Rob Owens

Yes, the level of gloss looks perfectly in-scale!

Also highly recommended: Thompson Trophy Racers by Roger Huntington ISBN 0-87938-365-8 and Unlimited Air Racers by Don Berliner ISBN 0-87938-378-X both published by Motorbooks International. Also. if you can find it. Racing Planes and Air Racers A Complete History Vol. IV 1946-1967 by Reed Kinert, Aero Publishers, INC.

What's Goodfellas?

That's my point: he's NOT offering Tamiya Mossies, or HK B-24's or WnW Lancs. If he REALLY wanted to scam someone, he'd be offering the Just Gotta Have kits. . .

Not necessarily a scam in progress. First off, the seller is in Hong Kong, which is not the PRC (yet!). Second, look at the feedback for completed transactions: most are for items not remotely related to scale modeling. What if the seller stumbled on cases of kits, and simply didn't take the time to research their typical selling price? OTOH, kap64 may have nailed it! Will be interested to see how it turns out. . .

You might consider filling the balsa with thin viscosity CA. It dries quickly (no need to wait for spot putty solvent to evaporate), doesn't shrink, sands easily, and the CA adds hardness to the wood without increasing weight. I used it to construct trails/frame out of balsa for a 1/24 Gribeauval 12 pdr gun many moons ago, and it allowed me to get squared sharp corners impossible to achieve with soft balsa alone. I think it might be just what you're looking for to get thin trailing edges. Hth, Rob

Nice wood, but the interplane struts on a finished airframe would have been painted the same light blue as the undersurfaces. Depending on the unit/pilot they may have later been overpainted in different colors.

As Jennings pointed out, this article shows how much work will be involved. As a start to your research you might try "1/48 CASA 2111 Conversion" in your favorite search engine.https://imodeler.com/2012/11/casa-2-111-conversions-movie-stars-of-battle-of-britain-148-scale-monogram/

Nice to see the original cowlings are included in this offering. I've got a couple of resin Le Rhone 9C's (Vector? NeOmega?) in the stash, so I won't have to pony up "Collector Cash" to get one of the first two Pups, and the Le Prieur's are just what I needed for Ball's A.200 Nieuport 17.

One word. . . paella!

The contrast between the metal MiG and the green tractor-trailer is a real eye grabber! Very interesting idea stunningly executed!

The "scale" appearance of the black is really impressive!

In addition, the 1/24 Airfix kits are from an era when "aftermarket detail parts" were were scratch-built by the individual modeler. . .

Future doesn't care about its application method. . . it works both ways

Taxing internet purchases will no more benefit LHS's than raising the fuel tax will decrease oil consumption or raising the tobacco tax will force people to quit smoking/dipping/chewing. People buy where they do (on-line, brick 'n mortar, or combination) because of preference and economic (spend time vs. money) advantage. The Hobby industry is no longer "niche", it's down to the "square-root of niche", with fewer people spending more money on increasingly more expensive items. If LHS's want to compete, they'll have to compete on-line as well (e.g., King's Hobby in Austin TX sells as March22 on ebay), just like the Big Box retailers have been forced to do. On the up-side, I've noticed that my local Hobby Lobby has been stocking more and better model supplies, which saves me the time/gas/aggravation of driving to/through Austin to visit King's.