967-68, somewhere around there. I wish I could transport myself back there, and I wonder if I would be as amazed today as I was back then. In the day before photo etch, before all the incredible aftermarket details, before the internet and about the only way to buy models and paints and tools were from hobby stores...and that rarest of rare things back in those days, 'mail order'. But models were still spectacular. Were they as good as the best of today's models? I don't know, but those guys (probably no girsl into that hobby back then) managed to build and paint and detail phenomenal tanks, and I wonder if what we have today is really just an easier path to getting the same or similar results. I wish I knew.

I remember, when I was about 12, I had to have spine surgery which put me on my back for 9 months, unable to sit up. My parents knew how much I loved models, and I recall that one of the few places you could order things from was the Squadron Shop. They had a great catalogue back then, and before my surgery, my folks let me order a whole box of models...I'm guessing probably at least a dozen models, and they came before the surgery, and while I can't really recall opening that box, I absolutely know how excited I had to have been, and how much that box of models was really just a display of love from my parents, all 3 of us dreading that awful surgery. But I digress.

I just think it would be amazing to go back and see what it was like back then...of course, not just in models...but models are what we all love and how awesome would it be to go back to then, knowing what the future would hold.