I'm totally into 1/144 scale I've recently been interested in naval ships. I've found a number of landing craft. I'm looking for PT boats I've found German and British but having problems finding a plastic kit. Found a wood kit and a 3d printed kit. Does anyone know if a plastic production kit exist
Mitsuwa from the early 70's was the only one I know of, good luck finding a kit though, the company is long defunct. Your most likely going to have to scratch build, but the are many PT plans available for purchase
I'm beginning to get that idea, been looking at plans thinking of building a heavy plastic framing and use .040 or even 060 plastic sheet for the skin I want it to be strong thinking if it's sizable and looks seaworthy maybe RC for the duck lake built the blue devil destroyer no rc just the straight kit the stupid gearing jammed and seized up the props was drifting for the duck island thought it was gone for sure but the breeze changed and missed the island took almost an hour to get to the other side of the lake. Too bad they built it in 125 scale. The had a big sale on it 20 bucks I bought four. Built two sold the others for a lot more than I got them for. Funny they mailed them separately and wrapped in paper, postal paper, two boxes got crushed but the kits inside were intact some parts broke from the sprues but fortunately no damage to the kits. Wish I had kept one the built ones over the years got busted up pretty bad and didn't have storage for them and they got trashed. I had the Lindberg 245 scale LST thought it might pass for my 285 armour, LoL, but it was a distressed kit I got cheap and had some issues I never did get worked out. Thanks for the info I'll try to see what is out there. I found some little known company that was doing mitsuwas old 144 aircraft most were really bad and lots have been done and are really far better. I think I have a few still in my stash but sold most of them at the kit shows. Getting that ship itch for some reason these days. Think it's all the 144 subs they have these days, a number of German and US, got a number of different ones from other countries. Some guy builds wooden kits of the I400. Some guy built one with cut outs showing the engine and battery room main section control and the hanger with the new model of the seaplane was perfect just had to modify the planes by cutting the wings and stabilizers for folded storage and build the storage skids. Looks great huge. I really think if they were really going to go all out they should have extended the hanger as far back as they could and maybe even added a elevator to add a lower hanger. Seems like a lot just for three planes and then they didn't really make use of them. I really want one of those new seaplane models and the try to figure out how to make the land version of it, LoL, plus tweak one to what I think they should have done for storage. I always thought it was stupid to make it where they had to put it on a special skid and take off the undercarriage float assembly. Think they could have made the floats permanent and maybe changed the wing fold. Seems stupid to make a plane that requires more time to prepare for flight when your a dead duck on the surface. I'd want something that is ready in a few minutes not thirty per plane. I just think they could have done far better. Not sure if it was a cost issue or manufacturing that they did it the way they did. Like trying to save on resources like maybe it would have needed more steel that they were running out of. Anyway it would be fun to do my own take on it. Also a JW7 shinden Kai is on the top of my list. Missed getting one kept getting out bid, piss on that sniper program can't tell you how many times I thought I had one and that program would out bid me in the last seconds and by pennies that really pissed me since it would say what the next bid had to be and it was like dollars not pennies that what I could never understand. Anyway never got one but got an ftoy toy, lol appearently they did a collector series and a toy series and got the toy one by mistake. But think I might be able to rebuild it into a better one, if I don't get the collector series. Thanks for the info and your time.
Not to change the subject from PT boats (but I guess I did) but since we are on the Modeling subject and you seem to be very knowledgeable on the craft, today I went to the local Hobby Lobby looking for a Tamiya Spitfire model because I wanted quality and even though they had only Revell in that model I chose not to buy it. Because lately I have had fit problems with Revell, especially aircraft. And I didn’t want to order anything from Amazon right now even though they had two to offer there. I wanted a model plane to build over the upcoming dark winter months. So, getting to my question; I decided on an AirFix model of a P51D Mustang that gives you three options to paint and build it to three different air forces. When I opened the box the quality of the parts instructions and decals appear to look concise and of good quality, and made in the UK I believe. So, have you ever had experience with AirFix aircraft and how would a model from them compare to an aircraft model from Tamiya? Thanks in advance.
I only remember having Airfix 1/600 ships, the hulls tended not to fit together properly, but the rest of it was fine. Don't recall building any of their aircraft. Details were adequate with Airfix, but Tamiya kits were more expensive and better detailed.
Air fix over the years has really improved on the detail of there kits redoing a number of their old kits. But the Japanese have been the model masters for year, a lot of new tooling from European and China has been rivaling Japan. I really like its coming from mark one and eduard these days they are good kits at least the ones I've gotten have great detail and I've had no fitting issues. I've got ting some eastern kits that are great subjects have decent panel lines and details like the transports in my scale, 1/144 have a full cargo deck and flight deck, but putting them together is a time many have major issues they are diffenately not for the novice builder. Such kits will diffenately hone your building skills. What scale are you into? Also not all Japanese kits are top notch . Fujumi came out with a series of multi semi modular kits so they could do a bunch of aircraft that were based on the same airframe but had changes thru out the different versions, like the f4 had lots of gaps in the fitting of the different sub sections that you would either have to fill with putty or my fix was to use strips of evergreen plastic they have a whole selection of paks from .010 x .010 to .100 to .200 x .200 great for filling in a space plus easy to glue and shape. Most modern kits are pretty accurate these days but the new kits have their boo boos too. Many early kits have lots of mistakes you can sometimes find great reviews on different kits some telling you of mistakes that you may need to address if you want a accurate build. But I would also try to find more than one review to see if they jive if you know what I mean. Read a review on a kit. The guy wrote it was a great kit. I got it it has great detail, but had horrendous fitting problems had to think about how to build it with out destroying the details on the wings and get it to match correctly. I was a little pissed that he didn't mention any fitting problems at all. Like the new air fix Lancaster my buddy was selling all his old ones for the new tooling, had beautiful detail but the engine necelles were over sized it was a big rip on model sites, how could they mess that since the old kit was scaled correctly, my buddy was upset and checked his stash and was happy he still had two of the old ones left. Collecting is hard you want to sell your old kits when they still have value for the newer hoping they are going to be better, but some times you miss. Like trumpeter was doing a new Amazon class in 1/700 the other was a resin kit was not bad had a few issues like not plastic resin is a bit harder to assemble and the detailing could have been a little better. The kit came out we were comparing it and hey wtf, they were not sizing right we got out our scales and the new kit was huge scaled out 1/600. What a major boo boo collectors all over were returning their kits. What a major boo boo for trumpeter. Too bad as they had done some good kits. I'm thinking of reworking my resin Amazon and maybe do the Indian version where they added some small extra guns new radar etc. Many of the Japanese manufacturers over the years have been retooling updating and making more accurate kits. The Chinese have been learning as well, some of their early kits the etch work was terrible but as time went on they got really good, just wish they would redo some of their earlier kits or continue with some new like the did a bunch of German armor and the were getting really good, but they didn't do much of any wwii allied armor, would have loved to see that considering how good they were getting with German armor. Check out eduard as well, they have some great reviews and the kits I've gotten are the best I've seen just wish they did more I've written to their suggestion email, hope they do the ones I've asked for. Anyway just try to make sure your getting a newer tooling as there's still lots of the old kits still around. My buddy use to get the old kits as they would sell cheaper but the etch work would need to be done and would retch them but it takes a lot of time and like me getting older and hands not as steady so now he's sell his older kits for ones he can build without having a lot of reworking to do. Sorry if I tend to run on I do like to converse about modeling and such.
No, I appreciate your input. I only build 1:48 scale planes, and not too many at that. On the box it says 148 pieces and an officially licensed Boeing product. North American F-51D Mustang. I will spray and paint some of the parts before I assemble it this Winter. I don’t always paint to specs. But the decals look nice.
