1:48 scale sources

I have delt with Squadron for maybe two decades or so.  Always found them to be a good source, seldom if ever any problems.

AFV;s are Armoured Fighting Vehicles, such as tanks, armoured personel carriers etc. Softskins are trucks, jeeps and so on.

I would deffinetly recomend dedicated models shops or even E-Bay over Amazon. But as Stick mention, 48th is not as well covered as the other scales, but there is stuff out there.

OK, I'm going to put my ignorance on full display.  Being new to this stuff, can you tell me what AFV and Softskins are?

Are you looking for AFVs and  Softskins in 1/48, or just aircraft support type stuff. There is a decent amount of stuff out there, but not as much as in 1/72 for everything or 1/35 for AFVs and Softskins.

Tamiya has a good line of 1/48 mostly WWII AFVs and Softskins. Hobby Boss has some 1/48 armor as does AFV Club. Airfix has some airfield support stuff along with a few modern vehicles. Then there is more aircraft support stuff from Hasegawa, Italeri, Skunkmodel Works and Revell Germany. Not to mention stuff in Resin by companies like Verlinden and True Details. 

Other sites you may want to look at are Sprue Brothers, and Scale Hobbyist in the USA, Hannants in the U.K., and Hobby Link Japan and Lucky Model out of the Far East.