Thanks for the compliments guys. I used to be an avid model builder back in the seventies and eighties, but I just gradually stopped. Not on purpose, it just sort of seemed to happen on its own. My favorite kits were Bandai for tanks and Monogram for aircraft. I never really got into cars. That Bandai Panther and its 1/24th scale counterparts represented a major investment for the company that didn't really pay off for them, so they eventually pulled the plug on their WWII stuff. Tamiya dominated the WWII vehicle kit market to the point that Badai couldn't get enough of a foothold to matter. It's unfortunate because many of their 1/48th scale offerings were really nicely detailed. Meanwhile Tamiya's 1/35th scale kits from the seventies were absolute garbage. I built one once and even though I put a lot of effort into it and it looked nice, there was something decidedly off about it that I couldn't put my finger on. Then I stumbled across an article in a modeling magazine that explained everything. It seems Tamiya had been tweeking the dimensions of their tank kits so that batteries and motors would fit inside. By the mid eighties they had come to their senses and repented of their evil ways and a new series of retooled kits began to hit the shelves that were spot on. So I could finaly buy Tamiya kits with a clear conscience, which was nice since Bandai had thrown in the towel. Anyways, even though I stopped building, I never really stopped buying, so now I have a sizable backlog of kits that want building. Somehow I don't think I'm alone in that regard.
