This is not a specific topic, more a question as to what has interested you that you thought would never be released, or for that matter never considered as far as modelling is concerned.
Three releases that pleasantly surprised me as far as content were concerned were the two Northrop Flying Wings and the Valkyrie that AMT released. OK, I have no idea of the quality of the kits having never started them but I was very pleased to be able to get them (especially as I live in the UK). To a lesser extent I suppose there are the two AMT Tigercats as well.
Another interest of mine is the “fantasy” aspect. Nothing too outrageous I hasten to add. I refer to the German “what ifs” that have been releasef by Dragon (the Me 1011 I think it was called) and Revell (they must have release at least four, including the asymmetric Blohm & Voss).I suppose to a lesser extent the Gotha Go 229 by Dragon and the Do 335 by Tamiya would also fall into that category as does the Hasegawa Kyushu J7W1 Shinden (OK so Japanese aircraft as well!). To see the latter was a surprise to say the least.
Anyone else been pleasantly surprised by a manufacturers choice of release. I suppose I am really referring to injection moulded as opposed to vacform as the latter tend to go for the slightly less mainstream model anyway.
The AMT Valkyrie was a nice surprise, but I was disappointed when I opened the box. You’d still need a decent amount of work to get a nice replica of that beautiful bird. But, it’s better than anything that came before in term of Valkyrie kits, so let’s not complain too much!
My most welcome surprise was seeing Hasegawa release some more Airbuses in 1/200. Those airliner kits are superb and well designed, and it took them soooo long to come up with the A320 series that it nearly killed me!
An even better thing would be for Hasegawa to re-release their egg-plane series…
Talking of Academy the Stratocruiser was a pleasant surprise. I only recently got one, well at least I got the C-97A as it was cheaper. I then saw a Stratocruiser on ebay UK and put a bid in near the end of the auction and including postage paid £12.99 (around $20) for it.
Acting on information received…
A 1/48 Wirraway and Boomerang are about to be released by one of the middle European manufacturers.
I am not putting my hopes too high but if they were released I, for one would buy one or two.
Dai
The biggest 2 surprises where 1 AMT releasing the A-20, P-40 & F7F series, and 2 was Tamiya started doing 1/48 scale A/C series in major amount of planes, and just when you think you’ve seen it all AMTech comes along with a whole lot of surprises
God I love this Hobby
Ugly Butt Deadly Effective Hawgs
Cuda
1/48 SM.79 bombers were a surprize to me, but now Cassic Airframes and Trumpeter have provided the hobby with them. I don’t do much WWII stuff, but it never ceases to amaze me what a disproportionate amount of German and Japanese Axis subject matter there is in kits compared to Italian stuff.
I never Suspected a 1/32 A-7 Corsair II, but I heard that Trumpeter announced one this past year for upcoming release.
I think, to me, the most pleasant surprizes in kits in the past 5 years or so would have to be Airfix’s 1/48 Buccaneers and Lightenings, beautiful kits, well above the usual Airfix standard.
One that really blew me away was AMT’s 1/48 Royal Navy AEW Skyraider, I NEVER imagined that variant of the A-1 to ever be available as a full injection kit, I figured we’d always be going with aftermarket conversion kits if we wanted it.
One day. I hope to see a 1/32 F-111 series, Did you here me Trumpeter?
The main surprise I’ve had lately is the booming market for the “Braile-Scale” aircraft. The market is now 1/32 crazed, and I love it! We, the common modeler, now have access to museum quality kits right off the shelves! When I was a kid, the thought of a scale model measuring over 1 foot was absurd, or highly unlikely. Now, I have several kits that are almost 3ft in length, and they’re only getting bigger. Who’s going to be the first to release a C-5 in 1-24? That would get ya, wroper!
The recent trend for 1/32 has come as a real surprise, particularly some of the subjects - never would have expected a 1/32 F-105. I’m really tempted by this kit, just don’t have space, there’s always been something interesting about the F-105.
Really looking forward to the 1/48 Banshees, I think I might have to make a few of them
