I was SURE I posted this...I apologize if I did...must be the gray hairs...! What software do you guys use to try and keep track of your "stash"...? I hear a lot are using Excel, and some are using an old program called Paradox..?

I'm well into the 800's as far as kits go, and nearly 300 combined for PE and Resin. Not too huge, but gotta stop buyin duplicates, triplicates and...well, you get the idea..

Cheers, Laurie

"If it ain't broke...fix it anyway...you might learn something..."!

I wrote my own in VB/access

Excel will do the trick for sure. It allows you to do search and filter actions.

Ermmm, 800 kits 'not too huge'. Guys like you make me feel comfortable with my stash.
And I can show this to the missus claiming it's not too bad on my end.

John

same for me guys!..I was looking in my closet thinking of a serious downsizing ...im at about 90 kits........was going to reduce by 20 or so...
My wife is really supportive of my hobby, which has raised my suspicions that she may be an alien... so thats not my problem......its simple a question of how many can I build in a lifetime?...

I use an OpenOffice database I created a couple of years back. It allows me to link multiple aftermarket items to the kit they are intended for, and has saved in a few times from buying repeat AM items. It has about 300 items so far, 200 of which are AM, and about 100 kits. It's not perfect, in that when I designed it I didn't think to make it so I could associate one AM item with multiple kits (as, for example, you would want to do with some decal sheets).

Hi Laurie,

I use a piece of paper Paradox is a database program just like Microsoft Access. It is more difficult to learn but it is better in making queries. But let's not get into that kind of boring discussion....

Any kind of database is only as good as the person who made it. Using one does not solve all your problems. How do you do searches to check is you already have a kit? If you have for example a Sd kfZ 251 in your database and you search for Sd. Kfz. 251 you will not find it (because of the added dots). So setup your databse with some sense. Link tables to each other. Make a "manufacturer" table that you link to you "kit stash" table. So if you make a typo in the "kit stash" table it will give you a warning that something is wrong. You can make basic search command like search for T* instead of search for Trumpeter.

If what I told you does not really makes sense, then I advise you to use a spreadsheet like Excel because making good fool proof databeses requires some experience. Make sure to make backups of any sheet you make in Excel since anything from Microsoft crashes once in a while

I currently use Microsoft access program, but Im considering changing, to Hobby Collecter
software.

I just look at my stash underneath a magnifying glass.

If you do a google search, the IPMS club in Huntsville, AL had a MS Office Access model database downloadable for use. It required Access to use though, but it was user friendly. The hard part was data entry.