Objection overruled! What 'WW1-1930's' kits by 'major manufacturers'?
I'm searching my memory for a -new- biplane kit introduced by
Revelogram or Hasegawa or Tamiya or any of the other biggies in
the last ten years. I'm sure there must have been one but I can't
off hand think of it.
>Even some modelers of quite
>respectable skill often dispense with the hassle of rigging. I doubt
>very much that the mythical average modeler who does not feel up to
>rigging a kit is going to forego adding models of planes he likes to his
>collection, rather than build them unrigged.
Ah, but the problem is 'planes he likes'. WW1 just ain't a hotbed of
interest. If you're really into biplanes, you'll research it, rig it,
paint teeny-tiny instrument faces on teeny-tiny instruments. But if
you just wanna 'build a model', you're gonna get a Mustang or an FA-18
or something like that where:
The kit is cheaper,
The research is easier,
The paints are available 'off the shelf',
After market decals are readily available in the dozens of schemes,
And there are a minimum of 'fiddley bits'
>It sure didn't stop me from
>building biplanes when I was at that skill level -- had whole shelves of
>unrigged you-name-its from F.2bs to P-6Es, some of which now sit in boxes
>waiting to be refurbished (and rigged!) when I get the time ...
>
It didn't stop me either -but-, I'm kinda strange, I actually -care- about
WW1 aviation. Most modelers don't have any strange desires in this direction
nor is there anything out there to awaken any such interest. The reference
books are generally expensive and not widely available and there are no movies,
TV shows (when's the last time 'Wings' devoted a show to a -biplane-?) or
novels to tweak anyone's interest in WW1 aviation.
What we need is for Steven Spielburg to do a movie based on the 'Biggles'
books - now that would probably do more to advance WW1 aviation modeling
than all our bitchin' and moanin' (Or, am I the only one who still
remembers Biggles?)
Sigh, I keep trying to get rid of this damn soap box!
Cheers,
-- Bill Shatzer - bshatzer@orednet.org -or- aw177@Freenet.Carleton.ca - "Most any experience from prison life is transferable to political life, since the same kind of characters inhabit both worlds." -Frank Peters-