What to do with finished models

[Pat71]

what can you Do with finished models? Ik see a lot of very expensive kits here. What can you do with it when it is finnished and you have no more space tot put them in your house? Sell them is an option but with aan kit that cost almost 1800 euros you have to find some one that is willing tot pay at least 2000.

 

[shipbuilder]

I sell them, but that will not help you much. Kits, as you correctly say, cost a lot of $, that you probably would like to recover if you sell them.
But kits, by their very nature, are duplicated in their hundreds, if not in their thousands, so they are not very much in demand from collectors. I never build kits at all, so I don't have to pay out much at all for materials. As it is just a hobby with me, I do not take private commissions. I just build whatever I feel like building. I have a group on Facebook called Merchant Ships In Miniature, which has over 600 members who like building merchant ship models. Usually, someone comes along shortly after I have completed a model, and wants to purchase it. At the moment, I am sold out. Since January, I have completed: collier brig Sicily, barquentine Bellmore, topsail schooner Julia, and barque Gulf Stream. They have all sold for hundreds of pounds. Because they are small, and in display cases, they are more popular than large ones. Collectors love them because they are different, being merchant ships, with not a gun or gunport in sight. In the past 26 years, I have built and sold over 260 of them! But I have found that over 90% of model shipbuilders cannot be persuaded to build anything other than warships. Even a small one like the Irene will fetch well over £150. The hull of the Irene
is only a few inches long. The other one in my hand , is the barque East African, and it sold for several hundred pounds. A lot of model shipbuilders think it is dreadful that I sell them, but we simply don't have the space to keep them. The choice is simple. If you really want to sell you models, forget about kits!
Bob

 

[dj56]

I think that's a good question Pat, personally I would never buy a kit that is 1800 €, but there are many who do, but I think it buys this from a much better level than I do in building model ships or they are professional builders, but to win 200 € on a ship where you have worked for many and many hours, the profit does not pay off.
my ships that I build are in pricipe for the people who survive (my sons) as I had one when I was still in Spain that my father had made.
on the other hand, of course you do not have to make a ship museum at home, you also have to leave a little room for pictures of the grandchildren '
Greetings
willy

 

[Pat71]

There are a lot of half build kits here in Holland on a 2nd hands side for sale. When i was able to paint with my airbrush 2 years ago. I made motogp paintings. They where populair and a large piece of the profit i donated to mercy ships. They have a big boat with oparation chambers and heal People in poor countrys. Remove tumors. Make legs strait. Operate faces etc. All for free. All the People on the ship work for free. Ik am sick myself and here we have good health care.now in can not paint so good and like building boats. I want to buy these half build kits for little money then finish them and sell them and donate the profit to mercy ships. Build a boat for a boat. If i can change 1 or 2 lives a year with building in am happy. Sometimes God closes 1 Door but opens the next.

 

[shipbuilder]

Afraid I don't think models built from kits are very saleable. I understand that unfortunately, you are unable to paint very well now, because of your medical condition. Building a model is fare more difficult than painting though - so I do not know what to suggest.
Bob

 

[shipbuilder]

I read your message about plans, but it said "This conversation is closed for new replies," so I am replying here. There are plenty plans in books that can be borrowed from libraries, but none of the models that I build are of small vessels, but usually ships between about 1,000 and 20,000 tons, and quite complicated. Maybe someone else can help with plans of small boats. The models I build cost hardly anything in materials, but they do require a lot of manual dexterity, and I have been building them for over 50 years!
Bob

 

[ADC]

Never bothered the financial side of building models and is not a zero sum consideration for me. I have other ways of making my money and model building is purely a hobby where I invest some of my leisure money when I have it. I get all my pleasure just from building them and have little interest in keeping them when finished. Of all the models I have built I only have one left in the house. That is a paper model of a Mark IV tank I made about 20 years ago. I have had no trouble moving on all the others. A couple I have donated to charity. There is always somebody who would like to have them. I already have someone who is interested in taking my Salamandre when it is finished. And I will be happy to let it go for free. Every one is different and approach the hobby with their own needs and expectations and that’s OK by me.

 

[shipbuilder]

I was exactly the same years ago. When I first started, no-one wanted to buy them anyway, but quite a number expressed a wish to have them, but declared that they could not afford them. That was fine by me (at the time) and I gave quite a number away. But when some of them began to appear in shops at quite high prices, I did feel rather annoyed. On one occasion, when I mentioned it, I was told that no-one made me give it away, and he was free to do with it whatever he wished! I had to agree, but it stopped there! The only exception after that was in 1985 when I gave one to my girlfriend. Anyway, we got married in 1987, and the model still sits on a shelf in our display cabinet! After I began selling them, a young lady purchased one for her father's birthday for £100. I knew him quite well, and about three weeks after he got it, he told me with great glee that he had sold it for £350. Since then, I have become very mercenary about it all, but even now, I still see models that I sold years ago for a few pounds, or even gave away, turning up on Ebay for hundreds of pounds from time to time. But as Pat71 said, he wants to sell them, and generously give the proceeds to charity. But you cannot expect much from selling a kit model, so it would probably be easier to not buy a kit at all, and just give that amount to charity to start with. I do give money to charities myself, but the days when I gave ship models away, are well and truly over. On Ebay, it is possible to donate all, or any percent of what you sell, to the charity of you choice, and that is a very good idea.
Bob