Sprue Cutters Union 34 : The stash!

The Sprue cutters union is like an old friend. Life and work keep you away from hanging out for months on end, but once in a while, you get together and it feels like no time has passed at all.

As the mythical Phoenix, the Union has once again risen with a monthly topic for us to discuss :

- The stash -

In my first run as a scale modeller (age 10 to 20-something), I had no stash at all. I hadn't even encountered the concept. Remember, back in the days, we had no internet, and I didn't know anyone else who did scale modelling until much later.

Of course, as a kid, a stash would have been a financial disaster. But even when I got a job, my exposure to new models was limited. I mainly bought Science-Fiction at a once-a-year convention. The most I ever bought at the same time was 3 models (Star Trek's Voyager, Maquis ship and Kazon raider), but I build them in the same order before I considered buying new kits.

Fast forward about 15 years later.

Now, I have limited time to do scale modelling, a giant amount of ambitious ideas and the financial stability to "invest in the future", which is probably the worst excuse for a stash you'll ever hear.

I had no intention of building a stash, and just keep it to 4-5 maximum. When this number got to 21 in only one year, I had to make a very conscious (and surprisingly hard) effort to stop it from growing further. Knowing I finish about 4 models a year, you can extrapolate how bad this would get if I just continue like this for another 30 years.

I even bought a batch of second-hand kits, knowing fully well that half of them would never get build, because the subjects hold little interest to me.
I intended to trade these unwanted kits away, but actually rarely do so. Luckily, our local IPMS chapter has a New Year tradition of giving random gifts (usually old kits from big stashes) and for two years in a row, this has given me the opportunity to a) get rid of an unwanted model, and b) encounter a kit I would probably never have noticed otherwise.

There is no model car, plane or tank out there that particularly strikes my interest, so I am never actively looking for any specific kit. But then, once a year, I'll visit a convention or hobby shop and there it is : the model kit I never knew I *HAD* to have. My main reason for buying it then and there is the (probably irrational) fear of never finding it again. The chance of - one day - deciding to want to build it and not find it for sale anywhere.
When I recognized this growing pattern, after buying 4 kits in the range of €75 and higher, I called a halt to this kind of spending before it got out of hand, having seen the results of this in fellow modellers' attics.

Call me a scale model addict that managed to shake (most of) his Stashing-habbit and intends to build what he has. The only kits that will get added to the stash will be gifts and insane sales-promotions (and even then, within certain limits as to the number of kits).

I will allow myself ONE impulse-purchase per year. And maybe one when on vacation, as they might have kits not available over here. Or maybe just TWO then? ...

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Part of being in the Sprue Cutters Union, is sharing links to one another.
Read up on my fellow Union members view on their stash (or lack thereof) :

• The Combat Workshop
• Ninetalis Scale Models
• Kermit's Bench
• The Museum Modeler
• Scale Model Soup
• Commonplace Modeler
• Shutterace's Blog
• Will Pattison's (video)