Kwitcherbitchin' and count your blessings. I lived through the
'great WW1 drought' of the late '70's and early and mid '80's
when just about -nothing- was available in WW1. I once paid
$15 (at a time when Hasegawa 1/32 scale kits were $15!) for
an Airfix Hannover. I carefully cultivated 'pen pal' relationships
with Czech modelers so I could trade for Smers. I hunted down
old Aurora stuff, even the -really- bad kits! I even, God help me,
got so desperate that I bought the Monogram "Red Baron' hot rod
kit just for the little 1/87 scale triplane included with the car
kit!
WW1 after market decals and accessories? They didn't exist 'cept
a couple of Microscale sheets which were almost never in print and
contained such helpful goodies as the serials and data blocks for
the Breguet 14 - leading to the ever vain hope that sometime, somewhere,
a 1/72 Brequet 14 would materialize to stick the decals on.
Lighten up folks - this may not be heaven but it's at least Iowa!
Nowadays you've got -lots- of kits to pick from and they almost
all will build up into decent looking replicas right out of the box -
maybe not contest winners, but decent looking replicas none the less.
Try saying that about the Airfix Dr.I which for a long time was one
of only 3 or 4 WW1 model kits available from any manufacturer.
Cheers,
-- Bill Shatzer - bshatzer@orednet.org -or- aw177@Freenet.Carleton.ca -