Log me in the category of embarrassingly large number of unbuilt kits. I have one entire side of a two-car garage full of kits, as well as 50+ moving boxes full of kits. All of the kits in the moving boxes are logged into a database (otherwise I would never be able to find a specific kit). It was surprisingly easy to gather these several thousand kits. After modeling in high school, plastic kits went by the wayside when I became a starving student working my way through college. I spent the next 20 years as an Air Force pilot with little modeling time, but I never lost the desire to build. It doesn't take long to learn the basic truth in modeling: If you don't buy a model when you see it, then later it will either be unavailable or much more expensive. So during the next 20 years I would buy models that I would build "someday". My buying was facilitated by frequent flying trips to Japan, Korea, and Europe. In the 70s or 80s, you could pick up a kit overseas for a few bucks that now cost upwards of $50. I left all of these kits unbuilt because they were much easier to move during my frequent changes of station. After I retired from the Air Force, I spent 20 years teaching high school and junior college. Same story, no time to build, but I continued to buy kits. I now build about 4 kits per month. Three things changed to allow my modeling:
First, I am completely retired. Second, my daughter is now married and lives in another city, so my wife and I turned her old room in a shared hobby room. And third, I changed my modeling philosophy. Instead of building for contests and buying all of the photoetch, masking, decals, and resin for a model, I now shoot for a decent build on a kit without all of the bells and whistles. I now find that I have a lot more fun with my plastic modeling, and I still have time for my HO scale railroad layout, scratch-building a radio control model boat, photography, and I still teach one college class each semester.
Will I get rid of my kits, since there is no chance I can build even a small fraction of my kits before I kick the bucket? I do get rid of a few each month at a local hobby shop that does consignments. But I still keep most of them. I have to admit that it is cool to stand in the middle of my garage and see which kit calls out to me. And even if there is only a 1% chance that I might want to build a specific kit in the future, I might as well keep something I already have. I do still buy some of the really cool, modern kits, but my earnings from selling my consignments usually pays for them. I definitely agree with those of you who have commented on the fact that it is also kind of cool just having the unbuilt kits. Don't worry about having too many kits, because we are all different & what works for one isn't always right for others.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
