I want something else, how about you?

What you guys want is in the front of the store, with lots of stock. With me my stuff is in the back and on just two shelves with a few kits. When I tell the guy that I restore vintage Aurora models he just says "Well we have a few Polar Light kits over here sir.
Most of the time I'm in and out in 15 min, Then it's back to my house and let's see what is on ebay.
I loved the days when I could go to any five a dime to buy an Aurora model, for under two bucks.
Dales Model Art
http://community.webshots.com/user/dales_model_art

Does anyone remember that old Kit of a British Steam Traction Engine. Japanese manufacturer and a good kit. I had it for years,gave it to a steam museum in the end.

This argument has been going on for at least 40 years. I was once told that a main line manufacturer has to sell a heck of a lot of kits to break even on his investment. So he is going to pick a subject that he know will sell. And unfortunatly that means we have another model of a P-51/Spitfire/Bf109/Zero. But we are finally beginning to get some relief (witness Revell's BV-222).
As far as burn out is concerned, I don't try to limit myself to one genre, so after working on aircraft for 2 or 3 years, I just switch to armor, ships or n scale railroad for a while. After a while I get the urge again and go back to work on aircraft.

Very well said! I totally agree. My father was an officer in the Montana Highway Patrol for nearly 30 years. As a youngster, I spent quite a bit of time around other law enforcement officers. Some of the stories I heard were pretty amazing! I developed a love of emergency vehicles at the same time I got interested in models. I have a deep respect for those who put their safety and their lives on the line every day for the rest of us. I'd like to remember them in my own way by building kits of their equipment but it is nearly impossible to find anything to build.

The "heroes" kits mentioned earlier in this topic which were reissued after 9/11 were a step in the right direction but laughable because (I'm speculating here) I doubt if vehicles of that vintage were even remotely involved in the rescue efforts in NYC and haven't seen serious service for decades except, maybe, in a few rural areas. It is high time for some new, modern kits.

I totally agree there, if they're going to announce kit releases, come through on it or don't say anything in the first place.

I'd like to see someone other than AMT approach construction vehicle kits, I've never been much on AMT kits or the company themselves (customer service issues).

I'd also like to see agricultural vehicles as kits as well. My grandparents lived in a small farming town in the Canadian wheat belt and I saw a lot of farming stuff. I remember being 5 or 6 and looking up in awe of those big John Deere, Massey Ferguson and International Harvester combines and swathers. I remember watching an old threshing machine being demonstrated in action at a museum when I was a teenager, quite a fascinating operation.

I suppose when you do a bit of growing up around something, it grows on you a bit. I was raised in cities, but those times I spent out in the country left their impression and I wish so much I could put some of that stuff on my model shelf.. Watching the news about yet another grain elevator in some dying farm town being pulled down is one more peice of important history that we lose touch with and won't have again once its gone.

There's no problem building miniatures of the military hardware that was used in the battles to defend freedoms and liberties, but what holds us back from respecting the machinery and people that build our homes and put the food on our tables enough to want models of Combines, swathers, road graders, bulldozers and the like on our shelves right along side the tanks and bombers?

Whether at war or not, people must eat and must have someplace safe to sleep and live and work. Construction, agriculture and emergency response are those 365 day a year, 24 hour a day, 7 day a week folks that look after our intrests without carrying guns. Its crazy not to respect them just as much as we do those that do march into battle and be willing to represent their tools of the trade with equal importance as we do the devices of battle in our collections.

I like the construction equipment desires posted. I would like to do a 1/24 of a Liebherr strip mining dump truck and park it next to my cars. I may even be able to put the collection in the back of that huge truck. Also, if a manufacturer announces that they are going to release a kit, please actually do it. I got my hopes up for ICM's 1/350 HMS Hood only to be disappointed. If you are not going to release it, don't announce it.

Hey shipmodeler, Is there any chance of seeing pictures of your scratchbuilt projects?

You are probably bored with the current kit offerings. I got that way back in the '60's. So, I decided to build a 1/72 kit of every US Navy A/C I could find, starting with the Nieuport 28 that the Navy catapulted from a battleship to the YF-22. I have a 20 foot wall with three shelves with all the Navy planes, 50 of them on the top shelf. The second shelf has 22 of the same in 1/48 scale. I have tried to get the proper markings from Profiles and all the magazines, with as many markings of individual pilots as I can find. These all make a great historical set. I did the same with British, German, Italian , and Japanese A/C, which are all packed in boxes in the attic. (No space). I tried to build all the mods of the Me-109 but couldn't trace all mods, having only six Me-109's of different mods .The third shelf is filled with 1/96 scale scratch built models for which I couldn't find kits, like the Caproni CA-5, the Martin MO-1, the Short seaplane bomber, the Aeromarine O-1, etc. I actually built six or seven Grumman F6F-4's with markings as they changed during the war, from yellow wings and red spot stars to white stars with white bars, plus some of the ship ID markings. This was because of my interest in A/C heraldry.
Bored- not me. PS. I'm 85 and still at it, thanks be to God.

as for keeping this thread going , i dont see how it could ever stop. every modeler out there knows what they would love to have , and they also know in the back of there mind it will never be issued. it was a good read thats why i posted to it monday night.

hey upnorth, the revell kit your thinking of is the simba 8x8 airport rig, i do have that in my collection. its a pretty large piece, revel germany also had the peterbuilt pumper out years ago, i found that on ebay a few years back. i just sent lizardquig2 some pics of that truck, it was a skill level 5 , not to awfully hard, but i have built easier models, the kit thats out now, the american heros is a reissue of the old monogram mack pumper circa 1978, and the malibu police car, both of these kits were issued as individual models, i guess revell decided to box them together, i also have a few of these in my ' stock room' , they are 1/32 scale and not much detail out of the box, but with a little thinking they can come out pretty nice. i also sent some pics of this model, hes going to try to get them scaned in for me so i can show all of you some of my work.

This is great! Just like Halley's comet my thread comes back into view from way out there again.

First, on the matter of that trailer and emergency vehicles. I was in a local hobby shop and saw that very AMT trailer with the electrical gear on it amoungst some other interesting AMT kits including a Paystar Concrete mixing truck. I also saw a Revell kit (really a two in one) of a fire engine and police cruiser, both apear to be late 60s or 70s vintage vehicles, definitely not modern. The box had some very star spangled art work on it with the words "American Heros" writ large on it.

I have a vague recollection from when I was a teenager, going into a local hobby shop and seeing a rather large Revell Germany kit of an airport fire response vehicle with the big foam cannons and such. Anybody else remember this kit at all and can tell me something about it? Is it still out there to be found?

Horse drawn vehicles would also be great subjects to see approached by the major manufacturers.

On the matter of figures, I've said it several times that I would like to see more civilian figures in something other than railroad scales and female figures that diverge from that predictable pin up girl cookie cutter image. If I want to do a figure of a pin up girl, I'll buy one, but I'd like the option of female figures with realistic body proportions and a variety of poses that reflect reality rather than glamour without having to do major modifications on existing figures to acheive the look I want.

Keep the comments coming, keep this thread in sight :-)

Looks like everyone feels the same way, i do a low of 1/35 and 1/72 Figures. They are also slow to produce anything news, so i buy a kit i already have and try a different paint scheme. and swap body parts. the 1/72 scale it even worst ther are no new kits and it is rough when you get 48 guys and most of them are the same pose. That usually when i play Dr. Frankstein.

I know it is really wishful thinking but I would love to see some kits of old horse drawn transport. Being English I would love to see a large scale kit of a Royal Mail Stage Coach from the 18th Century. I remember the old kit of the western stage coach and believe in my childhood small kits were made of various forms like a Roman chariot etc. I forget the manufacturer now. A nice mounted highwayman in the same scale would be good as well. I used to live near where Dick Turpin hung out. The Inn he frequented still exists in Epping Forest,London.

i built that trailer many years ago jim, nice kit. wish i knew where it was today? i would like to see more emergency type models, i thought after 9/11 the kit makers would jump all over this,as this is one area of modeling that is rarely touched upon for some odd reason. we all see these vehicles every day, and they to have a history behind them as with armor and air.but then again just my opinion.

I FORGOT I HAD THIS ONE IN MY OWN LIVING ROOM! It's an AMT kit of a lowboy trailer loaded with three large electrical transformers (for power substations) and a wire spool rack. I bought it at a model car contest last year as a "go with" for my insulator collection and it apparently disappeared (not too hard to do in my messy house) until it fell to the floor while I was putting away the big suitcase after my Arizona trip a couple of weeks ago. You'll have to purchase the tractor separately but according to the box, the trailer is compatible with any AMT 1/25 scale truck.

Thanks for the tip Jim!

Just when I think this thread has gone its distance, it manages to come back up for air!

Thanks for bringing back up topside!

Last month I saw these kits at the Hobby Depot in Tempe, Arizona, a real nice hobby shop just a stone's throw away from Arizona State University:

Ford Snowplow

Int'l. Paystar 5000 dump truck

Peterbilt Wrecker

US Mail Ford C-900 truck and trailer

Tri-Axle gravel trailer (trailer only)

All of these are AMT/Ertl kits in 1/25 scale.
Anyway, there's a few more for the heavy-equipment fan looking for something different.

Thought I'd bring this thread back up for air again. :-)

A thought that runs through my mind frequently when I think about things we don't see so often in the scale world circles around not so much the kit, but more what comes with it and what doesn't, particularly when dealing with a kit of modern military subject matter.

In a modern military, there are female personell in just about any role you can think of: ground crews, air crews, tanks, ships.... you name it, they're there.

So, why don't we see more representations of them in kits of modern military equipment?

Before any of you jump on me for political correctness, I am making this issue out of a concern for accuracy in the depiction of modern military hardware.

Look at any tarmac of a modern air base of just about any nation, you're not going to get around seeing women in various ground crew roles if not air crew themselves.

If you were making a diorama of say an F-15E on the tarmac getting armed up and otherwise readied for a mission, you could have every nut and bolt on the plane accounted for as well as on the ground equipment, but you still couldn't trully call it accurate if you didn't include at least a few female personell in the scene.

If you're not into the modern stuff, how many veterans do you think would be alive today to relate their stories to you if it weren't for nurses in the field and at the front line hospital units making sure the wounded were kept alive until surgeons could get to them.

For me its always been something to think about and the thought came back to the front of my head a few days ago when I picked up the current FSM and saw an ad in it from Osprey Books about two new titles in their catalog that are about women at war. I thought it was about time for that.

Again, I'm no political correctist here, I'm just not the sort of person that lets what's between a person's legs dictate to me if they are a hero or not.

Credit and proper representation where its due, I'd say.

Good one, Woody! :-)

Well, Cader, you're absolutely right in Canadian armour lacking in coverage. Last I checked, Arrow Graphics has decals in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/35 for Canadian Leopard tanks. If you want some good figures and details in resin, Ultracast has a good selection of Canadian subject in that regard.

I believe there are also some conversion kits out there to turn a Sherman into a proper representation of a Grizzly, though I'm not sure who makes them.

Clean up on isle 10, Clean up on isle 10. LOL

Upnorth, I didn't realize that there were that many aircraft out there, but our armor is still sadly lacking. Maple Leaf Models is trying to bridge that gap, but they can't do it on their own.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye open for them.

Upnorth, I went on ebay, and found these, Revell did a 1/12 one, Monogram a 1/12, Minicraft did a 1/16, and Burago did a 1/18 diecast. There may be a larger scale one out there, this is just what I found on ebay.
Lee

There may be resin kits of the Huson cars, but no injection molded ones. I thin the largest Mercedes gull wing was a 1/16 that Revell?germany did. I saw one on ebay I think. I'm not sure if it is in production or not, and I don't know how good it is. I'll go onto ebay shortly, check and see if it is there, and post more info.
Lee

Yeah, that'd be good.

I don't do much in the way of automotive models, but I'd love to see the more vintage end of cars covered more extensively.

Did any body ever put out a kit of a Hudson 8, saw one once at a car show and thought it would be a great kit subject.

Whats the largest scale kit of a Mercedes Benz Gull Wing out there? Who makes it? Is it any good?

Something I would really like to see-- a fully detailed 1/25 kit of a 1948 Tucker Torpedo.
Lee

10 Pages! Awesome!

O.K. cader28, good to see another Canadian wanting the Canadian stuff.

There is more Canadian content out there than you're seeing, trouble is you have to go aftermarket to find a lot of it.

On RonUSMC's free photo posting page, I've stuck a few photos of the 20th anniversary of CF-18 operations colour bird in. If you wanted to do one of those, you'll be happy to know that Leading Edge out of Calgary makes both 1/72 and 1/48 decal sheets for it.

In fact, Leading edge, Belcher Bits and Arrow Graphics all make a wide variety of excellent aftermarket details and decals to make a proper Canadian version out of whatever you like.

Hobbycraft Canada has a respectable array of Canadian content in their catalog. I wish they'd bring back their 1/48 and 1/72 CF-100 kits and make a new Avro Arrow tooling. I wish I'd had the money to purchase one of their 1/72 DeHavilland Caribou kits from a few years back, I'd have loved to have done the one with UN markings.

It would be nice to see more Canadian content straight from kits though. It has happened, here's a few examples:

Monogram's 1/48 F-101 Voodoo. It contained Canadian markings in its first issueing and then again in it's second issueing, the latest release is without Canadian markings.

Revell's 1/32 F-104. Contained markings for a bare metal Canadian machine in its first release, then 421 Squadron's Red Indian colour bird in a later release.

Airfix's 1/72 F-104. A terrible kit unlikely to ever be seen again, but it did have markings for a bare metal Canadian version.

Matchbox' s 1/72 F-101 Voodoo. Contained markings for a Canadian "B" variant.

Italeri's 1/72 Griffon helicopter. This is still a fairly new kit of what can still be considered a recent aquisition to the Canadian inventory. Not only does the kit have Canadian markings, but the box art features the Canadian version!

Italeri's 1/72 and 1/48 C-130 Hercules kits. I believe Canadian decals were included in both scales of these kits.

Well, thats just a bit of whats out there in the aviation department for Canadian stuff.

I hope if anybody gets around to making a 1/72 Boeing 737-200, that they'll include, or someone will make an aftermarket sheet for a Pacific Western one. I think Pacific Western's livery was the best looking that a Canadian 737 ever wore, I wish I'd taken a few pictures of them when they were still flying.

By the way, i meant C7, not C&

I would personally like to see some more canadian content. the only two i can think of are the hasegawa CF18s and some decals for the DML Sherman Firefly. the truth is, Canada has been at the forefront of nearly every UN operation in the last 50 years, and we have some of the most advanced technology, ie the Coyote Recon Vehicle was ours before it was the Marines, and Canada was in the top 3 nations to adopt satellite communications for nearly all vehicles, and the SAS is said to prefer the Canadian C& assault rifle over the American M16 or their own L85.