North American B-45 Tornado

bughunter Das ging ja fix, sehr schöner Artikel! Muß auch mal wieder was für Modellversium schreiben

Bernd Korte Watching!

Roland Sachsenhofer Hello Bernd, this promising beauty is going to the workbench immediately after the Defiant!

Lode Schildermans Following Holger

Jens Hello Roland
At first glance, I thought you were building an IL 28
I will watch, very interesting model

Roland Sachsenhofer Hello Mates, your interest is very welcome!

Ekki Watching too.

Roland Sachsenhofer Started! Here are the first impressions of Valoms B-45 Tornado. Parts are very short run-style but fit is proper and detailing seems sufficient. The fuselage length is quite big- I am happy!

Bernd Korte Nice, you kept your promise !

Roland Sachsenhofer Bernd, of course!

Robert W Martel Cool ! I'll be looking for it. Another one on my want list.
Much as I hate ebay, I do buy a lot of kits there. For the most part, if you look and have a little patience, you won't find a better price. And for some kits you won't find them anywhere else.

Edward May I used to be a major fan of eBay back in the '00s but shipping prices made it less and less cost effective unless the seller has multiple kits on one's wish list posted. Also back in the day you could ask the seller if they had any items unlisted they might like to sell in addition to the item(s) you won to lessen the impact of shipping costs. I was reminded of that not long ago when I picked up my Airfix Nimrod, not off of eBay, but another seller, here in the states. I got a really good deal on it but then wound up spending half as much again on shipping. In the '00s a kit of similar size would have cost that for International Airmail. However you are right, I've seen some REAL drool-worthy obscure stuff on there!

Robert W Martel Edward,
Correct,,, shipping has gone way up! Yea, I liked ebay in the beginning (around 2002) when I first started selling stuff. Those idiots think they run the world, they have driven prices UP. But, it's about the only place to find some older stuff. It's hard to find a good deal anymore. Model prices are very high these days.
BUT,,,, I'm still looking there daily! I do buy a lot of the newer kits @ Hobby Lobby, but they only carry the most popular stuff, but you can't beat the price w/40% off coupons.
Cheers!

Edward May Yes indeed, ah the days before PayPal crap, I bought so many money orders and had parcels coming in practically every couple of weeks - it was great! I really am not buying into the BS that the postal services around the world really need to jack prices up given the growth of eCommerce. E-mail hit them hard in the '90s, that was probably true, but after that they were likely making money hand over fist. However, I digress. If you want to look for good deals might I recommend Hyperscale's Buy, Swap and Sell Forum and there are some GREAT auction groups on Facebook that deal in polystyrene for folks that don't want to muss about with eBay. (That's where I nabbed the Nimrod, by the way.) Your' Hobby Lobby must be a much better place than the one in Fargo ND. I've been there a handful of times and each time they had nothing but run of the mill crap only slightly better than what one might find in a Walmart, Kmart or Target toy section. That makes me curious though; The owner of another local hobby store ordinarily is willing to order kits from his supplier per request, even from brands he often doesn't carry. Have you considered asking the manager to put in an order or three? If it works on your' end, let me know - and let me know how to get those 40% off coupons! Cheers~!

John Andresen Yeah Ebay is the place for older or obscure subject aircraft. I find myself looking on there more and more often these days. The disappearance of the smaller, local hobby shops is really a shame. Especially if you don't live in a larger metro area or the west coast. I remember spending hours just walking the aisles and looking at the kits stacked all over the place when I was a kid.

Glenn . Yea it's the same downunder. All toy shops and department stores had a great stock of kits now i can't find hardly any shops and the ones that are still around charge a small fortune. I only buy my paints there and the kits online. But then a lot of the stuff i want doesn't even make it into the country. Sad

Edward May I think the future of so-called brick and mortar shops is to have a "front room" which deals in hobby supplies, kits, etc. - while running a "back room" online shop. The last remaining hobby shop in my area has always been willing to order kits from their suppliers even from brands they don't typically stock, this needs to be a standard feature of such brick and mortar shops. There was an old, off the beaten path hobby shop in my area too though up until the '00s, Bader's Bike & Hobby. I learned of such brands as Airfix, Heller, FROG, Kopro/KP, ZTS Plastyk, etc. from browsing Mr. Bader's dusty old stacks of kits. I even saw the first vacuform kit I'd ever seen there. Once he passed though, his wife sold the shop off to a trio of guys (Mid-20s/Early 30s) who envisioned turning it into a wargamer's paradise. They didn't get far, failed to restock supplies/cater to existing customers and spent more time playing their wargames than assisting or engaging with customers. Sad how they drove that treasure trove into the ground.

Robert W Martel Yea it's a shame that the Mom & Pop stores are all but gone, at least here. We used to have a real nice one called Pardinis Toy Box. He had all kinds of toys, tons of models & RC stuff. There was also Standard Hobbies, a little hole in the wall store that had just basically models & RC, it was a good store. That was back in the late 80s, early 90s. Then along came Toys R Us and put them all out of business. They keep building newer bigger stores here in town, so business must be good. I've been in there a few times and their prices are through the roof! They only had 2 model kits on the shelf, and the clerk said they don't sell many. WallMart used to have them in the toy section, but last few times I looked there were none, they have them online though.
Lucky for me Hobby Lobby came along 6 or 7 years ago, but I never went in there until a few years ago. I've bought a lot of kits there the past 3 years. At 40% off you cant beat the price anywhere.
Otherwise it's EVILBAY! I'm gonna have to check out the ones Edward suggested, might find a better source. I hate ebay!! With a passion!!

roge Are you willing to sell this kit and how much?

Christopher Dworjan It's on my wishlist. I don't own this kit, and am looking for one myself.

Burkhard D It takes really good skills to achieve such an admirable result with a Mach2 kit. Excellent! Also a very entertaining (and sobering) review

Wilfried Bogaerts Very clean and nice build of an exotic subjec this is, I am impressed, well done Rolf. to me, it looks a bit like an F-89 Scorpion on steroids. Those early jet aircraft are s*xy!

Dave Flitton OOOOOH, brave AND masochistic!!! Excellent job!!

Holger Kranich "What effort and paitence can make out of a Mach 2 Kit!"

Stefan Schneider Gives me some hope for my Mach2 kit. Nice job!

Rolf Blattner Thanks gents, much obliged - may try to add more gallery topics including build reports some time later - when and if I get the knack of this site - or you just have a look for "popeye" on ipms. uk forum - recce sig, Britmodeller or 72nd Scale Aircraft.