The Dude

Looking good! I am working on the E-3 version off and on for the last few months too. The engine cowl and upper gun cover was fickle for me. I needed to trim some of the gun parts and then had to tack it with CA glue and then the Faller glue to get it all lined up. Other than that its been a pretty good build for me so far.

Same here. I'd rather take a small early hit than try to play catch up and suck up a bigger hit down the road. I buy 'em to build them- otherwise I could've retired early a few years ago when the WnW OOP fokker and Albie ebay feeding frenzie was at it's peak. As for the comments about not many people buying it because Its too expensive? Based off my 'years in the biz' Radub nailed it, there are plenty of people who can afford it and those folks generally don't hang around on forums much. If they want it, they will get it. I think the Lancs will probably go fast since they aren't nearly as obscure as most WWI AC .

Cool pix. I just spent a week in Dallas Tx and watching airliners land at DFW from my hotel room. Now I've got the itch to do some airliners.

So is anyone planning to go to squadrons Eaglequest contest and show later this week?

Cool pictures! I agree, spending a little more to avoid headaches and hassles is worth it 99% of the time. The last picture proves it, those folks are probably cussing the wait while you are enjoying the view they came to see.

Oops, Thats gonna leave a mark..glad he seems to be ok though.

Hell people get shot and killed here in my city and they'll still let the perps out on bond.

Excellent progress, I really like it!

That might be the credit card company not letting the transaction go through, especially if it is a fairly large sum. It happened to me when I pre-ordered the gotha G1's. A quick call to the credit card company and it went through 20 minutes later.

I finally folded and only picked up 3 kits after whittling it down from 10. I got another DH-9a post war, a DFW and a AEG G.IV early version. $300 was easier to absorb versus roughly $900.

Figures... I decide to pass on this years Nats and It'll end up being the biggest ever..

As much as I too would like to see a big f-22 I doubt it will happen any time soon. As others have said, limited numbers, users and scheme's. Plus I would be rather worried if a Chinese company would put out an accurate raptor. Lol. One other area to look is if hasegawa and academy's f-22 sold well. I don't see those around very often and 1/48 is a more popular scale for modern jets. Maybe manufacturers in general are hesitant to put out new kits? I mean almost all new kit gets praised to high heaven by most of the online 'mainstream' reviewers that get them for free so they can keep getting them for free. Then the kits get torn apart and shredded by most modelling forums because of a panel line is a little bigger than it should be . GWH 1/48 su-35 anyone? Which by the way was an overall awesome kit to build. Yes I know there are exceptions to both rules but still. Plus who has hundreds of thousands of dollars to dump into a kit and probably not worry about the selling numbers as much? I can think of only one....WnW Trumpeter can crank em out because labor is generally so cheap over there in china. Truth be told that it would be easier to make a good looking and accurate su-25 based off a Trumpy kit than it would carving one out of wood IMO. /Rant

my list is based of what I have built over the years Best: 1) tie -Tamiya/WnW. when I buy their kits I know it will most likely be a fun and good fitting project. Only built a few tamiya kits that weren't that great mostly older stuff. The only WnW kit i've done that was 'challenging fit' was the J1 and even that was still better than most. 2) Hasegawa. Mostly because they have nice and comparatively simpler builds and make into good shelf fodder. 3) Great Wall Hobby. Their jets specifically the 1/48 scale Mig-29 and Su-35 are the bomb diggity! honorable mentions, Revell of germany affordable kits and decent quality. HK, AMK, new ICM and ZM nice molds and cool subjects and good fit. Trumpeter because of the mass amounts of 1/32 they put out that no one ever considered and generally good fit on the newer stuff. 99% of my finished models on the shelves are all of these companies listed above. bottom ones. 1)Matchbox; Even as a novice builder when I was a kid i remember they sucked. 2)MPC see above 3) heller see above honorable mentions, Airfix, see above but I will admit the new stuff they are doing are redeeming themselves quickly.

Trust me IF I had the money I would start my own model company. The problem is labor here would be way to expensive to be viable for very long. Kit prices would be too high for most to recover the cost in a reasonable time.

i didn't think they were that rare?