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cbk57

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About cbk57

  • Birthday 11/12/1970

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Pennsylvania
  • Interests
    Scale Modeling, Cycling

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  1. Modelers getting older, I am not sure that is true, if you are only looking at who is in your club, or who is going to IPMS shows, you might be right, but there seems to be a much larger body of modelers on facebook who may not be old. It is hard to say but the body of modelers out there defies definition based upon ones personal observation of the last IPMS club meeting they went to. I joined my local IPMS club and that group leans older with some young modelers coming in and attending regularly. Models are selling well globally and Eduard like others noted above knows what will sell better than any of us. Contrary to popular belief the hobby is not dying and is much bigger globally than it has ever been. It is different so if like me you are 50 plus, modeling looks a lot different now than it did in the 1970s, 80s or 90s. But the hobby is just fine.
  2. This series caused me to do a deep dive on the WWII bombing campaign that I might not have done otherwise, I now feel i have a better over all understanding of what really happened, so if learning something counts it is a 10, if just looking at the story I agree very much with Tom above, 7.5. I listened to podcasts from Unnoficial history of hte pacific war, WWII Bomber podcast(name is a tad off, ask if you need correction) and Hardthrasher. I come away from all of this with a much deeper understanding and I think if they spent some time educating the listener in the show or in the intro about the big picture it might have helped a lot. It failed to deliver any context for 1944 and 1945 other than the most superficial coverage of the role of the Mustang and that B-17s would be used as bait. I found it striking to learn that in the end the most significant contribution of the 8th Air Force was to destroy the Luftwaffe in 1944 and that most bombing in WWII Germany was not achieving the strategic result that was envisioned. As such the 1943 period was well covered, but we are left with only a superficial understanding of what is probably the most important period, January 1, 1944 through June 6, 1944. During this time period Germany, if the sources are correct, was forced to shift 80% of their aircraft and a high percentage of their high power AA to defend Germany and also during this time period the Luftwaffe was essentially destroyed and high power guns and ammunition were denied to other fronts reducing the effectiveness of the German army in all other theaters of conflict. I do not take the cynical side that some podcasters take and over dramatize, as there are claims made now that the Nordon Bombsite was useless, the B-17 not so great and so on, the tactics of 1943 and strategies a waste. I look at Human nature and the need to make mistakes and learn from them, also in light of these were all new technologies and ideas at the time which had never been tested by reality. WWII lead to some truly remarkable mechanical computer systems the NOrdon Bombsite among them. Did they all work as claimed, well no, but it was a product of the time and circumstance. So I am pretty forgiving of these things as our standards have evolved so much over time. Precision bombing was not really possible until the lasers guided bomb was perfected in truth. I have been listening a lot to unofficial history of the pacific war and they delve into Mahan and grand strategy a bit which reminds me of my college Courses on U.S. Military HIstory decades ago. When you think of seeking out the climactic battle, perhaps 1944 air war was the climactic battle of the European theater as it layed the ground work for D-Day but also drew resources away from the Eastern front and made it significantly harder for the Germans to defend that front as they had fewer planes and pilots as well as dramatically fewer high power anti tank guns as so much of that was going to AAA.
  3. Looking at discussion above and as to pricing, Eduard in my opinion does not try to play in the low price range. Their typical 1/48 kit is in the $40.00 range depending on retailer and kit and so on. A full detail new 1/32 is going to be a lot more than that. Subject who knows, anything from the 109 series to anything else they have done. They have made their money from what I can see on German subjects and that is closest to their expertise from what I see so I would say some 109 or 190. If I were at the planning meetings I would spec it out as a 1/32 kit with separate cowlings but no engine. I personally would recommend copying how Kotare did the Mk I as then if someone wants they can just cut off the nose to fit an engine kit. Then the engine and numerous other inserts could be aftermarket in the Brassin range. So those who want it all can have it. Price, I don:t really care. If I just wanted cheap kits, you can always find a cheap kit somewhere to build. I am patient normally anyway and wait until I can buy below retail price on sale or whatever. I normally don:t pay retail for model kits anyway.
  4. It is not silly there are meaningful boundaries that must be enforce. If I were to imply Peter Jackson was a pedofile or anything akin that would be a much more serious ball of wax, as there is no basis for that any where in any form. Bad business practices though, well that is much more out in the air both within scale modleing and outside as to the same individual, HoweverI, I limited my comments to scale modeling as that is pertinent to our forums and pertinent to why we were discussing what could have been as to WNW. I still hope for a positive out come some day both as to the individual P.J. And as to WNW and that in due course maybe the individual will come to see that he needs to make some amends. I really am disappointed in the person, and that is the best way to put it. I am not angry about him, that is too much emotion, but I very much find his behaviour disrespectful to others.
  5. None but I am dying for some more options for the ZM 190A-4. I can only find a couple after market sheets for a-4s and am just looking for something different and interesting.
  6. I always thought I could not and would not attack the character and motives of members of this site, I really don:t think the character and motives of a major player in 1/32 scale modleing who is not a member of this forum should be bared but maybe that is me. We discuss motives of Mr. Tamiya constantly but that has never been barred. So really we are only barred from making negative comments then? I think it an essential aspect of this forum not to attack the character and motives of my fellow members, that to me is where the line should be but as long as we are respectful of each other, then the character and motives of modeling companies and brands should be in bounds so long as the discourse is civil. After all, if we had someone on the traders board committing fraud, that would call for some degree of discussion. We have been very lucky in that regard as this forum is small enough that we don:t see a lot of fraud, however I tried another forum and found that any post in the trade section is subject to response from scammers. I further submit that i am well within the bounds of constructive criticism of Peter Jackson as he is the one that caused his staff to be fired without notice or without just cause, it is a matter of public record in numerous interviews form the time period with former staff. Further it is also of public record that he did not pay for things he ordered, I.E. the !.35 Lancaster and the 1/32 DR.I as well as the 1/24 Dr.I as he lost the rights to those by virtue of non payment of his bills.
  7. I would submit the shut down of the WNW thread was pre-mature regardless, the discourse I was seeing was within bounds, I personally was being critical of Peter Jackson, but I don:t think that unreasonable in light of the facts of the situation. I did not call him names as he deserves, only respectfully suggest that the knight hood should be revoked based upon his treatment of his employees. He made some great movies that I still watch and love, but I will never again have good thoughts of Peter Jackson until I see evidence of some contrician towards people he has harmed, sorry but he is in many regards a lesser version of Lance Armstrong. Yes I am comparing him to another world class jerk who i was a big fan of and who treated people close to him badly. I fault Lance more for how he treated people than his doping. This forum does a good job of keeping things civil, and civility should be the benchmark above all. I know we get thread drift usually I try to orient my post to the target of the thread but am guilty of going of course at times, I know I admit.
  8. I could forgive B-17fs in natural metal and Mustangs with HVAR rockets, but the story has went to pot, trying to do too much in too little time with too little context. Let’s do the 8th Air Force justice first then switch to Italy, that should be the second season real go deep on the whole Tuskegee and air war out of Italy in a second chapter. Frankly after seeing B-17s shot down episode after episode I wanted to see more escort fighter revenge. The first 6 episodes were great for my part then it started falling apart in episode 7, and agreed episode 8 did not work. Now I guess we get a two hour finale today which I have not seen yet. Will watch, hope it is good but they just lost their focus here in these last couple episodes. Frankly they would have a better series if it ended when the Mustangs came swooping in to save the day in Episode 7. That would actually be logical.
  9. I will be ordering a set maybe two as I need them for an E and a C.
  10. Did you ever build the Albatros Dv, how about those tiny tubes you had to use to alighn and fit some of the bulkheads. It was doable but that was some crazy engineering and that kit would not go together if you basically got any paint where the bulkheads and formers go in the fusilage. WNW admitted especially in their fist few kits that their tolerances were on the tight side.
  11. I love what they did, I hate the way he treated his employees. For that I will forever resent Peter Jackson a little and if I were monarch would take way his night hood. His irresponsible financial decisions lead to the failure of a business could have lived a lot longer. Peter Jackson treated our hobby like a toy, that when he lost interest or money he could just dispose of as casually as we as children went out and shot our models with a BB gun. The problem is real people were working for him and real people had a real passion for the product being produced. So Peter Jackson disrespected all of us who are involved in or care about this hobby. I will never forgive him for that. But let’s not get melodramatic either, it is not like I would boycot a movie over it either. But I will not forget what he did and that it was wrong. As such the minute I could order from Kotare I placed an order in support of people who I think will do things the right way.
  12. WNW opened the door to people like myself that probably would never have bought or built a WWI aircraft otherwise. If they had been smartly managed and more disciplined in their approach, they might still be around. Stupid decisions like arbitrarily limiting their production runs and making subjects that were just too obscure in the end were factors in killing the whole thing off. Now WNW what might have been is called Kotare. The subject matter may be different, but Kotare may become what WNW should have been to begin with, a model company that makes popular subjects in unlimited runs and maybe throws in something obscure here and there or just less popular. WNW should have spanned anything with a propeller for starters and not arbitrarily a WWI only company. What if WNW had halved their WWI catalog as actually released and thrown in the Spitfire, maybe a key interwar subject, the French Spads, maybe a Hellcat or Hurricane, maybe the plane flown by Lindbergh and some of those key historic planes? Maybe if iconic and historic subject matter were the primary focus with a few special interest pet projects this would have had a different ending. The promise of kotare might be the what if WNW.
  13. Yea, that’s alright there was a sale last weekend and I bought the one you did not for 25% off, I would not even have said I am a spitfire fan, but I keep buying and building them. I am a sucker for WWII iconic aircraft, especially when a high quality kit comes along.
  14. I know this is a moral fault of mine, however I have no idea what most of the planes are on that list. As such I may not have had any interest in any of them. I bought some WNW kits, really enjoyed them but I was and still am not that into obscure aircraft. I know many on here are, I respect that, but all or most of those kits do not excite me. Like John1 said I feel no loss there.
  15. Could a brave soul design a 3d printed Spey phantom conversion for the Tamiya kit? I am not feeling great about when we are getting any 1/32 Jet new of any kind. Italeri might issue something again, but frankly 1/32 Jets are going to be few and far between. Spey phantom is not my thing but seeing the works coming out of Kopecky scale models as well as other 3d printers seems like this is more of a thing for A.M.
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