Info on Otaki C5a model

I've seen them for a steady $175 on a few places I shop for vintage kits, I fully intend to get one, one day, for the express purpose of building it, eventually

Sell it if you would rather have the money.  I have two and I doubt I paid more than $50.00 for either one.  Revell released the same plastic under their brand.

I think I paid around 75 bucks for the one I bought on eBay last year. 

The old 1/144 scale Otaki kit has been around since the early '80s (maybe even the late '70s?) and was repackaged by both Testor and Revell. It's not clear whatever happened to the molds for the kit. Supposedly Revell had them but they may never have actually obtained them. Nobody who knows has said. There's a possibility that the molds were lost in a train wreck/ship sinking/zombie apocolypse -- don't know. Existing copies have been going for lotsa bucks on vendor tables or on-line auctions.

But that may change soon. Roden has announced that it will be producing a NEW 1/144 C-5 Galaxy perhaps later this year. They've recently done a 1/144 C-141 (reviewed recently in FSM), so this is a logical follow-on. Just wish they would do it in 1/72 scale, too!

 I remember obtaining this kit, around 1980, at a hobby shop liquidation sale for $5.  It was not a very good kit, a lot of white plastic, so I had no interest in it and gave it away to a club member.

The things we do in the past that come back to make us regret that we did it in the future.

Thanks gentlemen.

Hey Paul,

I had emailed you years ago about an M198 when the resisn kit was the only one. As you know my dream came true when Trumpeter did theirs. I bought a couple.

Since I started reading FSM when you were Editor I always think FSM=Paul Boyer. Anyways always good to see your articles.

Martin

Actually the Otaki kit waws around in the mid 70s.  I remember building one from my stash when I was assigned to Little Rock A.F.B. and I got there in the beginning of 1975 and was only here about 4 years.  I think I found it at Dover Del. in 1973 and built one for somebody there since we had nothing but C-5s, 141A, and some F-106s.