Last year, I brought two kits (namers) and a set of metal tracks for the same, postage was $80NZ… This year. I went to buy a Rye Field Sturm Tiger and postage was $80NZ, more than the kit! Is this the new normal for postage as a result of events in the world? Do I need a Go fund me page to support my habit. Sorry, hobby? What happened?
I brought an RFM Sturmtiger a month or so ago from BNA, shipping cost not to bad (air). I also brought a kit from HobbyEasy / Hong Kong at the same time…… ended up sea freighting that one as the freight was so expensive …. 3 months approx to wait 
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The downside of living at the bottom of the world. The upside is of course that we are to far away for anyone to invade us, hopefully 
If I were you I would keep an eye open. See what happened to Australia…
H.P.
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Don’t forget the great insurgency of 1932 …
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You are all missing the biggest invasion in Australian history - The Cane Toad.
and how we deal with them
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And also the giant furry roaches…
This is the new normal… unfortunately. We’ll see if this changes again, but I doubt it.
Air Post from HK to the USA is outrageous as well. Equal to a high end kit. You have to buy several kits at once to justify shipping, and it’s still close to $100 USD!
I bought three sets of T-rex tracks from Hobby Easy earlier this year and the postage was quite affordable. When doing that though they had a tasty kit I wanted but adding that to the order caused the postage to skyrocket, so I just stuck with the tracks. I don’t know why it’s the case that HK postage is so high, but can confirm that for a kit-sized package to the US, it was too high for me.
Whenever possible I order from ebay vendors in mainland China. Most have little to no shipping charges on kits/models which are manufactured in China (and most are these days), and prices are also low. Recently I noticed a Flyhawk kit which cost around $70 (free shipping) from China, cost over $250 (plus shipping) from Japan. Guess where I would order from?? 
Not a lot of model-related products are made in Taiwan - most is imported from Japan, China, and Europe, and includes tariffs, taxes, and dues, which, with more shipping charges, are passed on to the end customer…you.
Sorry…the subject was Hong Kong, not Taiwan! My bad! But I’m sure the situation is similar.
Stop ordering from Hong Kong. 1/35 scale is a ripoff anyhow. By time you buy a kit, which usually has “errors” and buy after market stuff you’ve spent 150 + US dollars. I’ve been building kits for over 30 years. Switched to 1/72 a long time ago, I also ran out of display space very quickly. If you stick to 1/35 and up you better have deep pockets and a lot of space.
Hmm, interesting take on scale preference . I don’t think any are more susceptible to errors than any others.
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If it works for you Frank, then we are happy for you. 
However, I would not say Braille Scale is without issues. Takom scaled down their 1/35th scale Chieftain to 1/72nd with the same errors in dimensions. Even the Fujimi, Revell and Hasegawa 1/72nd - 1/76th scale models are not free of issues. Lets not mention Airfix…
I look at it this way. It takes something like 10-20% of the time to make a 1/72nd scale vehicle model than it does a detailed 1/35th scale vehicle model. So, I can buy and build 5-10 models in the same time as one 1/35th - I personally don’t see where that would save me space or $'s.
There’s an “experten” on a certain Braille Scale site who delights in bashing just about every IBG British vehicle release. Some bashes are justified, and some you wouldn’t be aware of unless you had the actual blueprints (which he obviously does). But he usually does suck the joy out of a new, and different, IBG release! 
Flyhawk is also not free of issues. Their latest release, a Tiger ll with “Porsche” turret lacks Zimmerit! However, they do provide a Zimmerit tool on the PE fret, and give the modeler some tips on DIY! Meh…!
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The new norm, you need to shop around for the best shipping deal as much as the kit price. Lots of places offer a wide range of shipping options with sea freight still being quite reasonable since they changed back to sails as motive power 
I just have enough kits in my stockpile to last three months 
Mmm, ok, I’m getting the impression that this is just the cost of the hobby today.
Alright, back to work everybody
Kiwis: the invasion the Aussies never saw coming
Like a lot of guys here, I have about 3 lifetimes worth… 
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Ok petbat, what did you say…
Same as the following post. I just replied to the wrong post my friend.
I’m having internet lag issues and when I pressed the reply button it selected Sean’s not Paul’s. The comment made no sense as a reply to Sean.
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