Soo.... What did you just get???

[GusMac]

Christmas present from the wife. First 1/16 kit I've got and it looks really nice in the box.

Apparently she's also got the first edition Revell Meteor but I'll have to wait until my birthday for it. 😡

[denders]

Christmas Goodies. I used to buy two of the calendar for decades, one for my father until he passed. Hopefully the tools will help my modeling along.

Lots of nice profiles in this book. It goes well with my current Spitfire project.

 

[belugawhaleman]

On 12/21/2025 at 9:22 AM, BlrwestSiR said:

Mr Surfacer in jars is much easier to find in Canada. There's also Aqueous Mr Surfacer which I have used and not really noticed any differences in. 

Another good option is to check out some of the Gundam stores for stock. They tend to carry a fair bit of Gunze/Mr Color products. 

 

I broke down and ordered two jars of Mr. Surfacer off Amazon ...was glad to find it despite the price😐

[BlrwestSiR]

 

Mecha squirrel!

 

Didn't get this one as it's too big to fit in my suitcase so settled for a smaller version. 

[HubertB]

4 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

 

Mecha squirrel!

 

Didn't get this one as it's too big to fit in my suitcase so settled for a smaller version. 

That is the kind of squirrel 😱 that would definitely keep me focused on whatever I am doing, without distraction …

Hubert

[belugawhaleman]

I was gifted these very nice items...... Over the holidays😀

First a very nicely made photo etch tool from Dspiae. Nice and sturdy, heavy, and beautifully finished.

a great tool. It gives you the choice of two bending surfaces ; Polished stainless or Grey anodized. 

Also included are two bending blades; long and short, both nicely made from polished stainless and anodized Aluminum.

I also was given a little M19  Hit & miss engine😀

This is a working, 4 stroke engine , nicely made of Brass and Stainless steel. It's very small . The bore measures

about 1/2" across. It Utilizes a fly-ball governor to control speed. Initially, I thought the compression was a little low, but

after lapping both valves to improve the valve seat it now has great compression and runs like a champ. The thing

about these little engines they invite you to work on them, modify them, and just play around.

Anyway, I was very touched by the thoughtfulness of these gifts😀

 

[PanzerWomble]

2 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

I was gifted these very nice items...... Over the holidays😀

First a very nicely made photo etch tool from Dspiae. Nice and sturdy, heavy, and beautifully finished.

a great tool. It gives you the choice of two bending surfaces ; Polished stainless or Grey anodized. 

Also included are two bending blades; long and short, both nicely made from polished stainless and anodized Aluminum.

I also was given a little M19  Hit & miss engine😀

This is a working, 4 stroke engine , nicely made of Brass and Stainless steel. It's very small . The bore measures

about 1/2" across. It Utilizes a fly-ball governor to control speed. Initially, I thought the compression was a little low, but

after lapping both valves to improve the valve seat it now has great compression and runs like a champ. The thing

about these little engines they invite you to work on them, modify them, and just play around.

Anyway, I was very touched by the thoughtfulness of these gifts😀

 

Both of those are beautiful examples of engineering , I'm jealous ! 

[PanzerWomble]

I've been drinking the Rinaldi Koolaid for a while now , just received the first of two books defining reductive chipping TG/01 and oil paint rendering TG/02 ( due March) 

 

 

 

[DocRob]

Got this little beauty along with some tools from Japan. It´s the "all metal" version of the Williams FW14 from Hasegawa in 1/24. All metal means, that the engine, exhausts, rims and other accesories are made from cast metal, the outer rims are turned aluminum and there is some PE included and some material for fabric seat belts.



Cheers Rob

[Spitfire]

As a huge fan of Spitfires the lack of straight from the box PR Spitfires has been a big missing factor in my modelling so I just had to order this one, it arrived yesterday straight from New Zealand with a poster as well. Kotare are also promising more PR types in the future.

Cheers

Dennis

 

[FullArmor]

1 hour ago, DocRob said:

Got this little beauty along with some tools from Japan. It´s the "all metal" version of the Williams FW14 from Hasegawa in 1/24. All metal means, that the engine, exhausts, rims and other accesories are made from cast metal, the outer rims are turned aluminum and there is some PE included and some material for fabric seat belts.



Cheers Rob

interesting. Please share more pictures of this.

[BlrwestSiR]

So Taipei has a Pokemon centre, one of only two outside Japan. It becomes a must visit for my son and a couple of his cousins so off we went. While there, I noticed next door was a Godzilla Store.  So I spent some time in there. Saw this figure and wanted to pick it up. 

Sadly I figured he might be a bit big for my carry on suitcase so I had to pass.

 

[PanzerWomble]

Resinzilla 😳

[BradG]

I bought these as an early birthday present to myself.

 

[DocRob]

On 12/30/2025 at 4:56 PM, FullArmor said:

interesting. Please share more pictures of this.

Here you are. The kit is 1/24 unfortunately, I prefer 1/20 and naturally 1/12 for these delicate racers. There is not that much AM out there for this kit, so no carbon fiber this time, but I sourced some Camel branding decals, which are not included in the kit.
The metal detail kits are expensive in Europe, but I bought mine from Plaza Japan for a good price.



Black and white sprues, no chrome luckily



Extras and decals. The decals include also the Goodyear branding and seat belt logos



A closer look onto the metal parts.



A pic from the multi material content, taken from the box.



Cheers Rob

[Artful69]

An update from Kits arriving in the last couple of months ...

Firstly the Revell (Sea) Hurricane Mk.IIC finally made an appearance over here along with a long OOP kit being reissued in the Arado 196 floatplane which was an awesome kit when originally issued.

A couple of ZM Bf.109G-4's ...

And Airscales awesome BPD  ...

Cheers!

Rog

 

 

 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Went to the Mong Kok district in Hong Kong today. Last time I was here, there were numerous hobby shops in close proximity to one another. This time it was pretty much the same, although the first one I tried to visit no longer existed. I did find a Tamiya Factory store though. 

Going around the corner from there, we found a mall that had at least 20 shops selling Lego, Pokemon cards, action figures and diecast cars. On the next floor, it was more of the same except Gundam models instead of Lego. There also several RC car shops and an airsoft gun shop too. 

Finally found a more typical hobby shop and I picked up a more travel friendly sized Godzilla kit. 

 

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Went to the Mong Kok district in Hong Kong today. Last time I was here, there were numerous hobby shops in close proximity to one another. This time it was pretty much the same, although the first one I tried to visit no longer existed. I did find a Tamiya Factory store though

Wow, you are in paradise Carl. My next LHS is about 2000 kilometers away and in a different customs zone .

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

20 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Wow, you are in paradise Carl. My next LHS is about 2000 kilometers away and in a different customs zone .

Cheers Rob

 

Rob, it's really awesome just being able to go down the block and see so many shops here.

The Tamiya shop was evenly split between RC, Mini4WD ( their biggest money maker) and scale models. 

My son browsing the model section. 

They even sold individual sprues from kits. 

[DocRob]

It doesn´t look spectacular, but is a real gamechanger for me. I got 24 bottles of Leveling Thinner. Why is it special? since the first of January, there are new customs regulations on my island enforced. There is no more the 150€ freebee, which means all goods go through customs, which makes everything more expensive, not so much because of the taxes, but for the working fees you have to pay.
Goods like thinner are usually forbidden to transport and I´m sure, the custom agents would have sorted them out. Luckily I have a guerilla shop on the Spanish mainland, who ships them anyway. this might be the last parcel of flammable liquids to pass through. 



Another little gem arrived from Japan after almost two month. Again I had lots of trouble with customs, but finally it went through. It´s the long oop Tamiya 1/20 kit of the Jordan 191, one of the most beautiful F1 racers to my eye. The decals yellowed a bit, but I have substitutes ordered, along with carbon fiber decals, paints and some PE. It was my first purchase from Plastic Model Republic and everything went well. They have a large portfolio from hard to get oop kits, which are called "used", but in fact are new, with some signs of aging, like with the decals.



Cheers Rob

[Count0]

On 12/30/2025 at 8:26 AM, Spitfire said:

As a huge fan of Spitfires the lack of straight from the box PR Spitfires has been a big missing factor in my modelling so I just had to order this one, it arrived yesterday straight from New Zealand with a poster as well. Kotare are also promising more PR types in the future.

Mine arrived as well. Beautiful kit. Curious to see how the window blisters work as separate parts. Looking forward to other PR variants. Kotare are fast becoming my favorite model company.

What # did you get? I believe mine is #135. I do intend to build mine, but that's a ways off with all the other projects in line.

[Count0]

2 hours ago, DocRob said:

Tamiya 1/20 kit of the Jordan 191

One of my favorites. I have two in the stash, and at least that many in 1/43. Plus decals and the Model Graphics walk around book. I do love this car.

I saw it live in Phoenix when it made its debut. Initially, not a lot of sponsorship, but that beautiful green was there right from the start.

And, as shown in the book, the raw carbon version. Beautiful in its own way.

[belugawhaleman]

4 hours ago, DocRob said:

It doesn´t look spectacular, but is a real gamechanger for me. I got 24 bottles of Leveling Thinner. Why is it special? since the first of January, there are new customs regulations on my island enforced. There is no more the 150€ freebee, which means all goods go through customs, which makes everything more expensive, not so much because of the taxes, but for the working fees you have to pay.
Goods like thinner are usually forbidden to transport and I´m sure, the custom agents would have sorted them out. Luckily I have a guerilla shop on the Spanish mainland, who ships them anyway. this might be the last parcel of flammable liquids to pass through. 



Another little gem arrived from Japan after almost two month. Again I had lots of trouble with customs, but finally it went through. It´s the long oop Tamiya 1/20 kit of the Jordan 191, one of the most beautiful F1 racers to my eye. The decals yellowed a bit, but I have substitutes ordered, along with carbon fiber decals, paints and some PE. It was my first purchase from Plastic Model Republic and everything went well. They have a large portfolio from hard to get oop kits, which are called "used", but in fact are new, with some signs of aging, like with the decals.



Cheers Rob

24 bottles of Leveling Thinner!!! Nice Haul Rob😀

[DocRob]

5 minutes ago, belugawhaleman said:

24 bottles of Leveling Thinner!!! Nice Haul Rob😀

Thanks Paul, might be the only supply for a very long time. I had to stay with the small bottles, the 400ml ones were not available. If you build large scale car models, you need a lot of this thinner.

Cheers Rob 

[BlrwestSiR]

15 hours ago, DocRob said:

It doesn´t look spectacular, but is a real gamechanger for me. I got 24 bottles of Leveling Thinner. Why is it special? since the first of January, there are new customs regulations on my island enforced. There is no more the 150€ freebee, which means all goods go through customs, which makes everything more expensive, not so much because of the taxes, but for the working fees you have to pay.
Goods like thinner are usually forbidden to transport and I´m sure, the custom agents would have sorted them out. Luckily I have a guerilla shop on the Spanish mainland, who ships them anyway. this might be the last parcel of flammable liquids to pass through. 



Another little gem arrived from Japan after almost two month. Again I had lots of trouble with customs, but finally it went through. It´s the long oop Tamiya 1/20 kit of the Jordan 191, one of the most beautiful F1 racers to my eye. The decals yellowed a bit, but I have substitutes ordered, along with carbon fiber decals, paints and some PE. It was my first purchase from Plastic Model Republic and everything went well. They have a large portfolio from hard to get oop kits, which are called "used", but in fact are new, with some signs of aging, like with the decals.



Cheers Rob

I've done something similar with Tamiya's thinners. At least I was able to pick it up on sale so wasn't as expensive as what you probably paid. 

Some Mr Color products are getting harder to find in Canada due to labelling and chemical compounds in them. Tamiya aerosols already got banned for that reason.