Paper modeling is missing something.

[Robert Woolley]

Where I live there is a fantastic hobby shop with thousands( really) of plastic kits to to browse. But there are no paper models to look at. For me in Australia it is an internet hobby. Do other countries have hobby shops where you can wander in and look through all the paper kits available?

Robert

[Isaac]

Here in Japan, I can find it in the Tokyu Hands DIY store in Tokyo. However it is mostly Schreiber kits ( which to me are amateur in complexity ) and animals, buildings etc..from the Japanes makers.


The really serious hobby stores that carry paper/card models that I have encountered are in Poland.

No store in the USA that I have been to carries paper models


If you need to purchase them, it is easy to do it via an internet store.


I tend to purchase the kits rather than download, but that is a good option if you want to.




Isaac

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by hikokibert

Where I live there is a fantastic hobby shop with thousands( really) of plastic kits to to browse. But there are no paper models to look at. For me in Australia it is an internet hobby. Do other countries have hobby shops where you can wander in and look through all the paper kits available?

Robert

There are so few papermodelers in Australia that it isn't economic for the model shops to carry paper models. As an example my local yearly show (QMHE) attracts entries in the cardmodel category from 3 or 4 paper modellers. I would think only Poland and perhaps Germany would have sufficient modeller density to make it economic for the stores to carry papermodels.

Regards,

Charlie

[Lrjanzen]

We are few, but feisty!

I do think it is an Internet hobby. In a way it is custom made for the Internet. Most of what we work with is able to be sent easily over the net. Would I love to be able to put my hands on a L 'Instant Durable model, absolutely, but I find the benefits of getting really high quality products like ECardModels at the push of a button worth it. Just my two cents...

Plus we all have each other here.

[11slaw]

Hello hikokibert
Here in Poland is verry great chose of papermodels,most producer like GPM,Modelcard,Modelik,ModelCard ,Model Fan,Answer,SuperModel and many more.Since 1956 year is verry know/i think around the world/ monthly publishing house Maly Modelarz.I have many of them for disposal.If are you interest write me PM or by e-mail [email protected] list for request.

[at6]

I have'nt seen a paper model locally in many years. Internet is the only way around here and it is likely the best way for any one with the internet.

[Sakrison]

Paper modeling flourished in Eastern Europe during the Soviet Era--plastic kits were mostly out of reach. So there has always been a thriving publishing industry there for paper models. It is no accident that GPM, Halinski, Answer, and so many others are located in Poland, Russia, or other former Soviet satellite states.

Here in the U.S.A., Internet-based shops are supplanting local bricks-and-mortar hobby shops as a source for plastic kits. In Wisconsin, where I live, there are perhaps two or three hobby shops in the entire state that offer a large selection of plastic kits. I know of one; I'm guessing about the rest. (To put that in perspective, Wisconsin has a bit more than half the land area - 170k sq km - of Poland and a population of 5.7 million.) As LrJanzen suggests, paper modeling almost seems custom-made for the Internet, with no cost (except labor) to produce digital models and no cost to digitally ship them. The overhead required for a digital shop like e-cardmodels.com is a tiny fraction of what it cost to run a bricks-and-mortar shop.

Even an Internet-based shop that imported printed kits from Europe to the US, would be hard-pressed to compete with digital stores or to maintain a broad enough inventory of the latest releases.
--David

[John Wagenseil]

In the late 1960's and early '70's, a huge selection of paper models was available in the San Francisco Bay area at Jeffery's Toys and at Berkeley Hardware.
Berkeley Hardware stocked just about everything needed for survival except groceries.
Things have probably changed since then.

[rickstef]

i remember that the local Bart Smit(in the city i lived in the Netherlands)having a rack of Leon Schuijt models, and it ranged from the single page models to the windmills and ship and airliner models

[retunga]

In South Africa, there is no store that sales models, the nearest that I have found in terms of models is for railway houses for HO and N gauge train sets.

Other than that Internet downloads and purchases only.