Breaking news for the famous Pat Hawkey. Looks like he is going to retire. His only income has been building model since 1985. It seems his wife was the major bread winner.
Here in his own words why it is time to retire.
y wife is taking early retirement at the beginning of this July. Our financial advisor -- one of her cousins -- assures us it’s quite doable. Molly is over the moon. She’s been a communications director for the last nine years (ran the department for ten) at what is essentially a home (a huge home) for aging Catholic nuns. After more than 16 years there, and more that 45 years working in general,she’s had quite enough.
Retirement has been a concept I’ve never considered for myself. I figured I’d be building models to the very end. It’s simply what I do. It’s what I’ve done for literally 60 years. Recently Molly and I were discussing the future and she asked me when I planned to retire. I laughed. I don’t see it, I told her. But the idea, the concept, has remained in my mind.
In its heyday, Hawx Planes had at least six guys waiting in line with their lists of model planes they wanted me to add to their collections. Today there are two and their assignments come at wide intervals. The others have either drifted away or passed away. No one has appeared to take their spots in line. The last “regular” buyer was a guy from Arizona who crossed paths with me via eBay in 2011. After about a year and 17 models delivered, he went silent. I’ve made no attempt to advertise for more business.
The dwindling buyers coincided almost exactly with my becoming eligible for Social Security, which I applied for. And you know what? SS pays better and more regularly than building models ever did. So in a sense, without any real planning, I am retired. Coming to grips with this new reality, what really jumps out at me is the sheer amount of STUFF I’ve accumulated to cover any job that may have come my way.
Reference books, decal sheets, kits, paint, tools -- the bulk of which is now surplus. I now see most of it as massive dead weight that somebody (me probably) will have to lift and move to someplace else someday. No. Thanks. Thank God for eBay.
Unfortunately I’m finding there’s next to no interest in books and monographs. Even at near-giveaway prices. Maybe the majority of computer-savvy “serious” modelers have come to the same conclusion that I have -- if you can’t find the answer or the picture on the Internet, it isn’t that important. I’ve also started to triage the decal collection into keepers, eBay material, and why-in-the-hell did I ever hang onto this? Oh, right. The way this professional modeler thing was done was to never throw anything away. You’ll never know when it might be needed. Well, you know what? I’m now in the comfortable position of deciding for myself what will and what will not be needed. As for decal sheet selling on eBay, it’s largely the same story as books. Old Micro/Superscale sheets get hardly any views, again even with attractive discounted prices. And boy-oh-boy do I have a ton of those.
So what to do with my new “free” time? I feel obligated to go back to models I’ve started for my own amusement, when I’d get tired of whatever commissioned job(s) I was working on and probably hating at that moment. I have a frightening and embarrassing number of such models. Countless hours invested in them. I suppose they were therapy projects. Reminders of the days before going pro, when I could do what I wanted to do and only what I wanted to do. Judging by their overwhelming numbers, I’ve needed a shit-load of therapy over three plus decades. So the current plan is finish as many of those that I can and put them out on my Etsy shop or eBay and hope for the best. Which of my starteds will be of most interest to the general model buying public and which ones should I ignore? This will be a trial and error experiment no doubt. Whatever I choose, the finished piece will be easy to ship. Take that to the bank.
So these days I occasionally remind myself that I’m on Easy Street. ALL I have to do is finish those model airplanes I started for my own entertainment back in the day. (And try to refrain from starting any more.) What would the 12-year-old Pat Hawkey think about that? Dream come true or what? That young guy did what he did for the joy of doing it. What compared to the excitement of finding a newly released kit on the shelves of Frentz and Sons Hardware Store? Another cool something to add to his 72nd scale model collection that could never be big enough. What a delightful obsession it was. So many little airplanes -- so little money to acquire them all. Could he have ever believed that one day as an old guy, he’d have enough unbuilt kits in his garage rafters to stock a decent sized hobby shop? Nope.
The 12-year-old had excellent close-up eyesight and rock-steady hands. He did not have a reputation to be concerned with. It was a rare, rare thing when anyone other than he looked at his models in the basement with any interest at all. He was learning and improving his skill and knowledge with every finished piece, but good enough was good enough. Adding another one to the collection quickly was the point of the exercise. It was his hobby. He loved it. He all but lived for it. And this was before discovering The Squadron Shop. Hold on to your hat, young guy.
Today, at age 65, building models/painting figures is just an occupation. Physically, it’s not as comfortable as it used to be. Between choosing the correct glasses or Optivisor to enable me to see what I’m doing and the slightly shaky hands, it’s not the easy-breezy activity of the past. At age 12, the idea of an afternoon nap never occurred to me. Lately I find quality model building requires energy that isn’t always there. I really did not see that one coming.
For eight years or so I’d occasionally get a call from Al Slisinger who ran Old Guard Hobbies. “Hawkey,” he’d say, “Get your ass down here. A collection came in.” Dear Al always gave me first crack if it was airplanes. That meant a 40 minute drive ASAP to see what kind of treasure arrived. Better still, treasure at reduced prices. Never mind I had all the work I could handle with the kits clients had provided. My rationale was that I might be able to score something cool at a good price to squirrel away for that someday when I could build it to put on eBay. (Remember all those started kits? Same rationale. Just an excuse to spend money on model airplanes -- one of my very favorite things at the time.) To date, I’ve managed to finish three gear down jobs, as envisioned when I bought the kits and sell them on eBay. I got a decent price for one of them.
Often if kits were mixed together, Al would have me take them home and sort them into complete bagged packages. If anything was missing a part or a decal sheet or instruction sheet, it was mine. He hated having to deal with guys bringing back discounted second-hand kits, bitching about missing contents.
On these occasions, I would wonder how any modeler would come to the decision to sell his kit collection. Certainly I could never do that. Fast forward 20 years. If someone rolled up with a truck and offered to take all I had for a reasonable pittance, I don’t think I’d hesitate. So much dead weight. So many thanks to Al Slisinger.
“Hey, build stuff for yourself!” I can’t think of a single subject I’d want to build for myself that I haven’t done for someone else already. I have no desire for a built model plane collection. I had a meagre desire 15-20 years ago. I had close to 30 done to minimal standards, then we had to move. I donated their case to one of the guys who helped me move. The process taught me first-hand the impracticality of built models. I boxed them up, moved them with only minor damage, and they stayed in their boxes for months afterwards -- quite unmissed.
Since late 1985 I’ve kept a log of the models I’ve built -- either for clients or myself. The last one entered is number 774. I don’t know if that’s impressive or not. It’s an average of 22 per year. Should I make it an even thousand, then quit? At 22/yr., that’s 10 more years. We’ll see.
