My visit to Hobby Craft to get pens.....
Discussion
I went into Hobby Craft last week, for the first time in about three years, just to buy some new Edding pens for work.
However, a huge display of plastic kits, resplendent in cool box art took me back 30 years, and I was 10 again! I spent over an hour looking at all the kits, despite my wife’s protests (she had left me in the shop while she went into the clothes shops..)
I feel very childish, but I told her, nay, begged her, that I wasn’t leaving this shop until I bought a model kit – I even ‘played up’ like a 10 year old! In the end, I got my way (unlike when I was younger – when my dad persuaded my uncle to buy me a pair of slippers instead of a new Tamiya Tiger tank I wanted….I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next….!)
I didn’t really want anything, but I chose a 1:32 Scale Junkers Ju-88A-1 'Battle of Britain' Plastic Model Kit (Revell), purely because it was in a big box and I had never built a bomber at such a large scale!
When we went to pay, I spotted an even bigger box on the floor next to me. It was none other but the new Airfix 24th scale Mosquito kit! Huge box! I then started to protest that I wanted that one, but alas, that was the only one they had, and it had just been returned by a customer due to missing parts.
I was so disappointed – suddenly, the Revell kit I bought didn’t seem so special, but I have to admit, it was such fun being 10 again! (And I’m not even sure if I’ll ever make the kit…)
And I will buy that Mosquito kit!
However, a huge display of plastic kits, resplendent in cool box art took me back 30 years, and I was 10 again! I spent over an hour looking at all the kits, despite my wife’s protests (she had left me in the shop while she went into the clothes shops..)
I feel very childish, but I told her, nay, begged her, that I wasn’t leaving this shop until I bought a model kit – I even ‘played up’ like a 10 year old! In the end, I got my way (unlike when I was younger – when my dad persuaded my uncle to buy me a pair of slippers instead of a new Tamiya Tiger tank I wanted….I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next….!)
I didn’t really want anything, but I chose a 1:32 Scale Junkers Ju-88A-1 'Battle of Britain' Plastic Model Kit (Revell), purely because it was in a big box and I had never built a bomber at such a large scale!
When we went to pay, I spotted an even bigger box on the floor next to me. It was none other but the new Airfix 24th scale Mosquito kit! Huge box! I then started to protest that I wanted that one, but alas, that was the only one they had, and it had just been returned by a customer due to missing parts.
I was so disappointed – suddenly, the Revell kit I bought didn’t seem so special, but I have to admit, it was such fun being 10 again! (And I’m not even sure if I’ll ever make the kit…)
And I will buy that Mosquito kit!
Edited by chris watton on Thursday 8th July 09:51
rhinochopig said:
That's horrible - tantamount to child abuse. What a totally arsey thing to do - slippers instead of a tiger tank. That brought a tear to my eye.
I know, even now he still thinks it funny! Worst of it was, I saved up for half of the cost with my 20p a week pocket money (My uncle said that I can prove I can save for something I want, he'll put the rest) - took me ages!And Eric, I remeber building the Airfix Westland Gazelle like it was yesterday!
chris watton said:
rhinochopig said:
That's horrible - tantamount to child abuse. What a totally arsey thing to do - slippers instead of a tiger tank. That brought a tear to my eye.
I know, even now he still thinks it funny! Worst of it was, I saved up for half of the cost with my 20p a week pocket money (My uncle said that I can prove I can save for something I want, he'll put the rest) - took me ages!And Eric, I remeber building the Airfix Westland Gazelle like it was yesterday!
chris watton said:
rhinochopig said:
That's horrible - tantamount to child abuse. What a totally arsey thing to do - slippers instead of a tiger tank. That brought a tear to my eye.
I know, even now he still thinks it funny! Worst of it was, I saved up for half of the cost with my 20p a week pocket money (My uncle said that I can prove I can save for something I want, he'll put the rest) - took me ages!And Eric, I remeber building the Airfix Westland Gazelle like it was yesterday!
rhinochopig said:
chris watton said:
rhinochopig said:
That's horrible - tantamount to child abuse. What a totally arsey thing to do - slippers instead of a tiger tank. That brought a tear to my eye.
I know, even now he still thinks it funny! Worst of it was, I saved up for half of the cost with my 20p a week pocket money (My uncle said that I can prove I can save for something I want, he'll put the rest) - took me ages!And Eric, I remeber building the Airfix Westland Gazelle like it was yesterday!
I learned that, if I treated life in the exact opposite way my dad treated it, i.e. not to be racist, vindictive, bitter, moaning about work and just getting on with it, etc, I’d be OK – and it seems to have worked. Now, I absolutely love spoiling my son and step kids, when they deserve it. On that score, that maybe something to thank him for.
Anyway, models… I still love them! Even though I design and build them every day, I still get a ‘buzz’ when opening a plastic kit box up for the first time. With plastic, you can see how the model’s going to look almost immediately, which is part of fun (unlike the ones I design, where it will take weeks to get some semblance of what the finished product will look like..). And, as others have pointed out, it’s also the thrill of being able to afford whatever you want (within reason..), compared to the stark choices we had when we were kids, reading the latest kit reviews in the Warlord comic, and saving for weeks to get them!
ETA - Just realised there aren't any swastika decals in kits anymore!
Edited by chris watton on Thursday 8th July 11:24
chris watton said:
rhinochopig said:
chris watton said:
rhinochopig said:
That's horrible - tantamount to child abuse. What a totally arsey thing to do - slippers instead of a tiger tank. That brought a tear to my eye.
I know, even now he still thinks it funny! Worst of it was, I saved up for half of the cost with my 20p a week pocket money (My uncle said that I can prove I can save for something I want, he'll put the rest) - took me ages!And Eric, I remeber building the Airfix Westland Gazelle like it was yesterday!
I learned that, if I treated life in the exact opposite way my dad treated it, i.e. not to be racist, vindictive, bitter, moaning about work and just getting on with it, etc, I’d be OK – and it seems to have worked. Now, I absolutely love spoiling my son and step kids, when they deserve it. On that score, that maybe something to thank him for.
Anyway, models… I still love them! Even though I design and build them every day, I still get a ‘buzz’ when opening a plastic kit box up for the first time. With plastic, you can see how the model’s going to look almost immediately, which is part of fun (unlike the ones I design, where it will take weeks to get some semblance of what the finished product will look like..). And, as others have pointed out, it’s also the thrill of being able to afford whatever you want (within reason..), compared to the stark choices we had when we were kids, reading the latest kit reviews in the Warlord comic, and saving for weeks to get them!
I remember you posting about your job before - very cool. I told my father (recently retired captain of a sailing barge) about it as he restores museum models of sailing boats as well as scratch building his own. Yours would have been his dream job instead of the engineering he ended up doing.
How did you get into it?
Eric Mc said:
I'll have you all know that assembling and painting plastic models is a mature and sensible hobby for grown-ups - so there.
With the Airfix Sunderland I'm building at the moment, you don't really 'assemble' it, you kind of carve the approximate shape from the mass of plastic within the box.Good fun though.
chris watton said:
ETA - Just realised there aren't any swastika decals in kits anymore!
As it's a Revell kit it won't have swastikas but other manufactorers will include them although basically I believe it's illegal to sell such kits in Germany - They are available from third party producers as well.Hannants search
Many kits haven't featured Swastikas for many years.
After market sets are the way to go.
http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?search=...
After market sets are the way to go.
http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?search=...
I never knew hobby craft sold models until i had a look last weekend.
spent quite a while having a look around. Contemplating buying some horby things for my model railway.
Might buy a model kit, but i've never properly built a model.
Ended up buying a few small 1:76 scale trackside models.
spent quite a while having a look around. Contemplating buying some horby things for my model railway.
Might buy a model kit, but i've never properly built a model.
Ended up buying a few small 1:76 scale trackside models.
I only realised last saturday as well that hobbycraft sold model kits. After spying on ebay at a couple of kits, and looking about on here I went past on sunday and ended up with a eurofighter 
PH is a bad influence!
Used to build quite a few things and had a heap of warhammer stuff but always just preferred building the stuff.
I never managed to do a really good paint job on a car kit though, and the transfers and stuff would always flake up after a while. I want to finally get a kit and make an excellent job of the bodyshell!
It's quite annoying, my old room at my folks has some very well built rally and race cars, with really rubbish paintwork on them!
PH is a bad influence!Used to build quite a few things and had a heap of warhammer stuff but always just preferred building the stuff.
I never managed to do a really good paint job on a car kit though, and the transfers and stuff would always flake up after a while. I want to finally get a kit and make an excellent job of the bodyshell!
It's quite annoying, my old room at my folks has some very well built rally and race cars, with really rubbish paintwork on them!
I really must stop lurking round here
When Chris mentioned opening the box and seeing how it was going to look reminded me of the anticipatory pleasure of freshly drawn plans and a dozen sheets or more of fresh virgin "Plasticard" and an idea germinating of how this one will be tackled... (Shorts C23-A Sherpa last time)
So that's it! Next week (far too much to do this week, I've a car to fix) I'm off to Mike's Models to see what he has in the way of ExActo and Swann Morton blades.
Narrow boat to refurbish then two cart scratch builts to repair
and then Airfix, I fancy an aeroplane to get going with, though I do have a F1 Racing Car in stock
The poison has finally sunken in you beggars
When Chris mentioned opening the box and seeing how it was going to look reminded me of the anticipatory pleasure of freshly drawn plans and a dozen sheets or more of fresh virgin "Plasticard" and an idea germinating of how this one will be tackled... (Shorts C23-A Sherpa last time)
So that's it! Next week (far too much to do this week, I've a car to fix) I'm off to Mike's Models to see what he has in the way of ExActo and Swann Morton blades.
Narrow boat to refurbish then two cart scratch builts to repair
and then Airfix, I fancy an aeroplane to get going with, though I do have a F1 Racing Car in stock
The poison has finally sunken in you beggars
There is one school of thought that says plastic kits are of more value by not being made up. Having turned an ebay profit on a handful of old seventies unmade kits bought at a car boot sale I discovered there is obviously some truth in that. On the other hand it was very tempting to invest in some pots of Humbrol and a tube of polystyrene cement and relive my childhood. Next time I'm in Hobbycraft I'm not sure I'll be able to resist a large scale Concorde kit!
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