Dragon being toppled was a blow to German armor. Was the hobby losing its popularity? However, we are now be given a great selection of kits from many quality manufacturers. Sure, the WWII German armor juggernaut has taken a hit. That convinced me to practice other genres. I think that we have neared the apex of popularity. Hopefully, the manufacturers prove me wrong.

While many local shops have closed, clubs are still strong and there are more manufacturers than ever, either for models, aftermarkets or paints.

And there is a lot of activity on forums and Facebook so I do not think the hobby is going to decline...

One of my nephews is interested in the hobby mainly sci-fi and real space so I get him kits now and then. He recently did a little ship that was all photoetch and did an amazing job. I'm considering letting him do al my photoetch from now on. He's looked at my stash and I told him he could build any thing he want and he picked an old KIRIN Lion of Babylon. Not a great kit but easy to build. Hope he keeps his interest going. He was in awe when I showed him my 1/16 trumpy king tiger. This is where new modelers come from.

I have a niece and a nephew who are very interested, in my work. I'm planning on buying each of the them a snap fast kit, for Christmas. One or two of those, then begin teaching them to paint.

1. There are more interesting kits than ever before. In the old days around here in Sweden we had Tamiya and Italeri to choose from in 1/35th scale, maybe the odd Heller kit if we were lucky.

2. News are being churned out almost daily. In the nineties (last century, previous millenium ..) the news were presented after the few major trade shows (Nürnberg, Shizuoka, ?) and that was it. No excitement during the rest of the year, period.

3. The internet has brought us discussion forums, possibility to view inspiring builds daily. We can ask questions, get and give feedback, tips and hints.

4. There used to be only a handful of paint brands to choose from. Where I grew up it was Humbrol, period. Travelling to Germany as a kid I discovered Revell paints and the Airfix catalogue let me know that Airfix had their own range.

5. References! The internet is FULL of images! In the old days it was the boxart or buying an expensive book and there wasn't too many of those either. Now we are discussing which book about the Pz IV that has the best images of a particular area of the suspension.

6. Aftermarket! There used to be Verlinden for us 1/35th fans. Well, maybe a few brands more. After a while I discovered the huge fountain (relatively speaking) of british armour made by Accurate Armour.

Are we living in a golden age?
Maybe, maybe not.
I lack the gold to be able to enjoy this golden age fully and get and build all the kits I would like too

If I owned one of these I would sell it and buy a container of kits for the money





Happy Easter!
/ Robin

Golden Age is a relative term. Gold as opposed to what else?

Robin Nilsson pretty much went over why now as opposed to other periods could be termed golden. The 1980s for armor was the Dark Ages. Nothing new for years until late in the decade. Now modelers have more choice than ever before. Dragon goes down because they are running out of subjects without the expense of having to cut all new molds. But new makers are stepping forward to add kits to the already vast armada of German armor.

And at the same time we are finally seeing that someone else made armor in World War 2. Hungarian armor? Tank transporters? Trumpeter has taken upon itself to make every Soviet of armor since World War 2. Cold War warriors of NATO (other than home market Bundeswehr kits of ROG) are finally getting state of the art kits for the first time in 20 years.

Three new Tiger II with several with ready retail about $30? And interiors?

A Tamiya Valentine? All bets are off now. Thirty years ago I said that if Big T ever did a Valentine all bets were off. We could see anything. (Come on Tamiya Crusader I/II, Cruiser tanks... you know you want to... Daimler armored car...)

When the Sergeant mobile missile platform is released, I will put my razor knife away for good.

If the 80's were the dark ages, than the 60's and 70's were the time before man discovered fire. Not just for armor but for planes, ships and autos. Armor scales ran from 1/32 to the 1/40's, kits were not accurate but unless you had access to a huge library you wouldn't know that. Monogram, AMT, Ertl, Revell, Testors/Italeri and Tamiya were all I could get and that's across all genres not just armor. Paint was limited to Testors or Pactra unless I was lucky and the one local hobby shop (more craft than hobby) would get Humbrol. There basically was no aftermarket no one had even heard of such a thing. Nobody had heard of liquid cement so testors tube glue was all I could lay my hands on. No CA glues. When I did get my hands on my first bottle of testors liquid I was amazed, where was this stuff all my life? I learned to carve, cut, scrounge and get creative to get parts to make my kits better. I had a librarian who helped me get books on ships and tanks. For Autos and Sci-fi there were plenty of auto and movie mags for images. But to get any info for a subject was a task unto itself. The only resource I had for tips and techniques were my friends who built and the old modeler who lived in the neighborhood. Neighborhood is a misnomer, it was an hour bike ride there and back.

Today we have the internet for info, kits, aftermarket, supplies, tips, forums if we can get thru the trolls, and the pictures, dear god the pictures! I had heard of feifel filters but could NOT find a picture of them. We can now get pictures of the real vehicles when all we had before were grainy black and white images in books the size of a credit card. We can build a model of an actual vehicle that really existed and not just rely on the paint guide on the back of the instructions. When I started learning how to do zimmerit the few pictures we could find barely showed that there was anything there at all, let alone what pattern went with what vehicle. It was all guesswork or the nightmare of deciphering someones technical discriptions. And the aftermarket is now to the point that you can get someone to design a part for you and get it printed. This didn't even exist in our imaginations back then.

Have we reached the Golden Age? No. That will happen when the kit manufacturers really start to listen to us about what we want to see, kits we're interested in, accept feed back and make corrections (Black Label anyone). There will always be "crappy" kits, that is the nature of economics, but we know now what manufactures will actually work to produce great kits and those that are just trying to make a buck.

Manufacturers are in this game for the "bucks". It is an industry like any other. Buying products lets them know what we like. Every so often, there is a wild card in the form of a new manufacturer or Tamiya. Look at what Meng has done for IDF fans. Dragon may no longer be the king, but just how many variants of the same tank can they produce? Now, Trumpeter has picked up the ball and started running. What great times for Soviet fans. We really can't base it on what kits are available, but rather how many kits are available. Just my two cents.

Of course it's all about the bucks that's how the economy works, but some kit producers are actually listening. How many panther or tiger kits can Dragon put out? I understand that taking existing molds and making a few changes, adding new parts than sending that out as a "new" kit is a cheap way to produce a kit but they should also catch on via feedback that we are getting wise to the practice. I remember when Trumpeter copied kits, literally copied them, photocopied the instructions and boxed them as their own. Now they do their own kits that are pretty good and they have a great selection. Times are definitely better but there are things that could improve. And if you don't like a kit like the recent Black Label release, don't buy it, let others know that there is an issue and try to let the the company know. Maybe they'll listen.