Small Scale Military Headquarters

kind of quiet these days, huh. What's everyone been up to, hobby-wise? Any new interests? Anyone losing the faith for 1/18?

I've stuck to 1/18 so far, Ive been working on a variety of projects to fill the gaps in my collection: A 75% completed P-39, detailing a PTE F-22 and Dauphin, and detialing an RC F-4 for display. I also have have mostly finished scratch building a 1/22 F-117 (made a minor mistake in scaling the drawings). Too many projects, too little time. Still hoping for admiral to bring out the Dauntless and Skyraider though..

I also collect the Masters of the Universe Classics line. It is the one toy from my childhood that I still really enjoy collecting. Anyone familiar with this line knows Mattel releases monthly figures that usually sell out in less then 10 minutes. There is always something to look forward to with that hobby. I am also working on my r/c plane collection. It's just to hard to ignore the prices of the ARF's and RTF's that are available. I had a 1/18 P-39 about 50% completed but it was destroyed in my last move. Now I have decided to undertake a much more ambitious build. I will hopefully have a twin engine night fighter to show off in the near future. Hopefully.

Dauntless, dauntless, dauntless...

Very quiet around here.

Just trying to get my hands on the last couple of models that are missing in my collection. There are only five 1/18 aircraft out there for me.

As we all know, there won't be anything new in the next couple of months (at least there will be anything affordable for me ), so I'll better save my money for the announced F-100.

I'm just sort of sitting around waiting for Star Wars to pick back up later this Summer... 1:18 died to me a while ago. If I see something for a fair price, I buy it, but that's about it, and I don't see much obviously. I just got some scaled tools the other day (well, they're not here yet), and so I'm gonna dig those.

Otherwise I'm working on fixing up my house and my gf's house... There's always something to do. I'll be house sitting soon too, and have a honey-do list there to get crackin' on. I've gotta figure out how to cut railroad ties. I don't own a chainsaw, so this should be interesting.

Otherwise not a whole lot going on with me... I'd love to see something new from the 1:18 world. I want to get another 1:16 RC tank, but I also need a new computer and I'd like to pick up a 2nd car for the winter now... So I need to just prioritize what's more important to me.

I'm lovin' the hell out of the 1:16 Panzer I bought though. Can't beat it really. I throw tracks a lot in the grass, but I've got to where I am hoping I can build a small course in the hard-packed dirt for it here soon too instead, and that way have something dedicated to it really. Goofy, but it should be fun to putz with.

When in doubt, buy a 1:16 RC tankk guys... If you've got money laying about with absolutely nothing to buy and your priorities are all in order, to me they're a fun investment.

1/18 is the only one for me. If the well dries up then I will be stuck with what I have and/or what I can get for a good price. Most recently been working on custom paint and mild modifications. A couple of months ago I completed a BF 109 G (early G for I removed the MG covers and wing cannons) in an African/Italian scheme and now I am gather information and starting to work on painting a P-47 bubble top in the likeness of Col. David Schilling's "Hairless Joe" mount. I will be posting pictures when I get some work completed. Summer weather makes these projects hit the backburner.......

Of course, my 1/16 and 1/6 interests fill the many voids that has been opened by 1/18 in the last 10? years.

I recently sold a 1/6 Sherman Tank kit and advertised to sell my partial kit for a 1/6 M-10 Tank Destroyer (bought it years ago at a great price without drive wheels and tracks). I got a offer from the eseller who originally made the kit offering me the remaining missing kit parts at a great price (gotta love this economy if you have some money). I now have the parts and am faced with the task of building this mammoth TD, starting with putting together 160 individual tracks and 320 track guides and cutting 4' welding rods into 320 individual track link pins, 2 inches long.

I've never been into kits despite having a few 1/18 unbuilt Pickel neat little kits and much bigger 1/6 kits that have been dustcatchers for years.

Might as well start these kits. A few years work ahead of me while I wait for the next 1/18 fairy tale or wait for the next video extravaganza...... like The Pacific or the next stupid nine foot blue monkey movie....

That's what is going on in the TTT world...... oh, and arranging for a pistol and rifle license and deciding whether to buy one of the last new Mercury Grand Marquis's before they go the way of 1/18.............

TTT

Threetoughtrucks wrote:Of course, my 1/16 and 1/6 interests fill the many voids that has been opened by 1/18 in the last 10? years.

I recently sold a 1/6 Sherman Tank kit and advertised to sell my partial kit for a 1/6 M-10 Tank Destroyer (bought it years ago at a great price without drive wheels and tracks). I got a offer from the eseller who originally made the kit offering me the remaining missing kit parts at a great price (gotta love this economy if you have some money). I now have the parts and am faced with the task of building this mammoth TD, starting with putting together 160 individual tracks and 320 track guides and cutting 4' welding rods into 320 individual track link pins, 2 inches long.

I've never been into kits despite having a few 1/18 unbuilt Pickel neat little kits and much bigger 1/6 kits that have been dustcatchers for years.

Might as well start these kits. A few years work ahead of me while I wait for the next 1/18 fairy tale or wait for the next video extravaganza...... like The Pacific or the next stupid nine foot blue monkey movie....

That's what is going on in the TTT world...... oh, and arranging for a pistol and rifle license and deciding whether to buy one of the last new Mercury Grand Marquis's before they go the way of 1/18.............

TTT

Hey Trip T try this for those 320 pins

http://www.micromark.com/MINI-MITER-and ... ,6466.html

No doubt it is a little pricey but you can have that project done in hour or less with this saw. . OK maybe longer.

I made a little jig box that my saw fits into that adjusts so you can cut different sizes.

I am constanly cutting different metubes at all differnt sizes and this little gem GETS IT DONE !!!

Harbor Frieght makes an orange one for about $50 or less but it is a piece of pooh next to this one.

I have the Harbor Frieght one put to the side because the Micro works like a champ.

Thanks Pickel.

My regular size saws and cutters would take too much product away without taking new measurements at every cut. This mini cutter looks great.

My inventory of small tools in growing.

TTT

Like Buckyroo, 1/18th is really the primary scale for me...I have most of the 21C & BBI 1/32 scales & some super nice Corgi 1/32 scale fighters, but at the end of the day I vastly prefer 1/18...My latest was a Grim Reapers repaint of one of my JSI F14's from Skyworks (along w/ all metal gear)...It was very pricey, but since the supply of 1/18th aircraft has dried up, I can reallocate funds from new planes to repaints.
I seriously doubt we will see a single new 1/18 plane the rest of this year...With Allgo in the toilet, and JSI still reeling from their F14 debacle, I really don't see where any new planes would come from.
Just my thoughts...

IT MAKES A GUY WANT TO FALL ON HIS SWORD!

456THBG wrote:With Allgo in the toilet...

You almost made me fall off my chair

I am still (slowly) on the move with a movie series. I'll be honest though, by the time it's done, there may be no interest left in 1:18 scale anything. Still I know some people will enjoy it. Right now I am using parts and molds to put together tight articulated fallshirms. It has been coming together well. But mostly just working on figures.

1/16 is REALLY filling the void for me

1/18 used to be half the price of armor in 1/16, now its either equal in price or double!

Nothing to be embarrassed about as far as 1/16 goes, I still have not figured out why Heng Long can't release static versions of their RC tanks.

There are a ton of accessories for this scale, just seems there would be a market for static collectors.

Working on 1:1 scale home improvements along with Star Wars Costumes.

I think what we are discovering is that without the support of mass retail the 1:18 scale items are becoming too cost prohibitive for both the manufacturing company and the collector. The future is perhaps not dark but it does indeed appear dim...

boy that doesn't sound like there's going to be a king tiger and a jagdpantehr any time soon..

But if Heng Long can make and sell 1/16 r/c tanks for just over $100, then why can't anyone else make non r/c 1/18 tanks for $70 or so? The rc crap has got to be 30% of the price.

Hard to say right now. I had a good long chat with All-Go last week. I can tell you that there is no shortage of trying to figure out how to make things work, there has been all kinds of options and strategies put out on the table. The numbers are still proving to be difficult to translate into a profit and even the short term "gap" plays like the P-51D Tender Terror are not projecting like they should.

On that note: the Tender Terror is on perma-hold. The factory had to produce 5 production samples and each time the issues could not be satisfied. Paint runs, Blotchy OD Green paint, Nose art was not working as Tampo print and was suggested to be a heat transfer = not good. So All-Go looked at the 5 attempts and said "well if it isn't going to be a perfect P-51D then why make it. People won't pay for them" After the F-14 paint issues I have to say if the paint wasn't going to be perfect it would be a disaster. A good call, however disappointing it may be.

There are a couple rally point projects that are in the works as we speak with All-Go. I hope to report more specific detail in the next few days.

tko211 wrote: There are a couple rally point projects that are in the works as we speak with All-Go. I hope to report more specific detail in the next few days.

TKO, I'd rather you give us intell when you actually hear it rather then saying "... in a few days you'll hear". No disrespect intended, but I'm basically tired of reps coming on to say that they have news coming and then you hear absolutely nothing from them for months or even years (Jason from Admiral. Mike from BBI). But its just gotten annoying now.

Jericoeagle1 wrote:

tko211 wrote: There are a couple rally point projects that are in the works as we speak with All-Go. I hope to report more specific detail in the next few days.

TKO, I'd rather you give us intell when you actually hear it rather then saying "... in a few days you'll hear". No disrespect intended, but I'm basically tired of reps coming on to say that they have news coming and then you hear absolutely nothing from them for months or even years (Jason from Admiral. Mike from BBI). But its just gotten annoying now.

Exactly,
Because didn't Jason from Admiral state several months ago that Joe-Blow-from-Admiral Toys was supposed to post some information on the SBD within a couple of days of his post?

This sounds like the China Syndrome, uh not the movie but the fact...Companies move production to said country and then find out they are not in control.
Quality does not seem to be top priority (not just models/toys but production in general) very sad... from a culture thats been around for many centuries I would have expected more.

As far as 1:18th goes I'm still working on Pickelhaubes custom sidecars (6) with summer here I find less time for modeling/customs but I'll get them finished.
I don't know If He has any more kits left but if we're talking about Quality...you guys should check them out! It's people like this that will keep this hobby alive until the big guys wake up!.......or crap out.
Normandy

aferguson wrote:boy that doesn't sound like there's going to be a king tiger and a jagdpantehr any time soon..

But if Heng Long can make and sell 1/16 r/c tanks for just over $100, then why can't anyone else make non r/c 1/18 tanks for $70 or so? The rc crap has got to be 30% of the price.

even as it is now the smaller 1/16 stuff like the panzer III's and IV's go as low as $60 new and bigger stuff like the jagdpanther for $80-90. the electronics are terribly cheap and I think it's more like 15-20% of the price. HL had plans to offer everything in kit form minus electronics, dunno where they are at with it now though

NWarty wrote:

Jericoeagle1 wrote: TKO, I'd rather you give us intell when you actually hear it rather then saying "... in a few days you'll hear". No disrespect intended, but I'm basically tired of reps coming on to say that they have news coming and then you hear absolutely nothing from them for months or even years (Jason from Admiral. Mike from BBI). But its just gotten annoying now.

Exactly,
Because didn't Jason from Admiral state several months ago that Joe-Blow-from-Admiral Toys was supposed to post some information on the SBD within a couple of days of his post?

Exactly, and Mike well he just disappeared. I feel he should have at least told us he was fired or transferred instead of just leaving us in a lurch. In fact we should get rid of the reps section of the forum and put in it's place a section called "Just the Facts.." for information that is current and official.