The Little World

We all cruise the aisle of the hobby shop, hardware store, craft shop, or toy store looking for the Great Bargain. The Score. The Once-In-A-Lifetime chance to buy a $5000 model for 50¢. It never eventuates, of course, and we can become bitter and twisted. The thing we all need to do is realise that the mythical Great Bargain is just that – a myth.

It’s a useful myth, however, as it is the chief thing that drives people in through the doors of the auction houses. Even when they have been serial victims and come out with broken china ornaments and torn paper prints, it still has the power to erase their memories of this and draw them back again. Drugs have nothing on auctions.

Whenever I am taken by this frenzy I go to an art supply place – and look for some simple little thing like cardboard sheets or paper pads. As art supply stores are sometimes run by bitter failed artists, they have no compunction in pricing things to punish others. The prices range from steep to astronomical. The best stores do put in some cheap items – and treat that stock roughly – to tempt you to look further. The only way to beat this is to buy the cheap shit.

Surprisingly, it can be quite alright in use. I purchased some strawboard today to make roofs for model buildings, and the price was reasonable. It was obviously unwanted by anyone else as it still had clean edges and corners. Strawboard must not be the material of the month.

The same philosophy applies in the DIY shop when you can safely bypass the ready-cut kits of shelving or wooden cabinets for the basic raw material itself. You may not be able to make anything better than the Chinese factory that die-cuts the kits, but you  probably can’t make anything worse. And you’ll have off-cuts to spur you on to your next project.

Cheap paint may not be such a good idea, and I’m prepared to except my rule there. Still, if there is a shelf of pre-mixed shades that no-one wanted, the DIY shop sometimes lets them go at piffling prices. I’ve coated model buildings with diluted sample paint and had it come out splendidly – and entire 1;18 scale building painted for $ 2? Don’t mind if I do…

Stick your cheap snout into the brush aisle as well. Not the hobby shop brush aisle, as many of the fine offerings there are priced above diamonds. I mean in the DIY or craft shop. They can sometimes get in boxes of Chinese foam bushes in useful widths that are even better than bristled ones for acrylic work. And if you use one for enamel? It’s so cheap that you can discard it rather than clean it, without a qualm.

I’m afraid there is rarely a cheap option in a hobby fair, either – at least not one that you would add to your collection. I have purchased secondhand die-cast models before and in a number of cases they have had a distinct flavour of basket. I am very cautious now to get items that have never been unboxed – and to ask to see them from all sides before spending money.

Are cheap plastic kits worthwhile? Many say no, but I am a fan of them. There is a charm about something that is cheap and cheerful, and any advance that a modeller might make over a manufacturer’s mistakes is a feather in their cap. And the pleasure /time/money equation is so very favourable with the inexpensive kit.