I was just wondering what you guys thought on this matter. I’ll post some different scenarios for ya…
— scratchbuilding materials… Do you just buy a crap load of different styrene sizes and different wood sizes all of different shapes and sizes, and then have the ability to just build? Or do you get what you need for a certain project andmaybe a few extras?
— Scenery material… Larger quantities of ground foam, sculptamold, glues, paints, trees… Or just get what you need for that scene your currently on?
— Rolling stock… You know your running coal loads so get 30 cars right away or gradually build a fleet.
— People… Buy in huge bulk, or get scene specific humans?
Do you guys get where I’m going with this? I’m also curious to see your workbench that has all your stockpiles of overstocked items. [;)]
I’ve done a fair amount of scratchbuilding and kitbashing, so I tend to keep a good supply of basic materials on hand - sheet and strip styrene, scribed wood, stripwood, etc. I have quite a bit of car and diesel detailing parts and other such items on hand. And a 3" 3-ring binder full of decals and dry transfers. Several drawers full of scenic material. But not all modelers do what I do so I imagine there is a wide variation on what modelers keep on hand.
Most modelers, myself included, tend to be “hoarders” and usually buy way more stuff than we need when we find it, especially at bargain prices. The stuff accumulates over time, vary rarely will one acquire all this stuff at once. It would be difficult to find it all in one place and then there’s the cost factor. Several hundred dollars (or more!) worth of material and stuff is gathered over time and kept on hand “just in case” a need arises.
I’ll bet most long time model railroaders have plenty of unbuilt kits on hand that may or may not ever get built - and I’m one of them
That’s part of the fun in the hobby, buying new toys whether they are needed right away or not!
I have several structure kits on hand, am building a boxcar and laser kit structure simultaneously while also working on a few n-scale vehicle kits, adding scenery to a layout, and preparing a layout expansion. Sorry, I don’t want to show pictures of my not-so “nice, tidy, uncluttered” work area.
I have a good bit of scenery on hand. (I make a lot–not all–of my own trees, ground foam, and ballast, so I have a fair stockpile of raw materials, particularly foam, which takes up way too much space when stored for future use. My wife saves margarine tubs for me to store some of the stuff.
However, I buy track as I need it. Go figure. [:)]
Scratchbuilding materials can be hoarded If you want to try that MRR project at the very moment you read it. Scenery materials can be hoarded if you want to scenic your RR without having to go to the store. Rolling stock: You can buy a few during construction to see what it would look like and the hoard the rest when the RR is done. Bulk figures can be hoarded and then be tested in different areas to see where they look the best.
Scratchbuilding supplies/detail parts - I have a good stock of them.
Scenery Material - I bought supplies as they were on sale through the years, and am now chewing through that stuff as I am doing major scenery work on my layout.
Rolling Stock - Unless you have a project to do something like 24 two bay coal hoppers, why buy something that you may/may not use? That said, I have about 2 dozen car kits that are not complete!
People - I have a few blister packs of them - Have not got to the point of using them yet.
One of the biggest problems is the urge to buy something because it is’neat’ - and you have no idea what you are going to use it for. Sit down with a pad of paper and plan out what you want to have for your layout. Then make a ‘plan’ of how you are going buy the stuff, and in what order. As sales/deals arise, if it is in the plan - Buy it! I have broken that rule several times(in a weak moment) and wonder why I got it - It winds up on the flea market table at the local train show.
I am a tool junky - when I was a contractor, I had a 22’ step van with over $60,000 worth of tools in it (had to do an insurance inventory once!!) That’s not counting my shop tools or my MRRR stuff!!
I’m an impulse buyer - I can’t resist a new UP item or a great sale!!
I just counted 34 of those rubbermaid 20 something storage containers chock full of MRR stuff!!
Finally, I’ll need the Astrodome to put all this stuff on a layout!!! I guess the grandkids will have a great inheritance!![swg]
my opinion, buy as you need + a tad over. it is a good idea to keep a log of what manufacture and item # you used so you can get the same material later. you will find you like or dislike certain items over time. this log can offer insight on what works and doesn’t work: types of paint on plastic or wood. keep an open mind when searching for new project materials. something else might work better for you.
i grew up on craftsman kits and nails to fasten the track. 20+ years later… laser cut wood is new to me, but the time to build is faster; quality is up to your abilities. latex caulk to secure roadbed and track…holly smokes what a time saver!
i am always looking for the next kit to build. i limit myself to 1 ‘next’ structure for when the mood hits me, i can get busy.
I used to be in the “dont-buy-it-until-you-need-it” camp for just about everything. And that’s still how I handle generic scenery supplies. But nowadays if I see a type of loco, car or structure that would look ‘perfect’ on my layout, I’ll buy it right away - because it may be my last opportunity before the mfgr discontinues the item.
Having said that, I do a fair amount of structure scratchbuilding, and I never throw away any of the leftovers. So I’ve amassed a fairly large supply of random styrene sheets and shapes. I’ve made some fairly interesting small structures using only materials from the scrap bin. But for most projects, I find I still have to hop in the truck and head to the LHS or Home Depot to buy those 1 or 2 components that I didn’t already have on hand.
I stockpile everything. There is a 95% chance i’ll need it some time or another. I can’t count the times I said I need this and wonder if I have it. Sure enough I have
Before retirement I bought just about everything I could lay my hands on thinking I was planning for the future. Consequently I have enough of everything I need + a bit more besides.
Post retirement I buy mostly consumables that are hardware store items and these I buy as and when I need them. Craft items - #11 blades, strip wood, plastic sheet & strips, tiny drill bits, cement and glue - these I buy from the LHS, but I usually have some in reserve - just in case[^]
I’m all set for locomotives, freight and passenger cars, detail parts - I don’t plan on DCC or sound so no purchases or upgrades are needed there. After some on-line selling I have my stock of built kits and three or four unbuilt kits that I can use at a realistic level and will have a place for all of them. If I do go mad and decide to super detail all my models that move, then I guess that I will be buying a truck load of detail parts - but that is unlikely to happen for a while anyway.
I will probably buy two Rapido American Flyer cars when they are released and I am watching my expenditure on other stuff so I can pay for these as they aint cheap to buy - they are a must have though. Those will be my big ticket items for a long while to come.
Since I am building a new layout after having been out of the hobby for about 10 years or so and having sold off all of my train stuff I guess I am in the reacquisition phase. I have bought a lot of stuff I won’t need for a while and will continue to do so. Nothing worse than getting ready to start a project and then find you don’t have the proper supplies. Living out in the boonies it’s not like I can hop in the buggy and head to the LHS to pick something up on a Saturday afternoon.
This could be little scary, “hoarding” ''stockpiling" This is getting pretty close to obsessive compulsive disorders, by the amounts some MR’s “collect” is phenomenal. Why would someone collect tons of stuff with no intention of ever using it (c’mon, you know you will never put it to use) this sounds like trying to justify an uncontrolable habit, maybe just a little too much extra money??? I met a fellow MR and he showed me his basement which I’m sure he thought was normal and all MR’s had the same thing, he had cases and boxes and shelves and storage areas crammed with stuff from new building kits,old building kits, hundreds of coaches, cars, etc etc etc, and he was still buying more, this is “normal” What is the purpose??? other than having it. But, if you can, you can.
Stockpiling is not that OCD oriented. I stockpile simply because I like to scratchbuild stuff and with my budget the way it is, quite frankly I have to. I do not like sitting around like a doughhead simply because I did not have enough supplies to tide me over times of no money.
As for locos-I buy those when I need to. Cars, same thing. But definitely stockpile structures and building mat’ls----[:-^] BTW there is a huge difference between what some would see as an obsessive thing and having to clean someone’s home and the ONLY WAY in is through an attic window(believe this one–I did this for a living).
Many an experienced molder has told me that there is a hard fast-unwritten rule. If you see it buy it because it might not be there tomorrow. Not saying you need to clean out your bank account or pay for a vacation home the owner of your LHS has always wanted but f it’s something you feel that even remotely may have an interest in using on your layout some day buy it. Styrene has about a 1000-year shelf life so kits, rolling stock etc. don’t go bad sitting on the shelf. I have found many out of production kits some styrene some craftsman that I know have been out of production for some time and also that are way behind my modeling skills. I have either sold these kits or bartered and traded a few with friends. There was one Fine Scale Miniatures kit that I found unopened at a yard sale for $5.00. I knew it was probably worth at least $200 to $300 but the look on my friend face when I stopped over his house one afternoon and dropped it on his kitchen table was priceless. He had helped me with my layout more then I could ever hoped for and was having a bad run of luck so I figured good karma is better then money some times.
The other good thing about stocking up on stuff when you have a few extra dollar or come across some really good deals is that when you are ready to start work on your layout you have a good jump on things and don’t need to stop what your doing in the middle of something because you ran out of something silly like glue or rail joiners etc.
Scratchbuilding materials I buy when needed, but then I buy extra. What I use once I’ll usually use again.
Parts, I tend to buy as I find them. Being in minority scale - S, I don’t see them often.
Rolling stock and structure kits/RTR I buy as I see them. Again, in S things may not be rerun for years if ever. So if I think I may want them in the future, I buy them now.
I do have a loose master plan that I more or less follow. But after 35+ years in the hobby and changing scales more than once, I have stuff in N, HO, O, G, as well as S narrow gauge that doesn’t fit the master plan for my S scale layout. At some point I hope to set up a couple of display areas for these goodies that don’t fit the main layout, but we’ll see.
Sometime I think my real hobby is Collecting! [(-D]
Good responses everyone!! I like to see everyones’s take on this subject. So far the only thing I’ve stocked up on scenery material. I have about 10 diferent cans of WS ground foam. And another 2-3 cans full of my own mix. I’ve saved al the extras off of other kits I’ve built. And I have extra flex track that I don’t need. Especially now that I’m going to get C83 track instead of all the C100 I already own.
I’m not that into scratchbuilding/kitbashing YET. So I haven’t acquired things from those projects. But I plan on it in the future. So I’ll probaby get what I need at first, then just buy plenty of extras. This should allow me to see all the different materials I use a lot, and then just stock up on those things. Avoid all the useless peices I may only use once or twice.
I do hate it when your in the middle of a project, and you run out of glue, or your one clamp short, or you just used the last drop of stain for your wood structure and have 3 walls to go!!! So stocking up on materials like these will definatly be benificial in the end…
This was a good question to put forward in a thread. I was in the train room when I read it and took a good look around and took a rough inventory of all the extras I have of some of my items.
I have way to many Kadee couplers packets, some are in bulk packs. My WS items? Well I won’t even go there. Building kits? I counted 7 unbuilt and unopened. Freight car kits and rolling stock? Well I just picked up 8 more yesterday at my LHS, because the owner offered them to me so cheap, less than $5 each. Now if I was to take a good long look at all my extra spare parts for loco’s, freight, building parts, and track? I don’t even want to think about it! The large storage containers with lids are a handy item, and small parts containers. It just seems like I don’t get rid of anything.
In this day and age of RTR and limited one-time production, I tend to be one that pre-orders any rolling stock or locomotives that I (think) I need for my layout. For example, I missed out on ordering the new Kadee Rock Island boxcar with operating cushion underframe and I have only seen it once one ebay with a higher then retail price. I kick myself for not ordering it.
To caveot off of that, I have found on ebay very good deals and that’s where my giant surplus of stuff came from. I am in the final process of reducing that surplus as I know I’ll never need so much stuff (rolling stock and engines). I think. I have become more disciplined with what I want to model and the would be correct for that time frame and location.
Scenery Items I stockpile as color, availabiity, and price change with the seasons.
Paints I’ve just been getting what I need as it’s a resource that tends to go bad after several years.
Tools. Seems like I never have the exact tool I need to do a job.
If you looked at my layout space you’d definately say I’m a stockpiler.