Update: Central Arkansas Hobby Shops

This weekend, I continued my search for local hobby shops. I couldn't find any in NLR or Sherwood, so I drove to Hobby Shack in Jacksonville. I found there hours online, so I didn't call to verify that they were open. As luck would have it, I picked the one weekend of the year where there was a regional scale model convention going on, so the Hobby Shack was closed in order to have a table there. I wish I'd had time to stop by Pulaski Tech and take a look around, but I had lunch plans in Cabot, so I couldn't make it there and back in time. Instead, I waited until after lunch and drove to HobbyTown USA in Little Rock.

From looking for them on the web, I found out that HobbyTown USA is a national chain of Hobby Shops. The local store is in a shopping center at the intersection of Bowman and Markham. They had a larger selection of model car kits than I found at Hobby Lobby, and tons of other scale model related items that I didn't even know existed. They also had a ton more options when it came to paint options. While I was there, I picked up a couple of the colors I'd been unable to find at Hobby Lobby (semi-gloss black, for example) and got to choose from spray paint colors in several different finishes. I went with a metallic finish for the spray, which proved more difficult when it came to getting and even tone, but after a little sanding and re-spraying, it came out alright.

The prices at HobbyTown USA were slightly higher than Hobby Lobby, but the selection in paint alone make it worth the trip. As for kits, there were several that caught my eye, but in the absence of a front-runner, I picked the only one I saw that was on clearance. It was a 2002 Camaro for $7, which was more than half off. I do love a good deal.

On Sunday, I decided to go out looking for some sort of organization box to hold my growing supply of paints and glues. I couldn't find exactly what I wanted at Target, so I drove across the interstate to Michael's. I don't go in Michael's very often, so I did a bit of wandering, and low and behold, they had half an aisle devoted to model car kits! They had about as many paints and supplies at Hobby Lobby, but they had a bigger selection of car kits than Hobby Lobby or even HobbyTown USA. In addition, they had 5 kits on extreme clearance. Even though the Camaro was sitting half finished at home, I bought three of the clearanced kits at a grand total of $20 before taxes. You can't beat that, considering most kits are around $15-$17 regular price. I don't know if Micheal's always has a couple of models on clearance, but I do know they almost always run an ad in the Sunday Paper that has a coupon for 40% off one regularly priced item. This ads up to a pretty steady flow of discounted kits.

While I'll probably still end up at a true hobby shop for paints and tools, I'll be surprised if I can find kits for a better price than what I've seen at Michael's. Hopefully there's a regular rotation in what cars are available, but in any case, it would take me a while to run out of options. I'll try to go by the Hobby Shack in Jacksonville some other weekend, and report back on what I've found. From looking around on google and viewing shop reviews, they're supposed to be one of the best around for hobbies from scale models to trains, so I'm looking forward to that visit.