Inherited models

[Ratch]

Has anyone inherited models from a loved one? Which ones? Did they need a repair? Do you restore old builds?

[Shaughan]

My old mate Les who passed away a couple of years was an avid hoarder. One day he produced a Airfix M G Magnette. He had bought it from someone not knowing the owner had started it. It put him off so asked if I would like it, to which I nodded. He gave me it free gratis. When he passed away I felt obliged to finish the build in his name and it now sits proudly in my display case

[Shaughan]

Good question Ratch. I’ve sent a reply awaiting approval.

[Topcat_Ern]

Aye, Brother in Law's small stash. Mainly cars which don't interest (forward and backward things that go from A to B), old figurines and AFVs which were mostly started. I felt duty bound to finish those started ones, scratch-build the missing parts and renew the paint work and re-decal. And one WW1 aircraft which might get attempted one day. And about 30 tinlets of Airfix enamels, which surprisingly were still liquid!

Andy

[Ratch]

A few years ago, at Yate IPMS Show, someone was giving away built models for restoration. I picked up a couple of Mustangs and finished them off as Kingscliffe birds.

I don't know the manufacturer of the kits, but they seemed quite old.

[Hurricane Boy]

No plastic kits that I can recall.

But in my garage there is the wing and tail section from my late father’s 83 year old Comet Sailplane endurance free flight flying model waiting for me to make a new fuselage. The 0.60 cu. in. Brown Junior spark-ignition gas engine is in the drawer also waiting patiently.

Problem is this balsa/tissue (or silk span) covered model has a 78” wing span, 55” length and stabilizer has a 37” span. Where do you put some thing like that. Amazingly, I have many black and white picture of this model with my dad and even an 8mm colour movie clip of him starting and flying this beast also from 80+ years ago.

When the model is covered, doped and completed and needs to move indoors due to the very cold winter here, we won’t be able to print what SWMBO has to say about it on another discussion currently on this site!

[ian_rutland]

My Dad made models with me in the 50's. None survive. Most of the models I have have been built by me, or are old classics that I have been collecting and rebuilding. In the garage, I have a number of kits from the collection of a friend that died. I have kept then in good order and neatly boxed. I suppose that these are the only Inherited kits.

On another forum, the question was raised about what will happen to our models when we check out. It has been in my mind for some time, as I am knocking on a bit. I started writing about a similar situation and ended up writing a short children's book for my grandchildren. It's about a young boy who discovers a Little Airfix Tiger Moth in his Grandfather's attic. As he explores the dusty boxes, he finds a whole airfield and all the models that once populated it. His Grandfather has died a few years back, but the boy starts to know him from the models and books that he left. I'm just waiting for a friend to do some artwork for me and I'll get the book published.

In this story, the models have a happy ending. For so many more modellers, their collections won't be so lucky. The Bin, a skip, the kids next door, maybe dumped in a dark corner. Maybe they'll end up on Ebay, at model shows, in charity shops, an auction, or even donated to museums. Who knows. It would be a nice thought to see a National Model Museum that would take these collections, but that will cost serious money. I can't see it happening.

[DG.]

I too have been pondering about what will happen to my collection of completed models, about 400 displayed on shelves in the loft…

I guess it will be the skip when the time comes, I am well into the category of aged (old/ancient) modeller but still excited every time I get a notification from Airfix about a new offer or release and I will be buying the new Spitfire Mk V, clipped wing , well two really to do both schemes. Only 140 models to complete plus future unavoidable purchases, might require a large skip!

[KiwiKev]

I rescued this one from an old fellow via internet auction:

Turned it into this:

Who knows what the next step will be, possibly the skip, but the fun and satisfaction was in recreating it. We will all be gone one day, but we were here, existing, and having our time, much like the subjects we model.

[Sailorman]

Great build KiwiKev! You really did a good job there. From a toy to a real model!

[István-369048]

Sadly, I didn't inherit any models, but I love seeing all these photos, they are amazing!

[john redman]

In the last 12 years I've had to dispose of the estates of two sets of parents and one sibling. I have learnt two things from these three estate liquidations. One, not only can you not keep everything a loved one leaves behind - you can hardly keep anything. Of all my brother's stuff, I've kept a rug. Of my parents', a clock and two sets of cutlery. Two, second-hand effects of any description are basically worthless. Many - clothes and old sofas, for example - have negative value: you have to pay people to take them away.

Things you'd assume have some value turn out to have none. Georgian clocks are worthless if not running because the bill to get them repaired will exceed what they then fetch when sold. You may be able to sell complete dinner services of Napoleonic-era plateware for a few hundred pounds, but individual pieces thereof will fail to sell on eBay for £0.99.

Collections generally are worthless. Think cigarette cards: nobody collects these any more. In theory some models may be worth something. If you've got a built-up FROG 1/24 Bloodhound Missile, or an Airfix cereal box Stingray, or a QANTAS Avro 504, it may be worth a few hundred. But it depends on whoever's liquidating it knowing this. Other playthings such as train set locomotives have nominal value, but if you're not a buff yourself, you won't be able to test if they work or even describe them for an auction.

Our built models fall into the category of "you'll pay to have them taken away". The kindest thing you can do for your family is organise and label the stash and give them your logins to the sites you visit. Then they can sign on as you and offer to give it away to your modelling mates. Or, if they sell it, at least they know how to describe it accurately in the listing.

With this in mind I tend to bin built models as soon as they need dusting....

[Sailorman]

Hi John, sadly you are quite right in what you say.

I've already told my children that most of my models, whilst priceless to me, are worth nothing when I'm gone.

It is only my liner models that I would like to see donated to some museum or other. Who knows whether that will happen? I won't be around to find out.

[john redman]

About 20-odd years ago when Usenet was still a thing, there was a newsgroup covering ships and ship modelling - it might have been rec.models.scale. People on there were wondering if they could donate builds they hadn't space for to museums. A chap who was the actual curator of a naval museum in the US contributed to the discussion. It was a long time ago but a few things he said stuck in my head.

One was that his museum did not accept anything built using novel media such as resin, superglue and photo-etch. This was because the minimum requirement of a display model was that it be capable of display without needing any form of repair for a minimum of 100 years - museums do not want to be storing broken exhibits or restoring old ones all the time.

He also recommended using mechanical means such as screws, nuts and bolts to hold models together wherever possible. Glue fails, but bolts don't unscrew themselves.

Models per se are interesting to his museum either if there's no other way to showcase that subject, or if the builder of the model was himself interesting. The chicken-bone warship models built by French PoWs are examples of the latter. They're unlikely to be accurate builds, but the amazing thing is that they were built at all.

[Sailorman]

Interesting John. I'm not sure that the idea of superglue and modern media is still a thing now that a good number of years have gone by and we are more aware of their properties.

I have models that I built 50 years ago and they are exactly as they were the day I built them. Many of my liners are younger ..... still over 30 years old and still in pristine condition.

This one's been around for 33 years and nothing's fallen off yet!

[john redman]

CA glue was discovered in WW2 but not sold until the 1950s, IIRC, and became common only about 50 years go. I suppose the thinking is that unless a material's been around 100 years, it's probably not possible to know whether it will last 100 years or not.

[Ian Rutland]

One of our most prolific modellers died last week. He left hundreds of models. We now have to store his models, so that they remain safe, and can be displayed at model shows next year. We also need to find all the carefully stored parts, so that WIP kits can be completed. It's been a labour of love for us, as he was very well liked. He was a craftsman. We'll miss him.