Anyone get the new copy of Great Scale Modeling 2003 yet?

It seems to me that there are many more armor models than in previous issues.

Also, the majority seem to be WWII (mostly German) with a bit of modern. But, all the subjects seemed to be fairly standard. I don't think there was any mid-east armor, etc.

Does this mag pretty much reflect what people are into and building?

Steve

I've noticed a gradual slide towards armor modeling in FSM. This is probably because there are several US based magazines dedicated to aircraft and cars (maybe ships too?), but armor was left with a hole when Challenge Publication's Military Modeler went under.

As far as the genre within armor, WW2 German would have to be king here. The big three (Tamiya, Academy, Italeri) all make multiple variants of Tigers, Panthers and Mark IVs. DML makes just about any other WW2 German armor variant along with ICM, Alan and others. Is there a major German variant not covered in plastic?

US WW2 would be the distant second. Only so many OD Shermans before they start stacking up on the shelves. This was probably the initial problem with DML. They put out so many variants of Shermans plus the T26E3, M26A1, M46 all at the same time that they flooded the market.

Despite the grumbling from many circles German armor clearly rules the plastic world. I once saw a breakdown of popularity of different genres, can't recall exact numbers but it was 50% autos, 30% airplanes, 10% armor, 10% everything else. Within armor it was 75% WWII, 25% everything else, and in WWII it was 80% german, 20% everything else. Can't recall where I saw it or when so it is probably worthless info but fun to argue about!!

Coop

Well, I think part of my point is that this is a hobby that has a lot of room for (maybe even in need of) some real creativity.

Not that there's anything wrong with building what you like, but it's also nice to work on things that may be a bit off-beat.

Kind of like airplane modeling, even though there are kits of some very unusual subjects the contest tables and display shelves are full of P51's and Bf109's. With armor it's Shermans and Panthers.

There seems to be an unlimited number of things that armor modelers could try. Just look at the nightly news and there are tons of ideas right there...

Steve

Peace Man! It's time for pig #42 to chime in. I love Panthers and Shermans! I also love to build planes and an occaisional ship. I just love to build models. There are some guys who specialize just on one BATTLE or portion of the war ,FE, the Ardennes or late war 1945, etc. It's all in what you like. Just as there are some guys who just like Chevys or Fords. I don't think you can tell someone to build something they just aren't interested in. Just one pig's opinion. Jeff