I was given Airfix’s SNR4 Hovercraft ferry one year (way back). It had a transparent top on one side to reveal the car deck below, made a complete hash of it. I have never forgotten it; would love to go back and pick one up.
I wish I could go back to the late 90’s, when I was in the county 4H modeling club, to ask the leader what a project he picked up at a show was and who made it. All I remember was it was a resin kit that was a single pice sea scape with a nuclear sub in the middle of it. I am guessing it was some kind of garage or limited run piece…but I always wanted one and have never seen anything remotely like it since.
I actually have the old, lighted original MPC Falcon I picked up in the late 1990s when I was stationed at Redstone Arsenal. I’m still Facebook friends with the man who was the salesman at the Huntsville Hobby Shop. It abruptly closed one day. I was stationed there from Jan 1996 to Jan 1999, so I think I got it probably around 1997.
Never got around to building it because AMT/Ertl released a retool with cut away interior and I built that instead. I still have my old MPC Return of the Jedi Falcon I built in college around 1984 or so. Someone here sent me some of the landing gear that went missing from my original kit. I posted photos of it here in the last couple of years.
It was one of my favorite kits from my youth.
Honestly, I never gave this kind of question a seconds thought (are you kidding me?).
Looking back, I can off the top of my head come up with these:
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1/8 Pocher Ferrari F40
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1/12 Bandai STP Turbine Indy Car
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1/8 De Agonstini Lamborghine Countach
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1/25 Tamiya Chieftian tank with interior and ammo trailer
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1/16 Trumpeter M16 Halftrack
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1/48 Jasmin F6F-5 Hellcat PE Model
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1/32 OV-10D Bronco
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1/1 Life Scale Broom Handle Mauser with Holster Stock
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1/1 Life Scale Thompson Machine Gun
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1/12 Model Factory Hiro Porsche 917
These are just a few that some to mind [2cnts]
In 1959 Monogram put out a kit called Air Power, a collecton of 18 Air Force planes in 1/248 scale. They had wire stands for each plane. I have this fantasy of building and painting them with all the latest natural metal finishes and a bit detailing. Well, it’s a fantasy since these kits are unobtainium!
Ken
Well, the good news is that if you do manage to find one of the old “Air Power” kits, you can get new, reproduction decals for it!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/261613964451?hash=item3ce9684ca3:g:az8AAOSwxH1ULY9D&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0NiYcVnuTMbxXeZpQ8amNmJwmW4jicV%2FpqTZFFQgBJ2DVMhoRBfGgLV84b6T6VHQzUA2tH73K5QPlKVurjVa4iBxvADNa8JySeezGF9kURI4UxnxxIU0DoresQvqn%2BcwojZCthKiQ5s8WAz5BUe2Uj3yad6wZHp%2BuSmBvUIhY2urx9Nrw%2FrsG1r95k%2FfGP5B9zfAQ8ofSX4EAKsJZ1PigleyOwK0yhZc%2Bh%2FSU93Svf2IHU3t%2BD2X7ZsktECUbcz3r0nb4HAdddHbziES%2FRery2E%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR-yexfiUYg
Not something I would do. First, the Revell model is a good model. Second, the wood kit takes expert skill.
Bill
Since I was born before there were plastic models, I only have myself to blame if I don’t have it.
id take a bag and fill it up with all of tha Humbrol, Floquil and Polly S paint I could find.
Bill
Hi,
Could I go forward in time and pick up some stuff that hasn’t come out yet, but that I’d really like to see, like maybe a model of the new HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier or the US Army’s M10 (MPF) [:P]
Surprisingly enough the prices on EBay for this kit (if unbuilt) really aren’t that bad, considering the collectors item value it carries just for being a Star Wars product. One seller was asking for around $160 US for what I presume is the first series from the 1977 movie, to about $40-50 US a couple of others wanted for the ROTJ version like the one you have. That’s fairly competitive pricing in the bigger scheme of things, give how this sort of second-hand market usually works. If aftermarket companies like ParaGraphix make a decent etched set for this model that just increases my desire to take another shot at an old school model like this. I have next to zero scratchbuilding ability so I’d have to have some etch or resin parts to go along with this version of the Falcon.
Yeah, I’ve got all three versions; original lighted version from 1979 (unbuilt), ROTJ version from 1983 and the cutaway version I got in 1996 (started). I had aspirations of accurizing it using Jack’s Falcon Models sides and guts, but never got to it.
I need to get these to someone who will build them. I do have the Revell of Germany one from about a decade ago that I like better.
I found some 3D printed parts online last night via some sort of Shapeways associate. But I would have an impossible time in this or any other universe in justifying spending something like $200 US for a 3D cockpit cabin wall piece for a forty five year old model that can be found for less than half of that price for the entire kit. Ordering every interior & exterior part they had for the Falcon would be well in excess of $1000. That sort of luxury spending is strictly for the lucky lottery winner sort of folks.
FYI, the old MPC Falcon is due to be resissued with sorta corrected sidewalls and other stuff like a new radar dish.
Yeah, spending over $200 on a 1977 vintage kit is pointless, since the Fine Molds and Bandai kits have arrived.
And those new parts MPC adds won’t make much of a difference overall for the reissue. By now the molds will be so ancient that the unchanged parts will be a mess, just as occurs far too many times with other kits from the MPC/AMT product lines that get re-issued. So, just to avoid the frustration, paying extra for the basically brand new Fine Molds or Bandai versions that have none of the hassles that come from the MPC kit would be far better options today.
I remember one other kit I’d love to time-travel for - the Monogram 1:72 HU-16 Albatross US Coast Guard version. It was the first kit my dad let me try on my own back in the early 1970’s, so there’s sentimental value attached. I also came with a neat little life raft with someone lost at sea in it, and the Albatross crewmen were posed reaching out to help the guy into the plane.
Well yeah, the rest of the MPC Falcon will not be updated. Even back in 1980, me and my friends were howling with laughter at the random, made-up “details”. I especially liked the aircraft landing gear with wheel on the engine deck. Yes ILM used such things, but there already were reference photos that told us that it was bogus.
Nevertheless, it was the only game in town. And back then, we knew that if a kit maker gave you rocks, you made do with rocks. I did build one of those Falcon kits for a friend back then. I cut a bit off the tops and bottoms of the sidewalls to lower the kit’s overall height. It looked the part and my friend was thrilled.
Looking back, it makes me feel a greater sense of appreciation for the new kits of old sci-fi subjects that are coming out today. We never had it so good back then.
I built the MPC reissue of the Darth Vader Advanced Tie Fighter last year. It was pure comedy too, given that the interior details looked like instrument clusters from the inner parts borrowed from an ancient Revell or Aurora full-interior nuclear submarine model. And the “landing gear”, if that’s what they were supposed to be, upgrade MPC added was side-splitting hilarious too. Points to them for creativity I suppose, in a bare minimum effort sort of way. Otherwise though? Nah, just nah. Today’s die-cast toys of the same vehicles are probably better in terms of being accurate to the subject matter.
Hey but “Bathroom Vader/Garden Gnome” was replaced with a more suitable figure!
But to be fair, the original figure could not be seen grunting and straining on the throne once the hull halves were glued together.
I still want to go back to 1970 and get a pizza from Chico’s, after visiting the hobby shops.
Okay, OKAY I’ve got one!!!
The kit of the ‘Cygnus’ from the 1980 Disney movie ‘The Black Hole’.
I’ve heard the kit is pretty rare and really expensive now. But also I’ve heard is it sucked so I haven’t looked though Ebay or anything like that for one.
But if a time machine is available I’d hop back to 1980 to see if I could pick up a copy.
It’s one of the most beautiful ships in SF movies. I find it odd no one ever did a garage kit of the ship. Although to get the full effect you’d have to do most of the hull with a PE frame, clear parts, and lights inside…
Here you go Gam Gam
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1210315419/uss-cygnus-12-model-kit-death-ship-from
Oh that’s awesome! THANKS!!!
Maybe I could paint it with glow in the dark paint!?!?