Forgot about Spraygunner too
2 Likes
Hi…a hobby shop what’s that ??? Grew up just outside Baltimore City, in Baltimore County, 1960’s thru early 2000’s, had a few hobby shops to visit. Plus drug stores, Woolworths, 5 &10’s, even a few “department stores had models. In Sliver Spring MD, near DC, was a Squadron Shop, Dad drove me there early-mid 70’s, that moved to Wheaton MD, also outside DC, I could drive myself there…that lasted till early 2000’s.
Now and have for 35-36 years live in Carroll County MD, right now 4 miles South of PA line. There is no hobby shop in this County ! Unless you count Michael’s craft store. There is a “toy” store, the other end of the County that buys “collections” of kits and does a ebay store too…the prices are marked at collectable prices.
So, being near PA…there’s a Hobby Lobby North of us..not worth the time ! At one time HL’s had a few decent kits …long past. Towards York PA is a “hobby shop” more trains and RC, great paint selection, not a lot of armor or planes, more car kits. To our West in Frederick MD is a HobbyTown USA…its a good hour one way from our home, decent kit selection, full retail on all types of kits, with good paint selction.
Most of my kits armor, figures and planes are mail ordered, Sprue Bro’s or Squadron Shop, both to me have very good service, probably 40-50%. The rest of my kits come from model shows. This year in the Mid Atlantic I get 5 events…missed the Feb Richmond VA show, April is Fairfax VA, Sept is PennCon…the armor guys who put on the AMPS Nats in Camp Hill Pa, good dudes are part of the Club that does PennCon, then MarauderCon in Oct, Balto IPMS guys…use to belong to club, still sort of do, meeting are a hr plus away these days, so don’t make many…also then in Oct, a IPMS group in Western VA is doing RavenCon, their 1st show, maybe 90 min one way from home.
Also I swap/trade or buy off model buddies met thru Balto IPMS club meetings or off the Net. And then there is ebay…if the seller doesn’t think the kit is made of gold and the shipping is reasonable. Sometimes Net deals really aren’t “deals” due to shipping and imho the Net DG’s…of t armor sites, of kits be offered for sale has dried up somewhat…just not seeing as many kits being offered for sale… like say 12-15 yrs ago.
I have never bought from Overseas….Europe or Asia. Have never bought off Andy’s Hobby HQ, have come close never pulled the trigger. My area on MD has no “indoor” flea markets either and my wife and I aren’t much for yard sales…we have our own junk already 
I’ll be 66 in May…and man do I miss walking into a well stocked hobby shop ! Now the best I can hope for is a good vendor room at a show ! Hope this made sense, Mike
6 Likes
I am very fortunate to live in the Seattle area. We have Skyway Model Shop with its floor to ceiling stacks of models and racks of multiple paint and weathering products. We are also endowed with International Toy and Hobby which specializes in gundam and sci-fi kits but has a great selection of hard to find Asian tools and paints.
For aftermarket stuff, my first stop is always Sprue Brothers due to its great prices and next day shipping.
Rick
3 Likes
I have a local brick and mortar hobby shop just a few minutes from my house. So that is nice.
For online shopping:
Squadron MMD - always good service
Tower Hobbies - fast shipping
eBay - when I am looking for old out of production models for my collection.
Amazon - when I can’t find what I want elsewhere.
3 Likes
There is an actual independently owned LHS in my area. Approximately a 15 minute drive. Great selection of static plastic as well as HO and N rolling stock and locomotives. Paints and supplies. No R/C.
Three, yes, three annual local shows to attend as well. I’m just lucky enough to live in an active static plastic scene.
Online shopping:
Scaleriders is my go-to source for cars/trucks/vans and other 1/24-1/25 kits and accessories. Model paint and supplies and some science fiction kits as well.
Andyshhq and Scalehobbyist for military and some cars/vans/trucks.
Megahobby for a long time but now one their retirement sale.
Ebay for random stuff I can’t find at the above places 
3 Likes
Yep. I build maybe 4 kits a year if I push it, usually 1 or 2. I have at least 60 in my stash now so at a high point I have enough kits to go 15 years, that’s not counting diorama kits, figures, and conversion stuff. Occasionally we have a group build that requires a new kit purchase. I already have 1000’s of wargame miniatures to paint up so buying more model kits is just more stuff for my wife to have to clear out, why spend the money on them especially if I already have that subject in my possession? My wife says nothing about my stash so this is all self-imposed restraint.
6 Likes
I buy from Sprue Brothers, Squadron shop, Andy’s Hobby and ebay. I am lucky that I have two hobby shops within a half hour drive in Long Island. Unfortunately they sell model kits at list price so I very rarely buy the models kits but they have HO and O gauge trains.
In recent years I have only bought kits as I have been working on my WH40 K figures. I must have at least 150 figures to assemble and paint still plus the space marine tanks.
My 1/35 scale kit collection is about 300 unbuilt kits. I have a very understanding wife who puts up with my model collecting, train collecting and wargaming stuff in our place. VBG
2 Likes
more like a curse by some evil spirit
4 Likes
When we first moved here we had 4 hobby shops, two were a national chain and 2 independent shops. The last one and independent closed about three years ago, I buy off E bay and from a shop 2 hours away in Ottawa. It’s a good thing I’ve stocked up over the past 30 years.
2 Likes
Will you email me their locations? Next time I come through that area maybe I can stop and look them over.
There was a small but reasonably good one near KMWO…36 years ago…
3 Likes
I consider myself blessed. There is an actual physical hobby shop in my town and it is pretty well equipped. Sure, it doesn’t have the after market stuff, but it has a wide selection of models, from a lot of different brands, on a lot of different subjects. They used to be quite expensive, but in recent years their prices have been similar to what I pay online. Very handy to have a place like this around when you run out of one or more of the many consumables we use in this hobby. They offer a wide selection of paints; Tamiya, Mr Hobby, Vallejo, Ammo.
For after market stuff, or kits they don’t sell at that place, I go online and order from the usual European suspects. Many of them offer a relatively low free shipping threshold, and if it’s a little higher, I have a group of buddies that I team up with and we combine our orders.
4 Likes
Lucky you!
2 Likes
BNA online (if it’s a fair amount) or their eBay shop. RebelAlpha (eBay) is another go-to for me. Burbank’s House of Hobbies is another great one. Sometimes direct to AK, Mig, or Vallejo.
The closest hobby shop is only about 20 minutes away but since they moved into their new location, and installed a huge RC track, and are constantly short supplied on paints, I haven’t bothered in several months.
Mike
3 Likes