Reading this, I thank my lucky stars I model in 2mm finescale with fairly esoteric interests. This means far fewer temptations to buy RTR stuff (until Farish start doing J15's etc.).
What I do acquire are the beginnings of projects which might eventually end up as 2mm finescale runners. I have decided not to get too hung up on keeping to a dead strict theme of 1950s BR GE but instead building a few projects that take my fancy. This is why I have an Aveling & Porter nearly ready for painting and a Del Prado PLM "Bourbonnaise" (beautiful little moulding) awaiting a chassis.
There are kits in my gloat boxes that have now technically been superseded by RTR models, such as the Farish 04. The intention is to build the kit and paint it myself, as then it will tone in with all my other kit & scratchbuilt stock. A crisp sharp RTR livery would look out of place. It's really hard to match the quality of RTR paint these days, a point which is easily overlooked.
Where things have got a bit out of hand is in the 2mm/N narrow gauge where I have Irish, German, French and British models all running on 6.5mm gauge.
So what I'm doing is spending, well more accurately mortgaging, time rather than spending money.
This replaces the pleasure of ownership with the optimism of possible future models. I can already see them in my minds eye...
Mark