The cost of abundance
By Mario Covalski
Around the end of January, I was talking about modeling with a friend of mine, owner of a small business of resin kits. It was a pleasant chat about models, projects, etc, steering to the little time we have to spend on building models, when suddenly he asked me a question and both of us were stunned…”¿When did you last purchase a kit, arrive home and start building it?”
That sudden question took me by surprise, like a slap, since both of us knew what we were talking about.
Being modelers for so many years, though my friend is younger than me, we still remember those days (glorious!!!) when we used to buy a kit and shortly after arriving home, we started its construction. Well, the last time I remember, was back in the 80s, with a 1/8 Jaguar from Monogram. As time went by, this habit declined and I can’t remember a closer date.
But, what was the meaning of my friend’s question?, obviously that we use to be more buyers than builders, and nowadays… modelers’ main concern (me included) is “purchasing”.
Of course, there may be exceptions, but where are those days when we used to purchase a kit and only after it was built and enjoyed we gave all our attention to the next one?
Today, it’s uncommon to see modelers purchasing or thinking in terms of a sole kit, and excepting the lack of resources, the thoughts about the dozens of possible purchases, hours on the Internet searching for references or “chats” about their superb future projects ...etc will keep running through their minds, In this context, there’s little from our free time left, to build something …then slowly, we’re becoming real virtual builders.
When returning home, I was meditating on the quantity and quality of the subjects we have nowadays, a lot of information, the excellent and constant contact with modelers the world over, and while considering all this, I realized that perhaps the price we pay for so much abundance, may turn out to be very expensive.
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