Tony K,
When I look at kits on Model Roundup and Spotlight Hobbies and one or two other sites, I usually have a kit in mind, but by the time I get it, IF i buy it, but the time it arrives, the reason for getting it "just isn't there" anymore...
The other "little" problem is no place to display them, IF i were to build them.
This is NOT the first time I have felt this way.....Even back in my heyday of buidling in the '70's I still would get burned out. A little over a year after getting my 1st apt/ in SoCal, I don't if i got burned out, or just couldn't find kits I wanted to build, Back then there were plenty of local type of hobby shops around. So, what did I do? Bought an HO scale train set...in late summer of 1974. Would spend time between the two hobbies. When I wasn't getting where I wanted to be with model railroading. Am sure I bought some model car kits and built them, around this time, I ventrued in to building some Military kits, mostly in 1/48th scale. Aurora was one of the companies that put out some decent kits in 1/48th. At the moment, I can't remember the company that had some real nice kits, complete with engines (at least jeeps and various trucks) Also built some Monogram 1/48 WWII aricraft. Their SBD Dauntless was a very nice kit, their F4U Corsair did not go together as well as the SBD. The Hellcat was even worse. Though not as detailed as the Monogram kits, Tried one AMT's 1/48 F4 Corsair, with the birdcage canopy. but the wheels were not retreactable like the Monogram kits, nor were the wings "foldable". IIRC the SBD was the last one tossed out.
In 1978 sold my HO trains and went after some in N-scale. But within two years the interest dwindled.
Still occasionally but a car kit, modtty the AMT Grant King sprint or supermod (back then, the sprint and supermod were separate kits)
Either Christmas of 1978 or '79, my brother introduced me to Platercraft. No, not the making of them, but finding subjects I liked then buying them, prepping them, then paitning them. Back int the late 1970's and into the 1990's there were plenty stores that dealt with them in SoCal...and, even Florida, so that means that hobby was still around then. But that is one hobby that is not around any more....
Sometime in 1980, I found I had lost interest in building kits. I had plenty to work on, but just could not sit down and work on them.
Then came the move from my studio apartment to renting a room in a house, that all but killed my building models. Not to mention my first huge purge of builds and kits that were either started
or never started. Into the trash they went except for a few that i was not ready to toss. My 9 Gk sprints and 4 supermods, the Petty and Brooks MPC NASCAR builds and a few other kits.
After actually completing the 1st 2 Monogram Sprint kits, (Kinser and Swindell) and starting on other kits, I found it was not fun anymore...again....I wanted to sit out in the living room that i shared with my female roommate and her daughter. She had picked up working on counted cross stitch. I felt that was the way to go at the time. Plastic Canvas was thought of, but at the time my Mom and Sister-in-law worked with that. I rarely bought any books or kits where I did anything for me, they were to be Christmas gifts. 2 years later, I found that working with counted cross stitch took too long to complete, so I felt it was time to try plastic canvas. That was something I had to learn myself as my roommate did not know enough about it to be of any help for me. I soon found out that one could not match the colors that were pictured in the leaflets and bi monthly publications. Sometime in 1992/93 I started wondering if I could create some of my own designs. The first were of NASCAR, simple designs. but what helped was a 1/18th Petty Die-cast STP Pontiac,. Don't design or modify designs that I can see in my mind.
Even though there are not as many books/leaflets out there any more, I have more than enough in that stash, many I have not even tried. but still have them. which is probably a good thing, since the craft of working with plastic canvas is not all the popular anymore....
Would you believe that is the short (abridged?) story???
