We are awash with excellent AFV models today: thankee DML, Bronco, AFV, Trumpie and get to work Tamiya. But there are two tanks that we need done right. We need a new tool Grant/Lee - either will be fine. It was an important tank, served in several theaters and is funky. Two are out there but both are old and show it. The historian in me calls for a Renault FT. It was really the first modern tank (in service in WWII here and there) and scores sky high on the funk scale. Think this over and see if we can’t get a land slide.
Aircraft - a new tool B-17 in 1/48.
Ships - USS Enterprise (CV-6). The industry’s biggest crime against history is the lack of a good model of history’s most successful warship. This is a scandal. I will put off a 1/350 WWI battlecruiser or a 1/350 USS Washington until this crime against the hobby is rectified.
I agree completely about the Lee/Grant, Dragon have been promising one for something like 2 years now. it always amazing that they had trot out a new variant of the Panzer IV that was made on a Friday afternoon in July in a Factory in Bonn but cant get a Lee/Grant sorted!
While not the best quality kits, Academy’s M3 Grant and Lee are hardly considered “old”. I’m not sure which one came first (Lee I think), but they’ve only been out about 5 years or so. I bought the El Alamein version with Monty figure for $27 at Squadron about a year ago.
One of my favorite kits from my childhood was the Aurora MBT70. It was my inspiration to become a tanker. I know it never entered production, but companies have produced tank models that never existed beyond paper and these tanks were actually made.
Another tank model that has been neglected is the original M60 (aka “Slick 60” or M60A-nothing). It was a very important Cold War tank that held the line in West Germany and the Middle East while the Vietnam War was going on.
M60! Tamiya could re-tool their range pretty easy, seems to me. And speaking of the Big T and re-tooling, how 'bout an M4A3E8? A new -tool -A3 hull and the rest is in production.
1/35 M4A1 DD tank… Historically important overlooked subject… Several battalions of these swam ashore on D-day, in a bold achievement. Yet this tank has never been done in injection molded styrene…
My vote went for a 1/35 LVT3, which has not been done in injection or resin from what I know and it would make a grand stable mate to sit along the range of LVTs from Italeri and AFV Club. For 1/72 I scribbled out a request for an LVTP5, to fill the hole between the WWII and modern amphibs currently available.
An M103 is inbound? Who? Injection molded plastic? Most excellent news if ttrue.
Agreed on the MBT-70 and Conqueror. I think the FT-17 was announced by Italeri. Pray for non-polyethylene tracks. I hope AFV Club do an M60A2 as part of their M60 series.
My tastes lean towards oddball subjects, so I’d like to add a St Chamond from WW I, and maybe a new tool Mark IV Male and A7V while we’re at it. Some good old fashioned Cold War Commie stuff would also be great, like the T-10M and SA-4 Ganef. I’d bet that the Object 279 “UFO Tank” will see the light of day as an injection kit before the M3/M4 the guys are asking for, as the kit manufacturers seem to be trolling for unusual subjects nowadays. An injection molded PACV would also be sweet.
I’d like to see one of the USN rebuilt dreadnoughts also - but in their 1944 garb. I think you could make a very good argument that the old buggies played a bigger part in hastening victory in the Pacific than did the “fast” BBs in 1944-45.
Rob, I’m pretty sure that I saw that Bronco has an MB70 in the pipeline? I can’t wait, honestly–I photographed one in the Aberdeen sheds in the 80’s when I wrote and requested to see some of the stuff that wasn’t on display, and I really have wanted to model one ever since.
When it comes to Armor, we really, REALLY NEED a WWI British Mark I-IV – honestly, any one of them will do. With good tracks and an interior!! This has been my #1 “Most Wanted” for years!
I can’t understand why one of the big manufacturers don’t do this tank which as really the beginning of tank warfare? A well-rendered one would probably have a great appeal!
I agree with you and Real G on this Karl, and for me the German A7V is equally important. I’ve been asking for a 1/35 SdKfz. 9/1 FAMO with Bilstein crane in styrene, all in one box. Dragon’s got SdKfz-everything else it seems, and Trumpeter has the 1/72 but I want 1/35 in one package. That’s my #1 armor want only because it’s that cool to me, but some new WWI armor is my #2.
I’ve been looking at my Emhar Mark IV “male” for two years. It’s supposed to be a real pig - it sure looks it. If a new one comes out, I’ll dump it.
The Renault was later but played a bigger role in the fighting and the design was, to put it mildly, a keeper. Most WWII tanks had the same basic configuration and some design elements remain in use today.
