"Mass Diffusion"

[Kirk Johnston]

I wanted to share a personal discovery since I have taken a two year break from the hobby due to a major career change. I am from the 60’s-70’s generation as I am sure the mass majority of us in this hobby are and I was inspired at a very early age by a man named Shep Paine and his amazing dioramas featured in the Monogram kits of that period. As I am sure a lot of you can relate, I kind of dropped the hobby later in High School, the discovery of sex, drugs and rock and roll was simply more over powering, and this continued through the college years. Sometime in my mid twenties I picked it back up, twenty five odd years later I have ended up with hundreds of kits, accessories, books, and so forth and so on, but very few completed kits. Lots of kits started with great intentions, but never completed and numerous kits never even opened, just purchased. So what really is this? I just considered it part of the hobby, you know collecting. However since I have moved to a different career, I entered into the Financial Services business as a Financial Advisor, I hired a business coach to help with the conversion and to help with making me successful in a commission based business.

Here is what I discovered, in the Financial and Insurance world there are so many different products and different avenues that one can go that what happens to many in this business is they become over whelmed, lost, unmotivated and eventually fail, it is called “Mass Diffusion”. So the statistics confirm that those who stay focused and specialized in there given area within the mass of products and philosophies succeed at very high levels, both in income and satisfaction of what they do. They stay away from and refuse to accept “Mass Diffusion”, so I have come to the conclusion that in my modeling hobby I suffer from “Mass Diffusion”, to many subjects, interests, etc.

So here is what I have done: I put a lot of thought into what I really wanted to accomplish as far as building projects, what I could realistically completely finish within the next 5 years and I sold 95% of the kits, references and goodies that I amassed over years and years of buying. I am now back to work on my 1/16 Trumpeter King Tiger, a extensive project that I want to complete, and I am very focused on the project but work on it when I want to, no schedule, no time constraints, etc. I simply just enjoy the hobby again without all the “Mass Diffusion”, no more kits in the closet calling me to start it, then after a few months, back in the closet and another brought out. Honestly I have not enjoyed the hobby this much since I was a kid; I got rid of the “Mass Diffusion” and have learned to enjoy it again. Thought I would share this as you might find it helpful if you to suffer from “Mass Diffusion”. Oh by the way, got rid of the "Mass Diffusion" in my business to and I now have the best clients one could ask for!

Cheers

Kirk

[Jamie Tainton]

[Dan Reed]

Kirk,
I'm starting to swing around to your way of thinking on this subject. There are just so many kits out there how can a person not get off track on their current project?
It sure is a hobby of gluttony.

Dan

[Kirk Johnston]

Dan,

I can defiantly relate and will say the kit manufacturers have utilized excellent marketing to its fullest extent. They recognized that their market was shrinking and they were marketing to an aging population that remained in the hobby, also a population that could afford and justify the purchase if they wanted it, and we wanted it! They listened to want we wanted, created it, targeted the advertising to our greatest desires and we now have the kits, reference, and detail accessories that we always dreamed of, truly the Golden age of our hobby.

Problem is when in the hell do I have time to build or even enjoy all this? Answer is for me, I do not. Guess if I would have invested all the money I have spent over the past 25 sum odd years on the hobby I would now be retired and have all the time I wanted to build and enjoy all the kits. But didn’t happen so onward and upward!

Cleaned out the closet, kept the Trumpeter 1/12 1966 Ford GT40 and the 1/16 T-34/85, both must do’s for me. Also kept some WingNut Wings WWI aircraft kits (those kits are so nice just could not part with them) and a couple Andrea 90mm figures as these are also must do’s and working on the 1/16 King Tiger. Only other kits that I will add at some point is a 1/16 Panther and Sherman if Trumpeter ever decides to produce them. So by the time I complete these, if all goes as planned, will probably be close to the time to move on to the great hobby shop in the sky! Oh yeah, my wife had given me a 1/72 scale 1800’s era wood ship model, 76 gun British ship of the line, fully rigged of course, that she wanted me to complete for display in the house, could not get rid of that one, so will have to be the retirement project.

Kirk

[Dan Reed]

Kirk,
Did you have a large amount of kits? I have about 40-50 unbuilt (I think) and a few that are half started, so not huge by any means, but it does describe what you speak of.
I do also agree with you about how the hobby has grown and it's current state. I think it's got about 10-15 more years of life and then will collapse as we will all be too old to see our models or the hands will be shaking too much.
Maybe pre-built sales will pick up then?
Dan

[Kirk Johnston]

Dan,

Probably about 75 kits, not including detail sets, figures, decals, books, magazines you name it, and several dozen started but never finished projects. Anybody interested in a few 1/35 Dragon armor kits that have been started?

I agree, at some point the hobby will probably implode as sales will fall below a level that manufacturers will not make investments in producing kits on a large scale, we may be starting to see signs of that already. Maybe a reason we are starting to see larger scale kits coming out, 1/12, 1/16, etc. because of aging population that maintains interest in the hobby, I know 1/35 was becoming increasing difficult for my eyes, will have to see it Optivisor is coming out with a #65 magnification lens!

Kirk

[Dan Reed]

I agree about the hobby.
I also think that Dragon is going to have to change directions to stay on top of the hobby as how many more PZ III, IV, V, and VI's can they make ? Have you noticed how well smaller companies such as Bronco are doing? My guess is because they are coming out with fresh items.
Dan