Stopped by the flea market

[chromdome35]

Wife and I were out and about and I stopped by my flea market honey hole. Picked up these two kits




Does anyone have any familiarity with either of these kits/brands?

[mustang1989]

Oh wow!!! Not a bad score for a flea market haul Brian!!

[Tobi]

 Though they are very nice topics and I haven't seen the FT-17 smoke generator before, I'd say brace yourself for some poor fit and mediocre details. Both brands are Polish origin and the kits already several decades old.

A good source to dig up information about modelling brands and kits is
Scalemates.com

[Tojo72]

Interesting,never came across kits at the flea markets I've visited,good refrence books,but no kits.

Have fun with them

[Steve Zuleski]

Sweeet! Never seen these kits, good catch!

[chromdome35]

Jan 22, 2023 9:38:01 GMT -5 Tojo72 said:

Interesting,never came across kits at the flea markets I've visited,good refrence books,but no kits.

Have fun with them

There is a flea market about 20 miles from me that has almost 300 kits on the shelves. Most of them are vintage, but there are some newer kits mixed in.

I took some pictures of some of it

[Tojo72]

That's excellent,I can see some there thst would interest me st the right price

[Prop Duster]

WOW dang!   I'd like that one and that one and that one over there and-----Oh, never mind I'll be OK in a minute, sniff

[Tobi]

You're sitting on a gold mine!
I'll comment on the 1/35 section:

I have seen nice builds of the Italeri LVT-4's. Only the tracks are a let-down, but nowadays there are aftermarket alternatives available. The kits can get quite costly if bought at the wrong occasion.
The Dragon Fallschirmjäger with 8cm mortar are easily 20 bucks and more on Ebay here and there.
The Bilek WC-54 should be the old Italeri forms. Difficult model in terms of fit, but the only one available.
The Tamiya Type 97 Shinoto Chi-ha is a nice model but will need a PE-Set for the exhaust screens. The hull rivets are better done than on the Fine Molds, which is more expensive.
The Pit-Road Kurogane Pick-up and the Type 92 "late" are RARE! Some Japanese sellers want +160.-$ for the little tank.
The Fallschirmjäger with Leichtgeschütz are also a little overpriced if bought regularly, for my taste. Recently there was a reprise but I guess stocks will be dwindling soon. I'd say all of the Dragon figures they have are collectible if prices are good.
The Marder II is the first issue of the new 2006 molds, I would buy it instantly if I hadn't five different versions of it already. 
The AFV Club Flakscheinwerfer is a rarity as well.
The Tamiya Pz.IV is a solid model and well detailed for it's age. Of course people prefer the newer Dragon and Miniart kits as a benchmark today, but Tamiya remains Tamiya.
They say the AFV Club sIG 33 is the better model compared to the Dragon, but I guess with a bargain you can't go wrong here?
The Monogram Weasel caught my eye! Probably not a very good kit, but that wouldn't stop me from buying it. Haven't seen this before. I own a resin model, from LZ I think, but I would prefer plastic as a basis if I had the opportunity.
I've heard nothing bad about the IBG Lancia 3Ro truck. The Wehrmacht and Waffen SS had them in service, too, if Italian forces are not your thing.

What not to buy? Keep away from the other older East European brands and also the Heller French tanks. The R35 and the Somua are available as much better and newer molds. The Tamiya Stuart and M10 are outdated, as well as the PaK40. Their Japanese infantry is nice, though.
The Italeri M24 Chaffee... well, do yourself a favor and stick to a newer one, either Bronco or AFV Club. Both have their good and bad features, but are far superior unless you want a model just for training your skills.

[chromdome35]

Jan 23, 2023 1:28:13 GMT -5 Tobi said:

You're sitting on a gold mine!
I'll comment on the 1/35 section:

I have seen nice builds of the Italeri LVT-4's. Only the tracks are a let-down, but nowadays there are aftermarket alternatives available. The kits can get quite costly if bought at the wrong occasion.
The Dragon Fallschirmjäger with 8cm mortar are easily 20 bucks and more on Ebay here and there.
The Bilek WC-54 should be the old Italeri forms. Difficult model in terms of fit, but the only one available.
The Tamiya Type 97 Shinoto Chi-ha is a nice model but will need a PE-Set for the exhaust screens. The hull rivets are better done than on the Fine Molds, which is more expensive.
The Pit-Road Kurogane Pick-up and the Type 92 "late" are RARE! Some Japanese sellers want +160.-$ for the little tank.
The Fallschirmjäger with Leichtgeschütz are also a little overpriced if bought regularly, for my taste. Recently there was a reprise but I guess stocks will be dwindling soon. I'd say all of the Dragon figures they have are collectible if prices are good.
The Marder II is the first issue of the new 2006 molds, I would buy it instantly if I hadn't five different versions of it already. 
The AFV Club Flakscheinwerfer is a rarity as well.
The Tamiya Pz.IV is a solid model and well detailed for it's age. Of course people prefer the newer Dragon and Miniart kits as a benchmark today, but Tamiya remains Tamiya.
They say the AFV Club sIG 33 is the better model compared to the Dragon, but I guess with a bargain you can't go wrong here?
The Monogram Weasel caught my eye! Probably not a very good kit, but that wouldn't stop me from buying it. Haven't seen this before. I own a resin model, from LZ I think, but I would prefer plastic as a basis if I had the opportunity.
I've heard nothing bad about the IBG Lancia 3Ro truck. The Wehrmacht and Waffen SS had them in service, too, if Italian forces are not your thing.

What not to buy? Keep away from the other older East European brands and also the Heller French tanks. The R35 and the Somua are available as much better and newer molds. The Tamiya Stuart and M10 are outdated, as well as the PaK40. Their Japanese infantry is nice, though.
The Italeri M24 Chaffee... well, do yourself a favor and stick to a newer one, either Bronco or AFV Club. Both have their good and bad features, but are far superior unless you want a model just for training your skills.

I am continually amazed at your depth of knowledge of the hobby.

There is another section of the flea market where this same seller has more kits. It's quite a bit smaller, but there are probably 50+ kits in it, I'll try to get some pictures.

[Tobi]

Thx. As always only my personal perception and point of view. Others might disagree with me

[Tobi]

Look what arrived at my doorstep today. I was able to source the same kit as in your flea market right from Japan. With shipping and customs fees it was still around 70.-€, but far off from the 160.- I mentioned earlier. This kit must be from a reprise series, I got the last one from Plaza Japan. Hobbylink still has it, but for how long? I've been on the hunt for years.

[chromdome35]

I am going to go pick up that one from the flea market along with the truck you called out.

[Steve Zuleski]

That fea market reminds me of B&B Hobbies in Spokane. Mainly they cater to RC guys, but the models section looks like that. Question, were you able to dicker down on the prices? Sometimes they know what they've got and the answer would be no, but a lot of times they have no clue. That old box with the Dauntless would be a real snag, IMHO.

[chromdome35]

Jan 23, 2023 11:28:18 GMT -5 Steve Zuleski said:

That fea market reminds me of B&B Hobbies in Spokane. Mainly they cater to RC guys, but the models section looks like that. Question, were you able to dicker down on the prices? Sometimes they know what they've got and the answer would be no, but a lot of times they have no clue. That old box with the Dauntless would be a real snag, IMHO.

I have had some success at negotiating lower prices, one time the guy accepted my offer and another he didn't.

The prices are so/so, the guy obviously researches eBay. Most of the modern high-end kits like Dragon/AFV Club/Tamiya are priced at $50 bucks. Sometimes that's a good deal, sometimes not.

Most of the figure sets are priced at $15 to $20.

[Tobi]

Jan 23, 2023 12:16:48 GMT -5 chromdome35 said:

Jan 23, 2023 11:28:18 GMT -5 Steve Zuleski said:

That fea market reminds me of B&B Hobbies in Spokane. Mainly they cater to RC guys, but the models section looks like that. Question, were you able to dicker down on the prices? Sometimes they know what they've got and the answer would be no, but a lot of times they have no clue. That old box with the Dauntless would be a real snag, IMHO.

I have had some success at negotiating lower prices, one time the guy accepted my offer and another he didn't.

The prices are so/so, the guy obviously researches eBay. Most of the modern high-end kits like Dragon/AFV Club/Tamiya are priced at $50 bucks. Sometimes that's a good deal, sometimes not.

Most of the figure sets are priced at $15 to $20.

Then you need to do your homework first. Ebay is a curious place.
I remember an auction by a German seller for an Italeri Semovente L6/40. At the moment these are also pretty rare, because OOP.
The guys totally went into frenzy and bids quickly rose up to 80.- Euros. Well, I stopped at 45.-. In preparation I had contacted a shop in Greece showing stock, if they would ship to Germany? They replied yes and that did cost me 40.- in total with postage.
Ebay idiots... 

[chromdome35]

I went back to the flea market this afternoon and picked up the following kits

Pit-Road Type 92 Heavy - $25
Pit-Road Type 95 Japanese Pickup Truck - $20
Monogram Weasel - $10
Dragon 6147 7.5cm Leichtgeshutz 40 w Fallschirmjager - $25
Dragon 6373 Fallschirmjager w 8cm Mortar - $20
AFV Club Flakscheinwerfer - $20

Steve, the price on the Dauntless was $45. The box was in bad shape and the kit inside was questionable as there were many parts off the sprues and just loose in the box. Given the poor state of the box, it is not certain the kit is complete.

I also took pictures of the other models at the flea market. There were a LOT more. I will post the pictures in my next post below.

[chromdome35]

These are the other kits for sale at this flea market. If you see anything noteworthy, let me know.

There are a LOT of pictures.

[mustang1989]

WOW!!! It's just cool to look at all this stuff!!! Thanks for sharing this Brian!!

[Tobi]

I'm totally flashed upon the amount of kits in your flea market and a tiny bit jealous. 

Nice catch on the Pit-Road kits. My guess is, even if you don't want to build them you can make some money out of them and try selling them for $50 each.
You got the Dragon figures more or less for a regular market price of the moment.
I find it hard to judge the Weasel, but for $10 there can't be anything wrong with it, right?
The Flakscheinwerfer is also good, unless AFV Club don't decide it's time for a re-cast series. Then prices will temporarily drop.

Nice score overall.

[chromdome35]

I have been in many hobby shops that weren't as well stocked as this flea market.

In a couple of modeling Facebook groups that I'm a member of, I'm struggling with posting where this flea market is. On one hand, I'm sure there are people who would love these kits, on the other, is it selfish of me to want it all to myself?

[Tobi]

You asked what else, I'll try to give you my personal evaluation. No guarantees! 

The Korea Sherman is one of Dragon's early kits. $50 sounds much to me and I don't know how popular the kit is for re-selling?

The Tamiya Flak Crew I find very nice, even for today, and it fits their Flakvierling (and probably every other) excellent. It's kinda collector's item, but given the bad shape of the box I'd say the price is too high. Seems the dealer is aware of it, if you could get it for half the price that would change things.
No for the other two Tamiya figure kits. The tank crew I can buy for a regular shop prize of less than the half at my dealer and the infantry is ancient by all means. Only for collector's purposes, but you don't want to glue and paint them since everything is modeling Jurassic. Be sure you know what you're doing. Also the Tiger E is their very first Tiger from the Seventies. If you consider it you should do some internet research first. The BMW with sidecar is also a collectible but fairly nice with the figures, make sure to do a price research. Same for the 25Pdr. with Quad tractor. I occasionally saw high prices on Ebay a few years ago. This box seems to be in nice shape and is probably from a recent re-cast?

I see more Dragon figures that are currently OOP and it would seem the seller is aware of it. $22 for the LRRP, for example, is no bargain and the poses and details from the time these came out are not comparable to what you are used to from Dragon nowadays. The grenadiers might be a tad better, but also here I deem the price too high. The Nashorn is their first try, there are newer molds for more or less the same price.

About Verlinden you need to know they went out of business a few years ago and their molds were not sold, but destroyed. So everything you see is a leftover and you have to decide. Many people didn't like Verlinden when they were still active. I did. Their figure sculpting was not among the top like Alpine, but looked better than a lot of the plastic figures back then. I don't like half figures, so I steer clear from them. Regular prices for the ones I see here would have been between $15-20.

Italeri M-109 for $48? No, AFV Club has way better M-109's and also with a huge variety of versions since their first came out.

The rest of my evaluation coming soon.

[chromdome35]

I appreciate your opinion on this "collection". If you have any interest in any of these kits, I will ship them to you.

I have some Verlinden stuff sitting in my stash, I always liked them and was very sad to hear they closed up. I almost grabbed those figures simply because I know they are forever discontinued.

Do you have any knowledge of either of the two Takom WW1 kits the British MK 1 Female or the French St. Chamond?

[Tobi]

I must confess I have little to none knowledge about these WWI topics. Both kits are relatively new and modern, but from the time when Takom stepped fresh into business! There was a hype starting '14 when the Great War came to its 100th anniversary. So from modeler's perspective you can hopefully buy both without any hesitation regarding bad molding or fit issues. Technical accuracy and dimensions I don't know. Availability in shops is bad.
For a look into the instructions:
www.scalemates.com/products/img/0/9/6/235096-66-instructions.pdf
www.scalemates.com/products/img/9/2/6/961926-74-instructions.pdf

[chromdome35]

How are you making your Scalemates profile link show up in your signature?

[Tobi]

Jan 24, 2023 11:26:19 GMT -5 chromdome35 said:

How are you making your Scalemates profile link show up in your signature?

I went to

Profile -> edit -> personal  -> signature

and simply entered the address. The link was generated automatically after save.

[chromdome35]

Thanks, I got it!

[Tobi]

Let's continue a little more.
The Revell Maultier is a re-boxing from Zvezda, nothing special.
For Trumpeter's Neubaufahrzeug I suggest to do your own research before. AFAIK neither Trumpeter nor Dragon got things right if you plan to do one of the machines that took part in Norway occupation.
The Bronco Hotchkiss Beobachtungspanzer should be nice. Years ago I've heard the statement from people with liking of French tanks, when it comes to the H38/H39 Bronco did the better job on the hull and running gear, whereas Trumpeter has the better turret. No turret here since Umbaukommando Becker created a new upper structure. 
Not much to say about the Nimrod. It's from 2013 and the only kit of this topic. Similar for the Toldi (same chassis).

The Bronco Lancia Fiamme I haven't seen in a long time. That kit would even interest myself! 
Monogramm Patton from 196X, says it all. Also "No" to the Tamiya M41. AFV-Club rules, or perhaps maybe Skybow as a fallback solution.
The Panhard scout car for $29 sounds like a regular price. ICM did a whole series with different versions, even Germanized Beutepanzer.
The Komsomolets T-20 is a mixed bag. I heard it has some flaws and the Mirror Models is way better, though you will be having a tough time to find it, since they went out of business. Hobby Boss is regulary available, also the M35 Panzerwagen, so check prices.
Breda AA 37/54, regular price and regular availability.

Something special, the Ka-Mi early with Pontons for $25! Regular kit price at release was $79, if I'm correct, and now temporarily OOP. Detailing can be improved by scratch working (must be even here on the board, somewhere) and tracks are best replaced, but it is a bargain. Check Ebay if you can make some money from it if you don't want it for yourself.

The Revell MASH helicopter is sort of a collectible. I don't know if the kit is good or bad, since it's from 1994. One time I even considered buying one, but in the end reason won over heart. I have so many kits... Another time I saw it change owners on Ebay for 80.-€.
Being Revell, they will re-issue it again sooner or later, last time was 2012 according to scalemates. The interesting thing is, they did it actually in 1/35 instead of 1/32, offering more diorama possibilites.

To be continued...

Almost overlooked the CMK Beetle Kastenwagen. It's a little basic, but nice, so check prices. CMK had also resin improvements for their Beetles.

[chromdome35]

Jan 25, 2023 2:09:47 GMT -5 Tobi said:

Let's continue a little more.
The Bronco Lancia Fiamme I haven't seen in a long time. That kit would even interest myself! 

Something special, the Ka-Mi early with Pontons for $25! Regular kit price at release was $79, if I'm correct, and now temporarily OOP. Detailing can be improved by scratch working (must be even here on the board, somewhere) and tracks are best replaced, but it is a bargain. Check Ebay if you can make some money from it if you don't want it for yourself.

I actually looked at both of those kits. I don't remember the price on the Bronco, I think it was around $30. They both appeal to me due to their obscurity and "different" factor.

[Tobi]

A few years ago Dragon released a series of Japanese tanks, which I've never dared to hope for to see them in plastic one day.

On we go:
A Panzerjägerwagen. That would be a cool project, making a complete Panzerzug for insurgent surpression in 1/35. Would be huge.
The Masterbox Panzer I with Breda is probably nice. Gives the possibility to make this Spanish conversion from their Civil War without any kit bashing.
Another T-20, probably a difficult kit, but one that is not very common. The base kit is of Romanian origin from the early Nineties. According to scalemates it is a Beutepanzer with German 3,7mm PaK. Don't expect much.
If you want a T-26 then the ones from Hobby Boss are your best start. Better than Mirage. Should be regularly available also.
Dragon's Porsche Bergetiger. One of their earlier models, but I could fall for that. There is only an alternative from Italeri, I believe, and both are hard to find.
The Trumpeter Panzerjäger 38 (starr) is the only kit in plastic of this late test vehicle with the Diesel engine. It is well documented in pictures from the assembly plant. The engine was intended for the 38D project, which was never realized. From time to time there is no stock, but it would seem Trumpeter is making them repeatedly.

More soon...