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Author Topic: I have often wondered  (Read 3266 times)

Offline Mike Griffin

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I have often wondered
« on: February 20, 2017, 02:58:53 PM »
I wonder what percentage of kits that are bought by the CL hobbyist are actually built?  I am thinking maybe 15% get built.  I had this discussion with Larry Richards some time back before he quit making kits and he said most of his end up in a closet somewhere.  Of all the kits I produced and sold over the years, I would say that if I had to judge by the feedback from those who bought the kits, very few got built.  I produced kits by designers like Bob Gialdini, Allen Brickhaus, Hi Johnson, Dick Mathis, Steve Buso, Gene Paliet and many others but never heard back if they were ever built.  One thing I know for sure, some day, there are going to be a lot of boxes with cut balsa parts looking for a home.

Mike

Offline GallopingGhostler

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2017, 03:05:40 PM »
Perhaps a case of enthusiasm exceeded one's capacity as they age? I've got my share of bucket items that I haven't touched, although intended to.

Offline Dane Martin

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2017, 04:29:20 PM »
 I have to start crashing again.

MM



I started giving away planes so i could build new ones.  Crashes aren't as plentiful now a days.....

Offline James Holford

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Re:
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2017, 04:36:25 PM »
I bought enough kits in the last 2 weeks to maybe last me a year or two.... but I build slooowwww...but looking at my work you'd swear I build fast lol

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Jamie Holford
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Offline eric rule

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2017, 04:56:16 PM »
A very good friend of mine told me that I was not allowed to die until after I built my last kit. I have calculated that if I build one kit per year I will only have to survive until I am 97 years of age. (LOL)

Offline Mike Griffin

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2017, 06:22:23 PM »
There are people who literally have hundreds of kits. 

Mike

Offline Target

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2017, 06:44:32 PM »
Guilty!
I have 3, one started, two "resting"

R,
Chris
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Chris
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Offline James Holford

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Re:
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2017, 07:02:41 PM »
I'll be honest... last kit I built and finished and flew was Pat King's baby ringmaster in 2010.....

Twister started
Akromaster started
Jr lightening streak started
Firecat started
Fokker DVII started

Altho I did build and finish a Brodak Ringmaster ARF lol

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Jamie Holford
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Online John Rist

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2017, 07:28:09 PM »
I am on a limited budget.  If I buy a kit it gets built.  That could be because I enjoy building more than I enjoy flying.   y1
John Rist
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Offline Skip Chernoff

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2017, 08:05:22 PM »
Many collect kits for nostalgia reasons or they just like the box art. Many buy kits with no intention of ever building them. To these types a perfect box can be more desirable than a worn box whose contents are pristine inside. Hey, it's whatever floats your boat.Kits I have right now that I intend on building or are under construction
 Super Chipmunk Sig
59 Ares Brodak
Olympic  VI Brodak
Hurricane RSM
Thunderbird II Aero
Shark 45 Jetco
Goldberg Shoestring C/L and R/C (both started with wings built)
Meister Scale 100" BF109 (90 % complete)
Luton Minor School Yard Scale R/C wing complete
RSM Shark
RSM Pinto...in progress


Guillows Stuka "Giant Size " Rubber/R/C electric
Top Flight Spitfire R/C
Top Flight Zero R/C
Tony by M Kato R/C
Taylorcraft by Midwest (2 kits)
Zero Sterling Rubber Job
Strega Brodak waiting to paint
Ares from plans waiting to paint
Own design for Fox 35 waiting to paint.....That's enough for now!...PhillySkip

Offline Randy Cuberly

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2017, 09:35:57 PM »
I sold a bunch several years ago, so I only have about 35 or so now.  I have 7 airplanes in the final build or finishing process right now so I doubt I'll start anymore for a while! 

However I don't really get any with the intention of collecting them.  I have at one time or another intended to build them!

Yeah I know CRAZY!

Randy Cuberly
Randy Cuberly
Tucson, AZ

Offline john e. holliday

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2017, 09:57:18 PM »
I have found kits that I had bought and not put on the shelf yet while trying to find misplaced push rods of the B-25.  Even after making new ones I still haven't found the others.  Don't ask me how many kits I have as I know they will all not get built. D>K
John E. "DOC" Holliday
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Offline EddyR

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2017, 05:55:46 AM »
I have no kits. Last one was three years ago. I do not plan to build anything new just keep the old ones going. Sold and gave away all my excess motors last year. #^
Locust NC 40 miles from the Huntersville field

Offline Skip Chernoff

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2017, 06:22:01 AM »
Randy,same with me....I buy them because I do want to build them. I'm not a collector. My problem is that if a can score a great deal on a kit that I'd  like  to build "one day" I just can't resist. It's better than being addicted to drugs or booze.....and waaay cheaper than chasing women!......PhillySkip

Offline Bill Morell

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2017, 07:15:38 AM »
I guess I am guilty. I have close to 100 kits in the garage, some of them Mikes. I sold off all the old stuff years ago. Most all were purchased with the  intention of "some day". In the process of building a shop in the back yard at this time. When it comes time to move them they will get separated into "likely" to "unlikely". Not hard to figure which pile will be bigger. Those that don't make the cut will be sold off. Same problem with engines, over 400. Going to be one hell of a sale when the time comes. Expect to lose money on both but it doesn't really matter much. A little over 8 months left to retirement.
Bill Morell
It wasn't that you could and others couldn't, its that you did and others didn't.
Vietnam 72-73
  Better to have it and not need it than it is to need it and not have it.

Offline Randy Ryan

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #15 on: February 21, 2017, 07:53:15 AM »
Hi Mike,

You and others produce fine kits but for me it's not been a case of buying kits. There are a number I considered but being a scratch builder I am skeptical not of the kits but of myself building them!! Still, over the years I and my father as well have amassed a large cache of kits FF, CL and RC. My dad's start dating to pre-war and mine from the late 50s. I still look and consider building or copying and building yet there always seems to be some new of somewhat more interesting project to undertake.

Dad and I have discussed this many times and it seems every time an old modeler sadly passes he also leaves behind a cache of kits and other modeling stuff to be disposed of. I guess it just a modeler phenomena that goes with the lifetime love so many of us share. I won't how many ARFs and ARCs will hit the market as this younger non-modeling group ages and begins leaving the ranks.
Randy Ryan <><
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SAM 36 BO all my own M's

Offline Target

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #16 on: February 21, 2017, 07:54:17 AM »
I'll be there to support you with a no shipping option in a year, Bill!
Regards,
Chris
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Offline Fredvon4

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #17 on: February 21, 2017, 09:39:20 AM »
When I came back in 2012, I did not do my research so did not know even what the term Cottage Industry was/is

Spent way too much on e-bay for old un-built kits I remembered from my youth
A few of them just too full of crap wood or missing parts to consider building ...then found Brodak

Then found Black Hawk models
Then found Minnesota modeler
Then found Select Hobbies
Then RSM
later Pat Johnston
and then Mike Pratt

Also scored a bunch of kits at various swap meets or from new found Forum friends

Amassed 30+/- "must have" kits.

And in 5 years have built and flown only 11

I changed direction twice now, and some of my stash of full or short kits will probably never get built by me

Most of the very old "paid too much for" Goldberg, Top Flite, Flight Line, Veco ect kits (mostly combat) will get (or already have been) copied. Then I will gift then away or sell them

Guys like Mike and the rest of all these various forum buddies have help me so much; I dread to think how I ever could have gotten this far and saved* this much without you all and the internet

* Example... a favorite plane from 1970 was Dick Mathis Mongoose
Original kit from Design Group as kit #800 cost me over $120 (did not know better)
Black Hawk had a close enough copy for $59 that have successfully built 2 of

Just a curiosity, and I know not a really good comparison, but for grins; I put on unopened BH Mongoos kit on the scale and then the Design Group version...   Probably not a surprise to many of you that the 1970s kit is nearly a pound heavier



"A good scare teaches more than good advice"

Fred von Gortler IV

Offline Randy Powell

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #18 on: February 21, 2017, 02:06:53 PM »
I've built about half the kits I have owned.
Member in good standing of P.I.S.T
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 Randy Powell

Offline Serge_Krauss

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2017, 02:38:03 PM »
I have several great kits downstairs: "Ares", "Imitation", "Cavalier", "Roadrunner", "Argus", three ARF's, and a LOT of plans, all of which I want to build. However, I am only building my third kit from when I returned to the hobby, preferring, it seems, to "roll my own." I am among the slowest builders, partly because I'm so busy otherwise with other passions, but mostly because I'm...slow! The next one will not be a kit eithert, because it's an original I've waited 8-10 years to build.

So, I'm one of the many who hoard some pretty fine kits and skew the data. Some of my kits will be built.

Here though is my current build, a kit you may recognize, with modifications of my choosing. Weight...

SK

Offline Mike Griffin

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #20 on: February 21, 2017, 05:13:14 PM »
After Katrina, Linda and I moved to Georgia for five years and before I left New Orleans I must have thrown away 15 or so built models because there was no one here to give them to.  When we left Georgia to move back here I gave 20 more away.  They were all built and I just did not want to go through the hassle of trying to move them in a truck by movers.  They would have destroyed them.  I think I might have 4 or 5 kits at the most in reserve that I may or may not build.  I just don't have the drive that I used to have for building or flying for that matter.  I do some test builds for Eric Rule at RSM when he comes out with a new kit but I have not done that much lately for myself.  I am still doing the build on my Shark 35 Profile and hope to get some pictures posted soon on that. 

Mike

Offline Bill Johnson

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #21 on: February 28, 2017, 08:43:15 AM »
In my younger years, every kit got built. I have 8 kits now, several that Ty gave me. Only one is in the build process as my work, plus a recent move, keep me busy. Hopefully things will slow down and I'll get the Trophy Trainer done and move on to other planes. Last season I crashed 5, I believe, so need to get with it if I hope to make it through this season and maybe hit a contest or 2. Ty is the driving force in our club to get us new guys (and retreads) flying the pattern so has done yeoman's work ensuring there's flyable planes available.  H^^
Best Regards,
Bill

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Offline Dennis Saydak

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #22 on: February 28, 2017, 12:52:42 PM »
Here's one that I built from one of Mike's kits. I couldn't get the painting finished last year because of several factors including the high humidity all summer. Hopefully it will fly this year along with a couple of others at the same stage of completion.

Just when you think you're getting ahead in the rat race.....you find the rats just get faster! MAAC 13120L

Offline dave siegler

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #23 on: February 28, 2017, 01:25:24 PM »
I just crash less than I expected when I bought the kit.
Dave Siegler
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Offline Mike Griffin

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Re: I have often wondered
« Reply #24 on: February 28, 2017, 02:26:43 PM »
Here's one that I built from one of Mike's kits. I couldn't get the painting finished last year because of several factors including the high humidity all summer. Hopefully it will fly this year along with a couple of others at the same stage of completion.



Dennis that is a beautiful job on Bob Gialdini's   Rayette  design.  Allen Brickhaus flew one of these for years and got me hooked up with Bob so I could kit the design.  I flew one for years until in destroyed it doing an outside loop.  It is wonderful flier.  The profile version of the Sting Ray.

Mike


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