RGronovius

I never thought of my old kits as bad, just built to a different standard from different times in my life. I did buy another Rabbit off of eBay and have the reissued Monogram M48 Patton to build to my current standards. The Rabbit will be easier, but the old Patton will be difficult to build to a modern standard without cross kitting with a more modern model kit.

Man, I've started this kit a couple of times, neither one turned out any good. Yours looks superb though.

make sure you try the tack cloth on a test subject; you may not like how it works or it make make your finish sticky.

I posted photos of the old AMT VW Rabbit here a while back. Here it is again, nothing special though. I haven't taken a photo of the M4A3E8 because it was nothing special. I built it as the motorized kit and remember one of the tracks would walk off the suspension when turned on. The MBT70 survived decades of dusting and vacuuming on my dresser at my parents house. It was the last of the Aurora tank kits I built as a child and after my sandbox and BB gun days. It was unpainted and the decals had flaked off here and there. Many of the smaller movable parts were missing. Several of the fragile detail parts had broken off. In the early days of eBay, I'm talking 1996 or 97, I found a glue bomb kit on eBay for $5 with $3 shipping. It was one of the first items I ever bought on eBay. I used that kit to rebuild my original kit. I added new decals from a Tamiya M113 and actually painted the tank with Testors olive green paint. I'll post some photos later, but it hardly resembles the kit I built in junior high school. Another kit I built as a child, but rebuilt as a young adult was an old Monogram M48. I originally built it as the Vietnam era kit, but after I spent my first summer as a tank crewman on an M48A5, I repainted the kit to semi-resemble the tank I rode on in 1985. It was originally built before 1980. Again, nothing special, just something I built when I was younger.

There are many ways to enjoy the hobby. Some people like to replicate subjects down to the tiniest details. Other people like to build out of box. Some modelers may prefer to add every conceivable after market item or somewhere in between. As long as that particular person is happy, they are not wrong. The problem occurs, online at least, when modelers try to impose their own beliefs in how the hobby should be enjoyed on others. I use the analogy of lawn care. You may use a push mower and manual trimmer. You neighbor may use a riding mower and power edger. Another neighbor may hire a lawn care service. And another may make his teenage son do it. None of them is doing it wrong, just differently. In the end, the lawn gets mowed. Now if you ask advice about this or that or perhaps some feedback on your kit, you will get it based on what type of modeler that person is. You may or may not agree with it depending on whether or not the modeler sees things the same way you do. You might have built it very well and to your standards, but maybe a resident online expert chimes in since it is his favorite subject. He'll notice items that are flawed in the kit's design that he would have corrected that you didn't. Other modelers chime in and call him a rivet counter, a "joy sucker", or other choice names. Now if you decide to build a King Tiger in Afrika Korps markings or an M1A2 Abrams in Marine Corps markings, be prepared to see some comments telling you that you are wrong. I'd rather get decent criticism than a chorus of insincere "great jobs". Personally, I fall somewhere in between. I will correct issues that "bother" me, but I will also build many kits straight out of box. It depends on the subject. On a modern armor kit of a vehicle I crewed on, I may put a little more emphasis into detail. On a WW2 German tank, it is more likely that I will build it as the instructions guide me.

I have an Aurora MBT70 I built as a child that I rebuilt about 15 years ago. I guess it would have been originally built in the late 70s. Another old kit is an AMT VW Rabbit I built when I was 20 years old right after I bought a brand new Rabbit in 1984. The third kit is one of the first Tamiya models I built in the early 80s; one of the motorized M4A3E8 Sherman tanks.

Looks good, I still have mine from around 1980 or so when ESB came out. Old MPC off white/gray plastic has become very brittle and pieces have chipped off

I've built a couple of the regular Soviet T-34/76 tanks and I've already built the Iraq 2003 Challenger 2. Both were decent kits and I couldn't pass up the deal on these two.

I've been trying to downsize my stash so that when I buy new kits, I'm using funds I've received. A couple of kits I bought for around $30, the Bronco A34 Comet cruiser tank, I sold on eBay for $72 and $91 (the second kit included a Voyager PE/resin set and a resin mantlet) less shipping. I had two because I planned on building one as a WW2 tank and another as a post war tank. With the funds I bought a couple of 1/72 scale armor kits for $7 and $5. An added bonus was that my wife got a $10 eBay coupon (credit) for selling an item. EBay does this often; last summer I had to replace my garage door opener. I was going to throw the old stuff away (remotes, wireless key pad for garage door). When I was looking for a third remote for my daughter's car, I checked eBay and found one for less than half the price at Lowe's. After a quick search of the old items I had, I decided to list them when eBay gave me coupon incentives ($10 and a $25 coupon) to sell stuff. The auction for two of the remotes went for $23 and the auction for the wireless key pad and another pair of remotes went for $38. Not to mention the $35 in eBay credit for a bunch of stuff I was just going to through away, I made almost $100 on junk.

It looks great. I would not know it was a "what if".

McFarlane toys did a line of military figures in 1/24 scale, they called them 3 inch figures. Should be able to find these on eBay or Amazon. http://www.spawn.com/toys/categorytype.aspx?categoryid=28

My favorite cartoon growing up. Now you need to add little Zulu warriors throwing spears at the plane as it takes off from the desert; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UibxjQevEas

Here are a couple of close up shots of an Abrams that is still in its factory scheme. If you look at the smoke grenade launcher mounts, I've caught an area where the three colors meet. There are lots of overspray and areas where the spray paint has missed because of the parts of the tank. You can see the areas where the paint meet on the side skirts really well. It's very rough to the touch and you'd be surprised how much dust will accumulate at the points where the paint lines meet.

The two basic modifications I know of are the replacing of the German machine gun with that of the M240 in a mount that is the same as the Abrams loaders mount and the same style US smoke grenade launchers that we use on tanks and the M88s. Antenna mounts are different as well as pioneer tools. I am pretty sure MR Modellbau did a detail set to make the Revell kit into a US version. I know they also did better tires and other improvement sets for the Fox/Fuchs.

Very cool, it looks like a reissue of the old AMT/Ertl 3 kit set of the Enterprise B, C & E.

I still run across casual modelers who do not feel the need to paint a model if it comes in the correct color of plastic. This goes for car models, tank models, and sci-fi models (Trek or Star Wars). Although most current Star Wars kits come pre-painted and are marketed as not needing glue or paint. I remember back in the early 70s getting to use those little Testors dime bottles of paint to paint head lights, rubber tires, black or silver machine guns, etc. We tend to be our own hobbies' worst enemy; we started simple as young kids in the 60s by twisting parts off the sprue, tube glue bombs, fingerprints, unpainted plastic and upside down decals. We raised the bar to what it is today and often expect today's beginners to at least try to reach what we now consider to be the current minimum standard. By minimum standards, I mean everything painted (like headlights, rubber tire portions, machine guns), no glue marks, basic adjustments like drilling out machine guns, cleaning seams, touching up chrome where it was cut from the sprue, etc. To a lot of casual modelers, this is often the "joy sucking" part of modeling. They just want to glue the thing together. Much like we did as kids.

just something that the judges will mark off when the tank goes to combat.

While I was still on active duty, I was one of those guys who could have walked in and paid full retail price for the latest hot kit and not think twice about it (retired as an O5 in 2011). But, I was not one of those guys who would have walked in and paid full retail price for the latest hot kit. I've never felt the need, urge or desire to have to have it. Even the favorite tank of my childhood (Aurora MBT70) and favorite AFV from my youth (Renwal M50 Ontos, as a kid I always wanted when I saw it on the shelf in my best friend's big brother's room) I held off buying when modern versions were released by Dragon and Academy. As I've gotten older, I've learned that there will be plenty of guys who have to have it, but then end up selling them later at a reduced price. That's how I normally get the latest hot kit, on the secondary market.

I agree with Chris, the quality of armor kits in terms of detail, parts count, accuracy, multi media items, research, along with where items are made (Far East vs. USA) you get a lot of product for your money. In the armor world, I generally see only two companies that jack up their prices for less than quality kits. Italeri and Revell of Germany tend to reissue time worn armor kits at premium prices. Trumpeter and Academy tend to have very competitive prices for their kits. Dragon's kits have so many parts and extra goodies that they seem to be worth the price. Tamiya prices are high, but they've always been more expensive. As far as incomes, I see co-workers who think they've hit the jackpot with factory jobs in the $25-30,000 hourly jobs.

If you're religious, make sure 666 and 667 are finished simultaneously! Great job

My daughter that used to build models when I was stationed in Massachusetts is now a junior at the University of Louisville. She won several trophies at GraniteCon in 2004 and has just turned 21. Time flies.

I would have not guessed it. I normally see you in discussions regarding Cold War NATO and IDF topics.

Ah, in the ML thread when I asked about the M48A2GA2 color in August, Jens Mehner mentioned the upcoming M48A2/A2C due in autumn that would not be related to the Dragon kit. http://www.network54.com/Forum/47209/thread/1407594710

You can thank me for this; I decided to tackle the Revell-Monogram M48A2 with the Lo Models M48A2GA2 conversion for an Orphaned Armor Group Build (a build based on an AFV in use by someone other than the original user). Of course, then I got the Dragon M48A3 Mod B that I want to use the Lo Models M48A5 conversion parts on...

It's not like they don't have a history of copying other manufacturers' work; they used to copy Tamiya kits right down to the decal sheets.