There used to be a place that specialized in small civil aircraft. I think the place was called something like K-Bar or something like that, which, as I remember, stood for the owner’s names. They specialized in business planes and twins and such. They seem to be gone now, but it was nice seeing all the stuff they had available
Now, I have a very hard time finding small civil aircraft kits. What is a good way to find what is available these days? Any vendors specialize in that kind of subject? Any web site that compiles what is available in that subject?
Hobby Terra (hobbyterra.com) in the Ukraine carry a lot of unexpected civillian general aviation models in 1/72. But keep in mind they are mostly limited run kits which require a bit (read: a LOT) more care in assembling.
The new EE kits are day vs night compared to their old stuff. Still need a lot of careful prep work though. I have their 1/144 An-22 Antei and B717. Both have detailed cockpits with seats and consoles, more than you get from Western manufacturers.
I’ve built both Amodel and Eastern Express. The Amodel kits are pretty average European resin. They are not shake-the-box self-assembly, but for an experienced modeler they can be built into nice models.
The one Eastern Express kit I built was a styrene Baltic sea small tanker. People told me it was a repop of someone else’s kit (forget who). Since I was going to much it up and heavily weather it, I figured I’d take the chance on it. It wasn’t bad- detail was a bit heavy. I was looking at it recently and decided I had not weathered and made it crudy enough. Debating now whether to try to find a new kit, or remove railings and stuff and replace with PE, and really go heavier on the weathering.
I know that I’m no where near as good a model builder as many on this site, so maybe my perspective is different from some, but ever since I’ve gotten back into model building a few years ago I’ve tended to look at most kits kind of as a “starting point” more than anything else.
Some kits I have are quite detailed and may not require much anything extra, other than paint and a few minor details, while others I have bought solely as an initial “form” to which I hope to add all sorts of scratch built or store bought details, and maybe even do a little kitbashing or heavy mods to them.
As such to me, as long as you have a good idea of what you are likely “getting before you buy” I’m pretty muchly happy with all the models that I have bought, regardless of manufacturer.
Specifically, I knew that my old Ark Models Potemkin was going to be rough, but I planned on scrathbuiling/doing alot of woirk to it anyway, and it was at the time one of the few Pre-Dreadnoughts on the market, so I was happy when I bought it and happy with it when building, even if some parts were warped or kind of in rough shape. [:)]
Similarly I new that the old Lindberg reboxes of the Q-Ship and USS Shangri-la are fairly toylike, but I wanted them a s a basis for making a WWI era freighter and a what-if Essex replacement, and they served that purpose really well.
And finally, I knew that my Amodel Yak-130 and my Be-4 seaplane kit from some other small manufacturer were going to “be representative” of what you might expect from small scale manufacturers, so I wasn’t expecting a high end kit, but I was very happy to be able to buy anything that represented the Yak & Be that I could use as a starting point for a build [:)]
Anyway, just some additional thoughts that I wanted to add
The Amodel CMC Leopard recalls how frightening their molding can be (although their latest releases are much better). The kit is small and simple, so how hard could it be? Well, the wings don’t fit to the fuselage as the fairings are different in curvature plus the pins will set the wings at different locations(!). The molding is soft overall, but everything can be overcome with patience and application of modeling skill.
Wow, that is a serious wing root gap. Never seen sinkholes in sprue lol.
I agree if there’s no other option, I’m greatful that someone made a kit as a starting point. I’ve been doing a lot of civil stuff lately and like Don, looking for more subjects - hoping for decent quality.
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