RickC5

Really? I thought it was the neatest thing since sliced bread! Wait, Rick--STOP--STOP! Rob didn't catch your sarcasm before, it's likely he won't now. Sorry Rob, I WAS just kidding. I agree it adds cost to the kit without any benefit to the modelers building it. Just like articulating suspensions, IMHO.

And I thought you guys would be blown over by the recoiling barrel. Maybe if it actually fired something? Oh well--it IS just another Tiger, and one I don't need.

Here's a link: http://www.dmlforum....read.php?t=1486 Looks like lots of new stuff, including one-piece tracks & a recoiling barrel. Maybe by Christmas? Please, Santa?

C-H announces a release of a new LVT-4 kit in 1/35 scale. http://www.dmlforum....read.php?t=1479 Unfortunately, it's just a re-box of the old Italeri kit. Check out the small photo of the sprue in the lower R/H corner--the parts layout is identical to the Italeri sprue (I have an Italeri kit for reference) and the plastic is even brown-green, not grey. Some folks on other forums assume this kit is a "spoiler" since AFV Club also announced a totally new-tooled kit of the LVT-4 in the last day or two. http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/newkitnews/afvclub.html Dragon & Italeri have shared molds & boxes before, so no big surprise there--it's the timing of the announcement that makes one scratch their head. On the plus side, we can hope that Dragon includes a new decal sheet & some DS tracks.

Is it just me? I have noticed that in recent months, Dragon has made many announcements of new kits, but few have made it to the shelves at my LHS or even offered on eBay. Has anyone else seen any of these "new" releases except for the Ka-mi? Of course, Miniart seems to be worse than Dragon at making announcements & not delivering. My LHS cannot even order any of the new Miniart kits. Seems the part numbers are not even in the system. I wish I was going to Omaha this year, but I'm saving my sheckels for next year in Orlando! Maybe some new kits will actually be available by then. LOL.

Happy to see that Tamiya is still making some 1/35 armor--even though that kit is likely a re-hash of their older Sherman kit(s) with a new sprue or two. That seems to be their focus these days, rather than produce a totally new kit. At least this kit fits your modeling interests.

Tim, The instructions arrived yesterday (Saturday) as you predicted. Thanks a bunch for your help, and please thank your wife too. The copies are great! After perusing the instructions, I can readily see that there's no way I could have assembled that howitzer without instructions. Way too many fiddly little pieces, and different pieces depending on whether the gun is in travel or firing position. If I'm ever in a position to assist another modeler by doing the same thing for them, I'm on it! Regards, Rick

Hi Tim, Thanks a bunch for your offer. An email is on its way to you. Rick

Can anyone assist? I need a set of instructions for an AFV Club #35050 1/35 model of the WWII German leFH18 Howitzer. Instructions for the later, updated AFV Club kit #35s24 would also work, as the kits are nearly identical. I would be happy to cover any copying expenses, but I can also accept a FAX or scanned instructions. My email is: bikeforfun@g(dot)com TIA for your help! Rick

I agree with Mark, GREAT build. Good to see a relic from the past! When we first moved to Colorado (maybe 1987 or so) we went cross-country skiing and found an old Weasel along the ski trail into Saints Johns--above Keystone. It was still in the winter camo, white with big black "mouse ears" and was totally stripped. Nothing left but the shell. It made for a nice place to sit & eat our lunch. I wondered if it had originally been one used by the 10th Mountain Division, as Camp Hale wasn't too terribly far away. Too far to simply drive it though--it would have had to have been trailered.

Wow! Really nice condition. The paint job is better than a 10-year old GM or Chrysler product. Cool power-washing too. Lots of other stuff dug up over there in some of the other clips. I guess if you want to preserve stuff, put it in a Russian bog. See what we're missing by not having a big war here on our home turf? All we can dig up are Civil War mini-balls or arrowheads. Ha, ha!

What I'm going to say isn't much different from all the other responses you have received both here and on ML. I too have built several Pz III and Pz IV kits over the last year, both Tamiya & Dragon. While Dragon kits have more parts, IMHO the completed models don't look dramatically different. Both look pretty good! The tracks? Tamiya's are OK, but Dragon's Magic Tracks have better detail. Tamiya has MUCH better instructions which help in the assembly. Dragon's instructions are still totally lacking as they leave out major & minor parts and as the builder, you are left wondering "Where do all these parts go?" If you are diligent enough, you can figure most of it out, but you shouldn't have to! WHen you are finished, Dragon provides more pieces for the spare parts bin than Tamiya--not sure if this is good or bad--maybe some of them should have been used. I agree with Chris. Build what you have. eBay the rest. Dragon will always be producing new kits, even if Tamiya doesn't.

Oh, shucks! Somehow I was hoping one of our genius members had (finally) figured out a way to glue those vinly tracks. Melting is just SO old-school! LOL! Kudos to Dragon for making styrene flexible like vinyl, yet retaining the ability to glue the track together. NIRVANA!

FWIW, I like their cobblestone street sections. They appear to be nicely done.

Yep, there's not much magic in Magic Traks. Not nearly as much as in Frosty the Snowman's old silk hat. You may find your self having to clean up ejector pin marks on EACH link if that sort of thing makes you happy. Every link must be glued, but at least we're spared having to cut each link from the sprue & then clean up the cuts. My assembly process is slightly different from those described above: First I assemble & glue the "bottom run" (from center of front road wheel to center of rear road wheel) & let dry at least an hour. Then I add all the extra links, starting at what would be the rear of that side's track, glue & after a few minutes to set up, run the track starting at the back, adding the sag & then wrapping around the front & gluing to the bottom run. Like Chris, I glue all the track onto the road wheels & then paint & weather the drive train all together. Works for me!

That seems SO weird! How could they mess that up to that degree & NOT notice. Obviously, put that kit on the "Buy after the Fix" list for sure!

First, let me state that I have no dog in this fight--I simply like good deals and am passing them on. In case you're not aware, Sprue Brothers is offering some "Super Deals" and some "Daily/Weekend Specials" on model kits that are a huge discount from retail prices. Their prices even beat the heck out of eBay prices. Lots of armor kits from Bronco, Dragon, Trumpeter and Tristar in this offering at prices that are as much as 50-66% discounted from retail. However, you need to check the "Daily/Weekend Specials" every day to keep up with the new stuff posted. The 3 kits I ordered arrived yesterday. Their shipping charges are VERY good ($11.00 for 3 kits) and they shipped the kits very quickly via UPS. Here's the link to their home page: http://www.spruebrothers.com/ On the left side, under "Latest News" are the links to the Deals and the Specials. Enjoy! Rick

Yeah, Sprue Bros have been offering some truly amazing prices lately. Naturally I wonder what going on? Maybe they were able to buy a massive amount of kits at a super discount. Or, maybe the model market isn't what it used to be with our economy being so bad, and they simply decided to dump the kits to clear their shelves. Whatever, we get the benefit. I personally believe that Dragon's entire Zimmerit initiative is nothing more than a marketing ploy to sell more kits. I'm pretty sure the molds for any kit WITHOUT Zimmerit would be quicker and cheaper to make to get a kit on the market soonest. Then they cast several thousand trees and immediately begin modifying those same molds to add the Zimmerit. Then, PRESTO--here's the same kit with Zimmerit. They wind up selling many more kits, at a minimal increase in engineering/development costs. Actually rather clever of them, but that particular business model irritates the heck out of us modelers who KNOW that a new kit should have been initially released with Zimmerit and then it's released later with it. Grrrrr. The flip side is that Dragon satisfies both camps: those that like to add their own Zimmerit and those that prefer the molded-on variety. Plus, Dragon really has been doing a superb job on their molded-on Zimmerit. It is quite realistic. I've been buying less on eBay lately, as I've noticed a tendency for the multitude of Asian sellers to raise their prices substantially while their shipping costs are already sky-high. Now, when I start a search, I use the "preferences" on the left side to look at postings that are "US Only" and "Auction only" to filter out all the non-US and Buy-It-Now sellers that have ALSO raised their prices. By doing this, I'll be buying from another fellow American while getting the additional benefit of a lower price via the auction format. Of course, I don't always win every auction I bid on, but that's what auctions are all about--it's a bit of a gamble/fun!

THANKS TOM!!! Your list is exactly what I was hoping to have before we go down there in a month. For sure I will check out the top 4-5 on your list. GREAT!!!! Rick

We're getting out of the cold & heading for the beach in January, but I wanted to also check out any Hobby Shops in the Tampa / St. Petersburg area as long as they had a good selection of armor kits. I found Ralph's Hobbies on the shop list, but surely there must be others. Can anyone help?????

The main gun had limited movement, but was mounted backwards. How typically British. I got a good laugh out of that one. M10 photo, but I sure didn't like the way the camera's flash washed out the colors. I think it looks MUCH better in person--of course I do.

OK Mark, For the benefit of us armor folks like me, who are almost (not quite) totally ignorant of British armor--could you please give us a quick background on this vehicle? Given that it has stars on it, I'm led to believe it might be WWII era, but if so, it looks way too contemporary for a WWII British vehicle. After all, the majority of what they fielded in WWII looks like it was designed in 1920 or so--at least to me it does.

Now that's sort of sad, IMHO. However, I have been in several shops over the last few years who won't stock Dragon, Bronco or Trumpeter kits because they are Chinese. I suppose those shop owners boycott Walmart too. Our guy will try to get anything that his customers request, within reason of course. As I mentioned, he carries a great number of kits, and a great selection of brands, even some of the eastern european stuff. I realize Grand Junction is in the middle of nowhere, but Hobby Hut Models is worth the stop if you are ever passing through.

At one point, I was selling so much accumulated junk/treasures on eBay that I built up over $2K in my PayPal account. It was really hard for me to justify spending "real" money on expensive model kits when I had so much "play" money available. However, too much "playing" on eBay has resulted in some serious depletion of the play money account. But, that's what it's for! I know I could have moved some of that PP cash to my bank account, but then it isn't play money any more. Our local shop is named "Hobby Hut Models" and they really have a great selection of kits for a relatively small town. They also have radio controlled stuff & HO trains. I do support them as much as I can and recently bought the new Tasca M4A3E8 from them.

No, this isn't a BIG rumor, but one that everyone will surely like. I just heard that Tasca will be releasing a new kit of the Jumbo Sherman! It's already on their web site: http://www.tasca-modellismo.com/english/emain.html Don't know when it's to be released though. Great news since the old Tamiya Jumbo is full of mistakes.