Artful69

Got an email this morning ... not relevant to me - It's out of USA and I have the kit already ... Rog

Perhaps the recent Midway movie and imminent release of a 32' Val and Kate - announced a year or two back - inspired them into action! Rog

I like a good bust too ... just on a completely different type of model Rog

No ... it's not your age ... I saw a You Tube clip of it on a forum somewhere back in about 2013-14 ... At the time WOT was an extremely popular world online game which really assisted in making the anime so attractive to the general populace. I'm an absolute tank nut - so I chased the show down and watched it ... Carl describes it pretty well below ... as he says there's some huge suspension of belief involved (which is where we get the saying when we're explaining anything off the wall - "because ... anime" - Like the "School Carrier" reference Carl makes below) - but it makes it all the more fun ... The original artists didn't expect it to take off so well ... the 1st 3 episodes were presented at some well known spring anime festival in Japan where the latest Naruto or other well known series are presented ... that year they were up against a reimagining of a VERY historically popular anime in Space Battleship Yamato - and apparently it stole the show! If you like overcoming underdog / coming of age / redemption type stories ... this has it all. The title song went to #1 over there and was my phone ringtone for a year or so. It proved so popular that a full feature length movie was planned and made ... and to satisfy the demand in the interim ... a glossed-over story from the TV series was revisited and elaborated on during a 1 hour TV special (The Real Anzio Battle)... The movie was rated as #1 in Japan for months and the fans were not satisfied in the slightest - so Das Finale was conceptualised ... DF is one competition spanning 6 episodes of varying length - to date 3 have been released in theatres and the 4th started production last year. The handbrake manoeuvres and drifting escapades from the auto-club girls make me laugh ... But it's the volleyball club girls (team Duck) that are constantly trying to incorporate their tactical ideas and game references that crack me up the most! ... They are always the ones to come up with some daring, left-field plan that goes against anyones better judgement - and they actually pull it off!! ... "Operation Killer Serve" was my all time favourite! I absolutely LOVE all the memes that pop up on the internet using GUP as a reference Rog

Carl ... I don't recall you mentioning that before ... but its great that they watched it ... it's a great anime - and it was what got me into watching other anime, looking for similar 'feel good' stories, a good decision - considering the awfully written woke garbage thats constantly rammed down our throats these days. It's funny ... in World of Tanks most people refer to Soviet SPGs as "Troll Canons" as they are the least likely to hit a target that they are scoped at ... in the GUP movie it was Mika's BT42 (Continuation Academy) that did the trolling - on the University girls team with the Säkkijärven Polkka playing in the background. The German tanks don't get too much attention though ... and the Panthers get whacked at near the start of every match they are in! 😭 Rog

Girls Und Panzer!!! ... That's Maho Nishizumi's tank ... tho why Erika Itsumi is popping out of the loaders hatch, I don't know 🤷‍♂️ ... She's the commander of a Henchel turreted King Tiger. I might just grab that one ... I got the original Panzer IV.D Rog

Actually the ONLY things I think I'll be saving from my earlier Tamiya kits ARE the figures ... Most of them being replaced by Dragon equivalents. The vehicles themselves are accurate, easy to build and well detailed ... It was a combo of Tamiyas' rubber band tracks and Dragons all-in-one Smart Kit approach (photo etch and metal barrels) that did them in for me. These newer generation jobs with the link and length track bring Tamiya back into serious consideration! Rog

... Fortune passes everywhere! ... I forgot to mention Not enough bang-for-buck, or too many bucks for the bang!! None of these manufacturers can win lol ... Rog

Guys ... what y'all are missing here is that I'm single At least until Jane arrives in country next Feb ... She's seen my stash ... and knows I collect ... I've told her I want to start rationalising the older stuff apart from the new (A couple of Kotare Spitfires will replace the Revell/Hasegawa/Hobby Boss stuff in the stash etc) ... and some of the double ups ... I will sort out what to sell before we move into the new place and she will look after e-Bay while I'm away at work ... She also wants to build (Tanks) alongside me ... So a win there also ... The stash is built NOW so I don't have to do it LATER when my available funds will be limited to a couple of kits per year ... Rog

Hammer, Nail, Head ... So true ... whine about accuracy ... detail / no detail / wrong detail / too much detail ... price ... AM / no AM ... Rog

just browsing a local hobby store … $180 AUD … dunno how much postage would be out of Aus … but it’s a rare find nowadays!! Rog

Here you go ... The Tamiya kits are somewhere up on the left of this row ... The ZM collection is located under the light green tarp over there - next row on the right. HTH Rog

Carl ... The main reason I ordered the GT Resin cans is because you told me the kit ones were undersized ... I thought that these were the only corrected set? Otherwise I could have placed these in my BNA order for less ... Rog

Martin - All the best mate! ... Here's something to come back and look at Ok ... So ... another nice little storyboard post here ... I usually post this elsewhere too - but since I've recently been advised at that location that I am all sorts of nasty, evil things - I think I'll make myself scarce for a while ... If not more permanently ... I arrived back from site today, back home by lunch time ... and made a trip down to the post office later to collect these: If you remember back to my last post ... I went looking for 1/32 Tamiya Phantoms - specifically E's or EJ's - to build an RAAF bird ... I found a brand new EJ out of Japan at a reasonable overall cost ... But in the event that the store proved to be a hoax (there's no telling with some web-store designs these days!!), a guy that I had already arranged to buy a couple of Hobbycraft P.51A's from, threw his Tamiya F-4E into the works. Shipping from Japan to Australia is usually pretty safe - so that one then became a good back up option. I'm pedantic about packaging - with every store and individual, wherever they are, that I ever buy from. Precisely because of this: You can see that there has been a good 2-3 inches of compression on the one end of the box ... The only guy to completely ignore my packaging requests was some dude from New Zealand who sold me a couple of Dragon kits a few years back. I was so disappointed when one of the kits came out so mangled it had to be thrown out - he was an active forum member too ... he should have known better being a modelling enthusiast!! ... But he failed to even acknowledge the feedback I sent him ... no apology ... nothing! I digress ... In this case, Barry has made every possible attempt to weather proof and protect the contents from impact or crushing damage ... Besides the large amounts of (Green!!!) bubblewrap the kits were wrapped in some sort of lightweight waterproofing cover ... Unfortunately despite his best attempt ... the Postal service flipped the middle finger at us anyway!! While the box of one of the Hobbycraft kits was in good condition, the second took a beating ... and both were compressed slightly into the top of the Tamiya box. Fortunately ... The Parts inside the hobby craft boxes and some in the Tamiya box were also encased in protective wrapping ... From an Australian point of view, the USA has the most expensive shipping of anyone out there - and I'm beginning to wonder why! I don't think their postal service gives a rolling rats rear end about delivery ... They are becoming unreliable in other aspects as well. On the balance though, as disappointed as I am with the manner of arrival, Barry's willingness to follow my requests in packaging have left me with usable plastic! Having said that ... Many of you will know that, as I've been eyeing off the BIG Tamiya box that the F-4EJ came in and thinking that 32' scale is a little oversized for Jets ... I've been contemplating adjusting to '48 scale for my RAAF display. There are couple of other factors that push me toward this change and I'll note those later ... Meanwhile - in doing my research and asking for feedback, Carl suggested that the exhausts on the Tamiya '32 scale F-4's needed an AM fix as they are undersized - and the only correction replacement available is the GT Resin ones ... I don't know why Gary deals only through Sprue Brothers - but here we go with USA shipping again!! ... Fortunately, SB's must have some sort of package deal going on with the USPS - because anything coming from them is usually markedly cheaper than from individuals and their packages tend to arrive more or less intact. I needed some seamless intakes anyway and Gary's F/A-18 stuff was great so ... As expected ... The intakes are the usual top notch offering from Gary ... If they fit like the F/A-18 ones we're in business!! A little disappointingly the exhausts look like they might need a LOT of work ... IF they will actually be serviceable at all ... One looks a little out-of-round and the exhaust tips look to be discoloured and pitted in places ... I've done some work with Resin ... but I'm a long way from being any sort of expert ... I'm just hoping that I can get these to work somehow - If not - screw the scale accuracy thing - I'll go with Reskit or someone - stuff that I can get through a local supplier. Besides exhausts I need RAAF decals - so where better to shop than local, right? ... In amongst the packing pillows was a lovely packaged sheet with instructions ... Feedback also told me that the cockpit needs a little detailing ... and I've seen people raving on about Quinta Studios so I thought this would be as appropriate as any other time - along with some Master turned stuff ... Since the Mirage's are probably the next RAAF victim ... I grabbed these at the same time ... No Quinta stuff available, but it gives me the opportunity to test out Yahu and Eduard for comparison (since the store had only one of the Yahu panels in stock!) As for resin replacements ... Eric Galliers completed an epic build a few years back and engineered a few items that were specific to the RAAF Mirages. Besides a revised cockpit IP, one of external changes was the fuel tanks - besides being thicker and longer that the ones in the kit, they were also rounded rather than tapered at the rear and had the offset bomb hard-point placements on the undersides ... Unfortunately, although he made a couple of sets - they were never released for widespread distribution ... I wish he'd sold the masters to someone who would - as that scratch build stuff is way beyond my skill set!! Nobody has mentioned a need for seamless intakes on the Mirage ... but a few people have mentioned that the exhaust needs work in their builds ... so I grabbed these: I've used thin cement previously ... but due to supply issues - until recently ... I've never tried Tamiya, although I've seen plenty of complimentary remarks ... so added these to round out the order ... While doing my F-4 research I also took more than a passing liking to the Phantoms' interesting outline with all the angle changes everywhere. That, and my admiration for the ZM approach to life lead me to make the decision to collect their '48 scale Phantom line up! ... I started out with BNA again as they had a discount going on Once again a superbly packed box by these guys ... and they had 5 of the (currently) 10 available kits in stock ... Meanwhile I had a pre-existing order over at Metro Hobbies for the new ZM 32' scale Bf.109G-14 Eric Hartman ... So I added the 3 ZM Phantoms they had in stock as well as a new tool Tamiya '48 scale F-4B which I had read some great reviews on ... The two ZM Phantoms that are the hardest to get a hold of are SWS48-04 ... the first one they produced ... and SWS48-08 the "Marines" Boxing. I don't know whether they underproduced this particular kit or it was just extremely popular ... but it took me a couple of days of online searching to find either of them at a half decent price point ... The first one (SWS48-04), I paid the least overs for by buying it out of USA on the e-Bay global shipping program (again ... postage is expensive ... but not as extortionate as that which an individual will pay!!). It has hit the Perth side of Australia Post ... but is still sitting in the main distribution centre at present - I'm a bit nervous about what state that kit will arrive in to be honest, perhaps the "Global Shipping Program" has a kinder transportation QA than normal!! ... For the SWS48-08 boxing, I managed to find in a UK retailer called Antics Online ... Again ... I advised I was prepared to pay additional for shipping, provided they follow my packaging requirements ... which they did, close enough When I made the order, they explained that the kit was located in one of their retail outlets and would need to be retrieved back to the main warehouse before shipping ... Customer service was excellent and they kept me informed by email for the process ... As for the kit condition - it had been located at the retail outlet since it's arrival in the UK and so I was warned that the box may not be in the best shape ... ... and this little blemish on the top left hand corner was the only damage ... Now ... I'm not used to giving "In-Box" reviews ... But the GT Resin exhausts were really bugging me ... so I thought I'd do a quick comparison with the Reskit Mirage stuff ... Firstly ... the Reskit presentation an boxing is awesome ... Now I think it would be unfair to rate GT on the packaging side of things ... because Reskit is much bigger operation that Gary's cottage industry style setup. But look at parts and casting quality here ... I don't know if the F-4 Exhausts are actually supposed to be out of round ... but these are ... a roll along the table confirmed it ... The tubing has noticeable seam lines but from memory, looking at the aircraft, these wouldn't be visible anyway, I think?? Of more concern is the discolouration and pitting of the parts that definitely will be seen! Both GT sets are the same so if anyone can chime in with thoughts to assuage my angst, I'd be appreciative!! Another comparison I wanted to make was relating to the disastrously awful error in the ZM fuselage shape to the rear engine shoulder of the F-4 🙄🙄 ... My tongue is firmly in cheek as I state that - shape errors usually attract more political extremists from one end of the spectrum or other than a Federal election ... but the issues are to be afforded some import as they do catch the essence of the subject matter ... If something doesn't look right to you it impacts the entire build ... and just as there are hyper passionate Bf.109 or Spitfire fans out there ... there are those just as passionate about the F-4. Carl advised me of the issue - and that it just pertained to the shorter nosed variants (ZM's first boxing) as the longer nosed versions had corrections done to the shape before moulds were cut (such is ZM's passion to "get it right") ... I wasn't going to take the plastic out of the bags ... but lets play spot the difference as well as we are able ... Have you seen it?? ... Well it is (technically) there ... but I'm not sure that its really necessary to make a $36 AUD correction (over 25% of the kit value!) to correct a minuscule "bump" that to all but the trained eye is a negligible blemish - in '48 scale to boot! ... by the way - for those still wondering what all the fuss is about ... in the photos above, the short nosed version is on the top right hand side of the first and on the bottom. Now - some photos from the Hypersonic web store ... In these pictures the difference is obvious ... But when looking at the two fuselage halves with just eyesight and not zoomed photography its really not such a big deal ... and having stated that ... I may just look to build these kits straight OOB with no AM at all. With the limited selection of RAAF / RAN subjects in '32 scale available ... I may just go with to '48 ... as the subject choices are huge ... I can get a F-111C, Aermacchi MB-326, S-2G Tracker ... F/A-18A, A+ and B ... Mirage III.O ... the list goes on! ... and all of these come in boxings with RAAF decals already supplied ... Rog

Ha Ha ... Very funny Gaz!! Rog

I never get tired of hearing that combo ... Inverted V12, fuel injected, smooth running, Daimler Benz engine ... with a Supercharger screaming its box off!! To me they always sounded better that their allied counterparts ... Rog

Yay!!! Build work ... I thought the thread was descending into general discussion on 109's ... Rog 😛

More to the point … which one will be the most accurate and involve the builder more (in a good “this is fun” way, not a “F%#£!! piece of S$&@!! Way” ??) I haven’t had a lot to do with Meng kits … but I can say that I selected a Takom 1/35 Panther Ausf.D over theirs because it was bettter bang for buck. Rog

It sort of reminds me of the RAAF “Macchi” trainers we had/have over here … I used to see them doing a lot of formation flying when I was a kid. I'm actually thinking of reconfiguring my whole “Aussie” collection to 48 scale. There’s Mirages, a couple of F-111C Pigs and both Legacy and Current Hornets available. Rog

I’m happy to report I’m disease free … I was forced to take the magical unicorn vax here so I could keep my job and a roof over my head here in West Aus. I don’t know what that AMS thing you have is, but I hope you can’t transfer it over the net otherwise your device should be masked up!!! I probably won’t even bother with belts … the scale seems just too small … I’m even considering avoiding the fuse fix … I can see a vague difference between the kit and the correction parts - but really not all that much … so the question is … is it $25 worth??? (AUD) … I’ll leave that order till I see the kit I think! Rog

Ok … so just to confirm, according to this list … I will need six corrections sets… I went looking for seatbelts and the Quinta stuff last night … ugh!! … I struggle enough with 32 scale - plus I don’t think I’m that pedantic really … I’ll see when the kits start arriving, but I’m thinking that the scale might be too small for that stuff. I’m pretty much a bang for buck guy and external shape issues are probably going to be more noticeable! Does anyone have a link to a discussion somewhere where the fuse issue is discussed in detail with photos etc??? Rog

Ok … Copy that on the correction … I’ve found it on BNAs webstore and it’s only $24 so I’ll just order how many I need … Question: Is the F-4S one of the kits needing a correction?? Rog

Wow!!! None at all??? … that’s a weird one - most kits have a seat part with moulded on ones and give you a seat option - with or without!! …. Also the correction part … I’ll look that up … So thanks for the heads up on both! If they are anything like the 1/32 scale stuff, they should be heaps of fun to build. Rog

Ok … so Now I have my 1/32 scale F-4E and EJ phantoms (a BIG thank you for anyone offering their assistance in that department btw). During my mission, the ZM kits kept popping up in my Google searches and as I began to admire the style of F-4 more and more … I thought - why not, eh??? I have a love for ZM kits in general and I have collected all of their 1/32 scale items, even though some of them are for subjects I would not normally purchase. Now, Ive never built anything in dwarf scale before and so I’ve never looked at feedback regarding ZM’s 1/48 scale gear … in particular their Phantoms … so … Can anyone here advise me as to any glaringly obvious issues with their F-4 series?? I’ve already ordered them all and I’m awaiting their arrival … I might also hunt down 48 scale issues 1 - 3 afterward … but I just need to know if there are any AM corrections required … Rog

I'm in Gaz ... I won't get a chance to build mine for a while - so I'll be living vicariously! Rog