Good luck with the kit. Most Hobby Lobby stores have a set armor selection with a couple decent kits and the rest buildable, but relatively poor kits. That Academy Abrams they always seem to carry is one of the worst Abrams tank kits still on the market. The Tamiya Panzer II and M41 Walker Bulldog are venerable, but outdated models. They also sometimes have their ancient and very poor Tamiya Panther A in stock.
Armor is addictive, there’s so much available to builders and really interesting subjects. Almost daily we’re seeing new products that we’ll never have time to get. Take a peek at the MIG and AK lines of pigments and weathering, this is only a start but I still can’t believe whats out there for us…it’s a great time to build!!!
I agree with some of the others that its better to start on easier kits, I’m a little worried about jumping into a Dragon Smart Kit with a million parts and their poor excuse for instructions. I’ve found mismarked parts, steps missed, etc. Unless you know your subject it’s very easy to make a mistake. The vintage Tamiya kits are available and you’ll use every part in the box. They can be built into a great kit and you can experiment with AM products like I mentioned. Every so often I’ll build one just for piece of mind from these other kits.
Actually, Dragon’s Smart Kits are designed to use fewer parts (than their standard kits) and easier to build without sacrificing the level of detail many modelers demand. If a regular Dragon kit is a graduate level build, their smart kits are designed for undergrads.
Most of Tamiya’s older kits were designed to be motorized. Because of this, the detail is more robust so it can be handled without breaking off tiny bits when replacing batteries or bumping into the couch. They are also easy to assemble; think junior high school level with newer Tamiya kits being high school level.
I just spent some time looking at the model lots on ebay. Very tempting to get six models for about $35-40 with shipping. So for I have resisted temptation because I know nearly nothing about the quality of the kits and haven’t even heard of some of the brands. I keep saying to myself ‘do I want to build that model?’. But a whole group of kits cheap…
This is how you end up with a shelf of kits you never build isn’t it?