How long have you had those unbuilt kits?

[Trofimow]

Sorting through the drawers of stuff in the railway room the other day, I came upon these Ratio kits, still unopened.

 

This one must have been lurking for a while, judging by the price ticket...

 

 

But then how long has this one been hiding at the back of the drawer, at that price and from a long gone model shop...

 

 

 

Have you got any kits that have been wailting longer to be built?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckymucklebackit]

I have an unbuilt DC kits class 105 that I bought in 1994, still in it's original box.

 

Jim

[Ian Smeeton]

I have some which are priced in LSD

 

(lire, Sestercii, Denarii)

 

Whatever the Romans did for us, I dread to think looking at the sprues contined in these.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[great central]

I have several unstarted from before we moved house, also a number at various stages again from before we moved house. We moved house over 30 years ago!

In truth I can't say I've completed anything in at least the last ten years, the last would, I think, be a DJH 9F which goes back to around 2003

[decauville1126]

I'm (slowly) working my way through all the Impetus kits I bought from the shop in Charlotte Place - just by Goodge Street station in London, which was also very close to The Hit Factory of Pete Waterman fame. Robin Arkinstall - Mr Impetus - worked nearby at the time and so kits were available as soon as released. And I think they still stand up well in comparison to more recent offerings save for the drive systems for which High Level have developed superb gearboxes.

[Graham456]

Well at the Taunton show I bought some parkside wagon kits.......So around a week in their case !.......

Posable not the sort of reply expected by trofimow when I started his post te he!

 

I did Finnish the exKs 15xx the other year after buying it at chris Crawley models thirty odd years ago that was my longest hanging around kit, but it's disqualified by being built now I don't have any golden oldies of my ownership now, old kits yes but not long in my ownership

[JeffP]

Had one since 2002..........

Since then, they stopped production and have now been taken over and are likely to restart.

 

I also have an unused, still in the box NCE Powercab setup......

[crompton 33]

Most of us have kit's not built .We all say one day i will get it done. I have two DC kit's part built started them over 8 years ago. Hum Next year.

[Guest Isambarduk]

I have some Kitmaster TT3 kits of mainline corridor stock, still in their boxes in cellophane wrappers, that my father bought in the early 1960s for a model railway for 'us boys' that never got beyond the stage of bare track on two-level baseboards before we 'grew up'.  To be fair, he did buy a good deal of ready-to-run Tri-ang stock: couple of Jintys, couple of Prairies, couple of 350HP diesel shunters (later known as 08s) ... six 16T minerals, six covered wagons, four low-side wagons ...

 

It's all in a large box; I must do an inventory and set to on eBay one day, or find a respectable dealer, as I have been a 7mm modeller man and boy.

 

David

[Mark Saunders]

I finally swapped some of my vintage Parkside kits with pink hangers on for even more vintage Airfix kits!

 

I only bought the Parkside ones for the wheels as the kits were cheaper than buying the wheels.

 

Mark Saunders

[cheesysmith]

I`ve got a MTK 158, before Bachmann did their version. Might use it for ballast.

[mike morley]

I've just finished building a Coopercraft wagon kit which had a Taylor and McKenna price ticket of 95p!  I think it must date from the very late 70's or early 80's.

(And I think I've still got another one, somewhere)

[Londontram]

I've got a Nu cast white metal L&Y saddle tank kit that I got back in 1980 still in its box with a nice solid brass block chassis.

 

   I did have a Wills (I think) LMS 2P from the same vintage but gave that to my 28 year old son to build who wasn't even born when I got it the kit being seven years older than he is.

 

                               Steve.

[2996 Victor]

Here are a few of my stock of kits and bits:

 

 

All of these came from Kingston's Models and Toys in Taunton, sadly long-since defunct, and from JC's original shop on The Bridge which he left a good twenty years ago.

 

If memory serves, they were bought between 25 and 30 years ago. The Cooper alternative van ends were faded like that when I bought them, so who knows how old they actually are, while the relative prices of the van and opens, bottom-left, is indicative of the rampant inflation in the late 80s/early 90s!!!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[AJCT]

A quick rummage through the unbuilt kits in my attic turns up stuff which I too must have had for 25-plus years – the oldest looks like an unopened Parkside (actually “Panther Plastics”) PC10 LMS 3-plank open priced 85p, which probably dates from around 1980.  Then there’s a couple of MTK DMU kits – a Swindon Cross-country Inverness-Aberdeen set (Class 120) and a Cravens 2-car set (Class 105) – which IIRC were bought from the M G Sharp stand at Glasgow ModelRail in March 1977.  The Swindon set is part-built (so disqualified for this topic) but the Cravens kit is unstarted - essentially because it turned out that the aluminium bodyshells are wrong, possibly meant for a Derby set (Class 108) !  Then there’s a Nu-Cast D41 kit which may have been bought around the same time, though my records are inconclusive on this….

 

Alasdair

[Steamport Southport]

A set of Ratio Midland Suburbans that were purchased about 1983 and some wagon kits from the same time.

 

Unbuilt as I changed era to BR modern and then had nearly fifteen years out of the hobby whilst doing other things.

 

 

Loads of other kits have joined them. Slowly getting through them but not in date order. The pile is getting bigger if anything, mainly other peoples unbuilt kits.

 

 

 

 

Jason

[tomparryharry]

I actually stopped buying stuff: If I finished a locomotive every 6 months, I could reasonably expect to clear the lot by..... I can't see me going back to the Ratio guards vans: Hornby saw to that.....

 

Ian

[Northmoor]

DC Kits Class 304, bought 2000 Old Oak Common Open Weekend, that's one of the more recent ones.

 

I have two Roy Gould VGA Van kits (who remembers them), never started, from Geoffrey Allison's in Worksop.  I worked there in 1992-3 (for Pandrol, yes, as in the clips).  Definitely still have a Peco Station House, probably bought in about 1984.  I'm sure I have a couple of not started model aircraft kits from that era as well.   If you include kits bought by my Dad but which I still have awaiting building, there are some Ratio Midland Coaches and Airfix buildings which pre-date 1984.

 

However, it's not the dates on the packets/boxes that I am guilty of, it's the numbers.  I dread to think how many there are.

 

Oh dear.  This could quickly turn into a Maoist Self-denunciation thread.

 

[Horsetan]

......This could quickly turn into a Maoist Self-denunciation thread.

 

[Trofimow]

Well, it's only taken me 15 years, but I finally finished this lot...

 

 

 

 

So you can expect someone to announce RTR palvans any time now...

[peterstgermain]

I've so many,going back to the 80's & more including the original Coopercraft GWR Loco coal. Many wagon kits were bought in the 90's for building whilst working in Germany,.. many built but still need of completion! For me the worst source of kit purchases was the the club sales stands at exhibitions so many tempting bargains!

[Armstrong440]

Here are a few of my stock of kits and bits:

 

 

All of these came from Kingston's Models and Toys in Taunton, sadly long-since defunct, and from JC's original shop on The Bridge which he left a good twenty years ago.

 

If memory serves, they were bought between 25 and 30 years ago. The Cooper alternative van ends were faded like that when I bought them, so who knows how old they actually are, while the relative prices of the van and opens, bottom-left, is indicative of the rampant inflation in the late 80s/early 90s!!!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

 

Is that an O5 4-planker?  And could I convince you to part with it?

[Gordonotron]

If anyone has some of the old Cooper craft/Mail Coach LNER Coronation kits in this category feel free to let me know. 

[Dunsignalling]

I've got quite a few Ratio kits from way back, when they were made in Sturminster Newton.

 

Also some quite early Ian Kirk wagon kits and one Westykits grain van. 

 

Plus a K's GWR Grain Hopper kit sans instructions (not required given the number of parts involved) recently donated by a very kind pal who had acquired more than he needed.

 

I've a Parkside LNER Toad B (4mm) nearing completion and two of their LNER plywood-body fruit vans (the second acquired as recently as Railwells 2017) to follow, all long since discontinued. 

 

Still running is a pre-printed Cambrian Models Chance & Hunt acid tanker, assembled in 2000. Opens for Yeovil Trading, Ocean, Hartnell & Son and Small & Son still pendng.

 

Wagon nut? Moi ?

 

John

Edited December 6, 2017 by Dunsignalling

[Northmoor]

Oh dear.

 

I have found some SE Finecast glazing sheets for Lima Mk2 coaches, stil in their packets, but they have gone yellow.  Does that mean I have had them too long?

 

(I have had Peco foam ballast that turned to dust, but that doesn't seem to take an unreasonable amount of time).