German Coach Type B4 yge is a kit by the late-great Rosebud Kitmaster. My interest in railroad models kits started with their kit Diesel Electric. But the well spring of Kitmaster kits had already dried up and it took decades for me to find and start collecting what I was denied in my youth.
Why are reviewing a kit that is no longer available?
I am sorry but i just dont see the point.
Now doing simply a build article in the Railroad Modeling section that I CAN see.
Hi Mike,
Good question, and similar to a past question, i.e., why review 1/87 vehicles, tanks, ships, and aircraft on AutoModeling, Armorama, Aeroscale, and Model Shipwrights - should they only be on the railroad site because they are a HO scale??
The answer to that and to your question about why the Kitmaster review are related. It has to do with audience, interests, and the worldwide presents of KitMaker Network.
First, your question. We are reviewing a Kitmaster kit that is available for people who want to find it and acquire it, be it to build or to collect. Kitmaster trains may not be an significant interest over on this side of The Pond, but theyâre big in England and elsewhere - as mentioned in the review introduction - and this is, after all, an international site.
Additionally, old model kits from defunct manufacturers generate a great deal of interest. After all, didnât you just announce the Mack Truck from Atlantis? Atlantis doesnât make a single kit of their own - theyâre all reissues from Monogram, Revell, Aurora, Hawk, etc. It may be reissued but itâs still an old kit that went out of production decades ago. (Sneak preview - retired longtime Monogram employee Bob Johnson designed the Mack kits and, at my request, has written up a short history of the kit; I hope to receive it and post it soon.) The fact that Atlantis is even in business is an indicator of how popular vintage and classic kits are. Furthermore, if you go back and look on the old side at reviews of Aurora, AHM, Hawk, Life-Like, Renwal and other gone-but-not-forgottens, youâll see they often have view totals equal to or exceeding some of the latest-greatest models of the time.
Now for the philosophical part. What is the purpose of a model site? What models do we want to see? Should we only focus on the latest greatest items out of the molds? Do not people enjoy seeing older kits built, such as the 50-year-old Tamiya Panzer III recently presented with great acclaim at Armorama? I see reviewing these old kits as not only a tip of the hat to these things that brought so much joy to so many so long ago, and to todayâs collectors. I also see it as a sort of a public service for people who know of Kitmaster kits, and have a curiosity about them.
Or, in short, I can offer you a response I formulated at work. âYou ask âwhy?â I ask, âwhy not?ââ
Back to reviewing 1/87 on other sites. People have asked why I do so and if it would not be more appropriate to keep them on a model railroad site where people just assume everything is HO and only HO. My answer to that is 1/87 is huge in Europe and we are an international modeling community. If one peruses a Der Mass:Stab by Herpa, it is full of 1/87 cars and trucks tricked out with intricate detailing, including lighting, remote control driving, and steerable front axles. Military subjects in 1/87 are huge, too. Artitec, Roco, Trident, Hauler, Wespe, etc. have hundreds of subjects. Some factory assembled, many not. To paraphrase Henry Kissenger, all HO is 1/87, but all 1/87 is not HO.
In summary, why review an old out of production model? Because our hobby is a big tent where everyone is welcome to have fun, and Kitmaster models are fun. Those who do not think so are free to submit appropriate features and reviews of what they think is fun.
Still do not see why it is not placed in the Railroad Forums section. Not because it is HO/OO scale but because it IS a railroad subject.
As you may know already, I am all for more railroad posts and threads, regardless of scale.
As to the Atlantis Mack truck; it is at least something you can actually go out and purchase today regardless of it being a reissue of an older kit. I saw it for sale recently at the local hobbyshop and thought it warrented at least an acknowledgement.
Robin i am not really sure what you are trying to say here with your last post. This RR related thread is not off topic, it is just posted (in my humble opinion) in the wrong location.
Mike, it is indeed posted in a railroad section. This is Railroad modeling. If you look at the categories itâs under Review, Other Vendors (because Kitmaster is not in the current listing), it is under Passenger cars, and the scales. Those are the tags I would put in for any model railroad passenger car. So I donât understand what you mean by itâs not in the correct place. What am I missing?
Well appearantly it is i who am missing something.
I first found this listing under the main KitMaker heading and was under the impression it was some sort of feature item.
If i was mistaken then I appolgise.
p.s. Honestly I still am not finding this post under either the general railroad section heading nor in the RR forums. ???
As you may know already, I am all for more railroad posts and threads, regardless of scale.
As to the Atlantis Mack truck; it is at least something you can actually go out and purchase today regardless of it being a reissue of an older kit. I saw it for sale recently at the local hobbyshop and thought it warrented at least an acknowledgement.
Mike, you do a great job of bringing content to the site and I really appreciate it. Thank you. I was very excited to see that Atlantis has reissued the Mack truck. I did not know that they have done so. I plan to put news out concerning it. Thank you again for all of your work finding and generating content. I appreciate it.
News, features, reviews that are published on the individual sites get automatically cross-posted to the
Site Content Discussions forum.
This forum has subsections that correspond to the other main level forums.
Selected only the Railroad stuff
Similar selection but for Armorama only
No subforum selected
One small indication that this is not an ordinary post is that the âposterâ is âsystemâ,
not JPTRR even though the content was indeed created by JPTRR
This is also visible in the list of postings
On the old site the site content got cross posted into the regular forums BUT
the viewer had to enable a setting to include the site content stuff.
This âswitchâ had to be set for each forum and sometimes it got reset which
confused me many times. Suddenly the News were gone âŚ
Thanks for the kit review, Fred.
Kit reviews of old kits are very important especially if this review is by a model builder. This is just an example because I am not specifically looking for this kit but it is available at shows, swap meets, and eBay. Ebay item auctions are usually posted by people that are not always builders. Their pictures are not always in focus or descriptive of what the material(s) are like to work with. If I have access to a review of an old kit then I can be sure that a kit Iâm looking at at a show table is complete or not.
Thanks Robin. I learned some things from this tutorial, too.
