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RGronovius

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Posts posted by RGronovius

  1. I do keep good boxes, ones that are sturdy to keep excess parts in them. I have an old Tamiya M1 box for Abrams extra pieces like USMC specific parts, unused PE etc. I have an old Tamiya M4A3 Sherman box to hold old Sherman parts, and old Tamiya Jeep box to hold soft skin parts, etc. A while label with a marker saying M1 parts, etc. differentiates it from an unbuilt kit.

  2. I would pick the pristine box over the dented box every day. I've noticed US sellers often box the kit in a box that leaves a lot of room for packaging and arrive just fine. Overseas, the kits are often wrapped in boxes that were cut to size, marginally bigger than the kit box. Bought a Tamiya Grenada M151A2 kit and the box was trashed and wet, but the kit inside was just fine. But if the kit box was wet or damaged (wet not the seller's fault), and the contents and decals inside were unharmed, I would be okay with it.

    So if a box arrived a little dented but the insides are unharmed, I'm okay with it. But, if I ever decide not to build it and to sell it, I know the dinged box won't be worth as much as a pristine box.

    As far as keeping old instructions, I do keep them organized in a binder on my model building reference book shelf. I have a binder for 1/35 scale armor, 1/72 scale armor, sci-fi, auto/ship, and airplanes. I keep them for reference, sometimes kits are reissued but with new worse instructions, compare the Testors yellow box kits with the current Zvezda and Italeri reissues and the old 1980s instructions are light years ahead.

    They are also handy when someone buys a kit and loses them or the kit didn't include instructions. I can whip out my binder and scan a copy or make a physical copy and mail it to them to help them out.

  3. On 4/30/2018 at 11:39 AM, ipmsusa2 said:

    Robin, you're correct with your observation about the wider distribution of car, truck and star wars kits.  At the same time, notice that the higher dollar, higher skill, dedicated modeler kits in those categories are generally missing.  Another factor is the lower cost that they manage to negotiate with kit manufacturers/distributors.  For example, if you bother to print out a coupon, you can generally get any model kit from Hobby Lobby for 40% off and Michael's will also honor Hobby Lobby coupons, though they don't advertise the fact.  Now what's going to happen with the kit mix at Hobby Lobby with the demise of Revell/Monogram is going to be interesting.

    Another factor affecting the wider availability of car/truck kits at stores like Hobby Lobby and Walmart is the even wider availability of toy cars  that are available is some form for virtually every age group starting at birth.  That has a lot to with why so many people describe what we modelbuilders do as "playing with toys".

     

     

    If you get on Michael's email list, they send you 40% off coupons almost daily, and some days it is 50%, 60% or even 70% off coupons. I just use the text to phone option. Yes, I would call the level of kits found in Michael's and Hobby Lobby (automotive), not at the same high tech level as many armor kits manufactured today, but on par with what limited armor kits that they do carry. Hobby Lobby used to carry high end Dragon kits. Still have many of the great deals I got with the 40% off coupon.

  4. I've been on eBay for well over 20 years buying and selling (mainly) model kits. Any time someone says "they can't tell if it's complete or not" basically knows it isn't complete. Only once did I get a kit that someone said they don't know it's complete that it virtually was complete. That was an older Italeri M36B1 Jackson that was missing one small part.

  5. On 4/23/2018 at 3:59 AM, noelsmith said:

    Hi Robin

    Auto Modeling is much bigger in the USA than in the UK, so oK guess that is the reason for your observation about car modelling magazines stateside. Over here in the UK out main street outlet W H Smith (equivalent to your Barnes and Noble?) Has a monthly plethora of mainly aircraft modelling mags followed closely with military then boats and model engineering mags but no auto modelling mags whatsoever. They carry Airfix, Tamiya and FSM that may have auto related modelling articles within the rest of their content. A couple of auto modelling magazines of UK origin came and went after short publication runs. I guess that this simply reflects the model making habits of each of our two nations in general.

    Yes, while aircraft and armor models are limited to hobby shops, car models seem to be more prevalent in the US. Places like Wal-Mart still carry some Revell-Monogram and AMT cars, trucks and race cars. Chain arts and craft stores in the US have dozens or more automotive kits than they do airplanes, and maybe a tank or two. Snap together kits from the latest star wars movie round out the model selection. In the magazine section of local stores, there will be a couple of car model magazines and maybe Fine Scale Modeler. There will be more railroad model magazines though. I couldn't tell you where to buy railroad modeling items locally, but I know I can get multiple railroad magazines in a number of locations.

  6. Interesting information; Testors/Italeri kits from the 1980s were the first "high quality" kits I ran across. Their instruction sheets were top notch. I still have quite a few and if I am constructing an Italeri kit that I once built as a Testors kit, I'll use the Testors instructions instead.

  7. I have some small bottles of Pactra paint that are basically relabeled Testors paint. I agree, when I was younger, the military colors were really flat compared to Testors that had more of a satin finish. I loved Pactra paints.

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