I have always thought about this, but most recently it has been on my mind more often. That is, what is the future of our hobby which all of us love so dearly! Is modeling a dying art form? Can it survive the seeming apathy of the younger generations toward it.

I'm 43 today and have been building model aircraft all my life. Aviation history has been a life long passion and it has always seemed natural to want to have a small piece of aviation history on your shelf in the form of a model aircraft that one builds.

The hobby is great fun, although it is, as we all know, time consuming even under the best of circumstances. What is the future of this hobby I ask myself and am looking for input from other modelers worldwide.

I have tried to interest several young people in the hobby to no avail and it seems that the hobby is dominated by "older" folks! How this will affect the model industry is another good question.

If there are less and less modelers will prices keep going up and up in order to compensate for less and less market that is out there? I don't know. Will there be incentive for model manufactures to sink money into new molds which at last check cost tens of thousands of dollars to manufacture?

Just some food for thought here and I would be curious what your thoughts are around the world on this subject. Is this a problem everywhere? Getting young folks interested in taking the time to build a model and learn and perfect the skills needed to build a good looking model. Thought I would ask. Since we are all getting older and may someday reach an age where only 1 to 1 scale will be large enough to see well enough to work with! Russell

It's a question of fashion, really. Before the 1950s there was no plastic modelling; at some time in the future, there may be no plastic modelling. And after that it may come back again. Or we may do it all by telepathy, or something. I take comfort from two things:

1 The hobby's centre of gravity is China and Japan, which appear to have infinite demand and no problem (yet) of an ageing profile; and

2 I have two lifetimes' worth in the stash so will never run out, even if the rest of the world gives it up!

A couple of local modelers, their names prominent in the awards list at MasterCons, told me they talked to the US rep of a major Asian model company at 2002 MasterCon. He told them that the future would be a DVD in a computer that would laser a complete and detailed model out of an acrylic, or resin, block. It would be affordable for most of us.

I suppose then we would paint it?

I do not have a great hope for the hobby as this generation goes away.