3D printing is growing in the modelling/hobby industry, but resin, white metal, injection molding, photo etching, and good old fashioned scratchbuilding with brass and styrene are still holding their own especially when it comes to surface finish and fine details.
I’ve got a couple models that were printed on a high end machine but still required a lot of clean up and sanding to become presentable. I think it’ll be a while yet for it to take over for something like model car bodies and aircraft fuselages. Even now some of the serious modellers spend a lot of time sanding and painting a 1/24th scale model car to get the paint just right, the extra time to prep a 3D printed body might not be worth the trade off.
I would love to have one to print windows, doors and architectural detail parts for wargaming terrain rather than pay through the nose for the model railroading stuff, especially as it’s hard to find stuff relatively accurate to the region and time period I’m modelling, but the startup cost hasn’t yet been worth it. I think sometime five to ten years from now 3D printing might really take off in the modelling/gaming hobbies as prices continue to drop for ever more precise and accurate machines.
Yep, online really seems to be killing hobby/game shops. There’s only one hobby shop left within an hour’s drive of me and they seem to have managed it by opening up to all sorts of hobbies. They have the stuff you expect, model trains, planes, cars and supplies, but branched out into R/C and drones, MtG, board games, wargaming, and crafts/painting. They still manage to undercut Amazon on price for some things too, but who knows how long that’ll last. I try to stick local, I’ve had too many issues with buying stuff online (lost orders, crushed boxes, poorly cast minis, leaking paint) that I just don’t have when I can go and pick exactly what I want with my own eyes.
Game stores seem to be doing much better generally as long as they provide community space for play and/or tap into the smelly goldmine that is Magic: The Gathering. There’s a couple that opened and went bust quickly by me and both were cramped, had little stock and seemed to serve more as a place for the owner to cram dusty glass cases of things labeled Not For Sale.
my issue (especially as an RC enthusiast) is I don’t always want to go place an order for a $3.50 pair of A-Arms that broke and then pay $10 for shipping on top of it. Or if I have a problem that I cannot figure out…an online store doesn’t have a person I can bring my radio to and say “Hey, can you guys help me sort out the issue or can you fix it for me?”
Online stores are great for relatively low prices and generally speaking very vast and varied inventories. But that only helps when making a purchase. They cannot really offer anything service related.
In my limited experience, there’s still interest within Japan. Loads of models available in Akihabara and even the Ghibli Museum - I would have loved a kit of Porco Rosso’s plane, but couldn’t have practically got it home.
My kids have spent a ton at Gamescape in San Rafael. Not models (there is a model shop about a mile west on the south side) but lots of games, minis, books, LARP things, board and card games galore, mb 1/4 the store is set aside for tables and gaming happens almost every night till the wee hours. They buy a ton of stuff there but also various online shops the world over. Enkling the elder purchased a few tank models to mod into war wagons or looted shootas or whatever.
As a boy I was thrilled to get the Squadron Shop catalog every… year? quarter? Trying to get a family of 6 plus dog to detour in the Chicago area as we drove thru to WI was always a challenge. That place was injection molded heaven. Sadly my parents trashed every damn thing I ever built pretty much the moment I moved out. sigh
I remember making lots of field trips to Edmund’s Scientific in NJ to pick up supplies for experiments. They didn’t carry models, though. My memories of the various World War II aircraft, submarines, and aircraft carriers assembled by my brothers in the basement is a bit fuzzy, probably because of the glue and lack of proper ventilation…
This still exists in Toronto @ Hornet Hobbies owned by Dave Browne, they are alive and kicking offering seminars on military modeling from the likes of Mike Rinaldi: http://www.hornethobbies.com/rinaldi-2017-tutorials
RIP Keith’s in Willowdale, this is a pic of the store minutes before the sign was taken down
Yeah as far as i know the miniature scene in Asia is pretty big. Gundam models being the most well known but there’s other kit lines that have big active communities around them. Also the manufacturing/design for the Asian models are really astounding.
My dad was an amateur telescope builder, he ordered lenses and such from Edmund Scientific. We kids would spends hours poring over the catalog, picking out toys – jumping discs, drinking birds, and whatnot. Wonderful childhood memories: the name Edmund Scientific still gives me a happy thrill.
Unfinished model tales…
(and @vonbobo)
99% completed a Saturn V Rocket Airfix kit in early '70s. I recently found the original transfer sheet with all the insignia/logos/markings. Can’t recall why I never did that last 1%.
ETA If anyone does have a finished Airfix Saturn V and needs the transfers (well, you never know who may be lurking around here!), for a small consideration…
Holy cow, it’s still available! It now comes from China, and some minor construction details are different, but it’s essentially the same model, and only $38.00.
Having built that, one can graduate to something a little more ambitious. $1680.00
I wonder if it’s anything like this place, still operating: (EDIT: having watched the video, they don’t seem dissimilar)
I haven’t ordered anything from them in a while, so they no longer send me their catalogs, but those made for fine terlet reading. Whoever writes the copy has (and/or does) one of the most awesome jobs in the world. (Example: “Our electronic MadLab bagpipe kit will slip into your shirt pocket or sporran. No plaid lower garments required, and, as usual, undergarments are up to you.”)
When I was in junior high, the semiannual catalogues for Edmunds Scientific were eagerly anticipated. I built a spectrometer out of parts from their catalog.
Years later, DH and I found a model shop on a tiny side street in Paris, and another in London. We endlessly amused the proprietors while gleefully picking out model kits and accessories no longer available in the US.
