What’s the most you paid for a model kit?

[Ian from Doncaster]

No real reason to ask, just curious.  Also everyone has different budgets but there may be the occasion where there has been that special buy.?

I remember about 8-10 years ago wandering around the sales tents at the RAF Warrington air show, looking for unusual or rare models.  In one tent - Hannants’ I think - I saw a big box, quite old and I can’t remember the manufacturer, of a Brabazon.  I thought this must be very rare so I looked at the price tag.  It was over UK £360.!!

I put the box down, carefully..  No way could I justify spending that on a model.

Edit - just found this kit on amazon - $468 - 1:72 by A Model. 

But then a few years later I spent almost a year saving religiously each £2 coin I got in change, to buy the WNW Felixstowe, for about $270 plus vat etc on delivery.!

Just a casual thought as to what individual special buys you have made.

[macsporran]

Wingnuts Felixstowe I should think. But then I realised I'd never make it and sold for roughly what I'd paid for it.
Wish I'd kept it to sell it now though!
Also sold off my AEG and Gotha GIV too early

[FokkerFodder]

$199 AUD on 1/16 hasagawa Camel ... if you broke it down on the number of hours I’ve spent on this still unfinished shelf of doom queen it would be a bargain!

[Ian from Doncaster]

Is that the one which builds with exposed structure, wing ribs etc.?  I have one of those received as a gift and opened the box to find an infinite number of injector pin marks to clean up, and promptly put the lid back on.!!!

[FokkerFodder]

That’s the one - I gave up counting after a 1000.... maybe not infinite but certainly felt like it at times..!!

[enathan]

I can't compete with you 1/32 guys...the most I paid for an old and rare kit in 1/72 was $70 + shipping.
It was the Aeroclub Short 184, an excellent injection molded kit with white metal parts and an extra resin + PE torpedo included.
I'm always after rare 1/72 WW.I kits but I see no reason to pay more than this.
 
Having said that, if someone has a Skybirds 86 Friedrichshafen G.II for sale...   

[Dave W]

Prices in Australia/ NZ are higher than the rest of the world so the big kits have a big price tag. I paid over $200 for the Wingnuts AEG (early) and more than that for the Tamiya 1/32 DH Mosquito and Airfix 1/24 Hawker Typhoon kits.

Having been a heavy smoker before, I managed to quit and promised I could spend the cigarette money on models! What a great motivation to quit!

Dave Wilson
Gold Coast
Australia

[Fokkerfighter]

500 for the Hase 1/8 Fokker Tripe, delivered. I managed a trade/cash deal for a Camel as well.  I hope to retire in a few years, and build them.
  Otherwise the WNW Felix.

[kkarlsen]

By a large margin HPH's PBY-5A Catalina in 1/32 scale.

I was lucky enough to get it second hand for a reasonable price, but still on the wrong side of 500 US $
On top of that I got the parts from the Cutaway kit, so...
Although it's a very nice kit with thousands of parts, I really would have difficulties paying todays full price of 720 Euro's.

Cheers: Kent

[smperry]

$1800 for the Aeroworks P-51, but that was an 89" RC model, (Sally was the biggest hangar queen I ever owned). Most on plastic, WnW Camel/LVG duelist at the standard price prior to when WnW's spars folded and they augured in. Forgot the exact price, though $189 sticks in my head. Less than $200 for sure. A measure of how much I wanted the LVG.
Flying RC quickly gets you to the point where you realize money spent on a model is just like tying it to a wildcat and yelling, "SCAT"....it's gone. Hard to think of a model kit as something which holds or even increases in value.
sp

[Ian from Doncaster]

Strange I put this thread up today only to find a few hours later that my work is consulting on redundancies.

I was hoping not to have to try and sell my stash - even with WNW values going to go up, but I might need to reconsider.

Sorry for putting a downer on my own lighthearted thread.!

[lcarroll]

   Price paid is but a snapshot in time ........ I tend to follow the school that breaks the amount spent into a formula including how many hours of enjoyment were realized in converting the box contents into a finished product. Several of my larger Wingnut Wings Builds (the "Fee" or AEG for example) provided a steady flow of building pleasure for under $2 per hour. I rate that as a pretty good investment, a good pint at any local watering hole runs to 3 times that, and I find the atmosphere generally more pleasant at home!
Cheers,
Lance

[Ian from Doncaster]

   Price paid is but a snapshot in time ........ I tend to follow the school that breaks the amount spent into a formula including how many hours of enjoyment were realized in converting the box contents into a finished product. Several of my larger Wingnut Wings Builds (the "Fee" or AEG for example) provided a steady flow of building pleasure for under $2 per hour. I rate that as a pretty good investment, a good pint at any local watering hole runs to 3 times that, and I find the atmosphere generally more pleasant at home!
Cheers,
Lance

That’s a very good point Lance.  For the price of a “basic” WNW kit plus paints and a contribution to tools etc, I could go to 4 football (soccer to some) games or 5-6 films at the cinema.  Plus I probably spend more hours on modelling so as an investment in hobby time it is relatively cheap, even in the individual peak costs can be quite high.

[hiddeous1973]

Corrected for the hours of fun I had, it would still be a WnW, or better 3x kits, as I did a triple build with the Jasta 5 Albatros pack.
Losts of $$ for hardly any extra time compared to a single build, or so it felt.

Other then that? how about a little over €500 for 3 not too big Verlinden kits, sadly years after they went out of business. When new, all three together would be no more then €120, maybe a little more. But most Verlinden kits and detail sets never returned anywhere and some are still the only game in town (in this case 2 river sampans and a set of Vietnam troops) so big money or no kit, no options left.

Hidde from Holland

[ermeio]

The problem is not the one that I paid most, but the continous heartbleeding on cheap kits....

well... as far as I remember it was the Felixstowe duellist boxe(s)

but they have been an investment, this is my usual justification