(Login Railmen2000) Registered Users from IP address 66.166.48.114
Hey Top Gun Bob & Steve:
Saw you updated your website and now list your upcoming projects. Very impressive list. But when is the Mercedes truck going to be available? Or are you just teasing us like Fox miniatures? And how about a little more info on YOUR figures? Lastly, you really impress me with your future funkwagen conversion set for the Italeria Opel Blitz truck before the base kit even comes out!
Jim Spellmire
PS - I am also anxiuosly waiting for your Panzer II kit. Do you know what the expected draw on my bank account will be for this one?
About the Mercedes, it's called being anal retentive on my part plus a mild case of OCD. Since it is our first complete kit, I'm getting really picky about certain things. I have a new RTV Rubber and am getting the kinks out of the Cab and Cargo Bed walls with it. Otherwise, it's ready to go except for completing the instruction sheet. Thus the delays. Come Hell or High water, it'll be ready at the end of this month!
About the rest of the Product Listings, about 1/3 of the newer stuff is in it's final stages of completion, another 1/3 is about halfway and the rest is in the initial "Intelligence Gathering" phase to start the Masters. There are also a few things nobody knows anything about. I've been a busy Boy!
The listings are what is to come, guarenteed! I had to put myself on a formal release schedule to avoid confusion and clutter on my workbench.
Hmmm, my Figures? That's a Secret! But they will be WW2 types. With the Italeri Funkwagen, the basis is already done. Just a matter of waiting for the Italeri Kit to come out and adapt the bed section.
What else is new? I'll be moving to a newer, larger facility with new equipment on the way. A very popular and well-known Modeller has volunteered to do painted buildups of our products which saves me an enormous amount of time. And I have a ton of product Samples to do which will be going in all directions.
In short, what you see is what you'll get! If it says 2008, it'll be out in 2008, of course you never know about the 2009 stuff!
Bob
Bob and Steve
Top Gun Military/IRON DIVISON Resins
www.topgunmilitary.com
OOOPS! Forgot to mention. The Website is also undergoing changes. All those tiny pictures on the Ordering page are now linked to full page Ads of each product or item. Most of them are finished and the others need some tweaking. The rest of the Site will also be improved slowly including the Surplus and Collectibles areas.
Bob
Bob and Steve
Top Gun Military/IRON DIVISON Resins
www.topgunmilitary.com
I don't know if is the same in the USA and other countries, but here in the EU, us small producers are required by law to tease our potential customers mercilessly....
Hmmmm, you are very right Tim. I do believe that that law applies here as well. Now about those new Figure releases this year and the three blank spaces in the 48th scale lineup! What could they be? US or maybe British Tank crewmen, an SS Stug Crew? The possibilities are endless!
Bob
PS: How's that Tim?
Bob and Steve
Top Gun Military/IRON DIVISON Resins
www.topgunmilitary.com
Also forget them thar other Shermies, M4A2 Big Hatch, Super Sherman, M-36B2, M7B1 Priest and Sexton (no wait, that's a Tim project!). And the beat goes on!
Bob
Bob and Steve
Top Gun Military/IRON DIVISON Resins
www.topgunmilitary.com
Hi Bob! What about an M29 Weasel? Not a very large vehicle to make in 1/48 scale and used extensively in Europe, the Pacific, etc. By VJ day, over 15,000 had been built.
Hi Bob! What about an M29 Weasel? Not a very large vehicle to make in 1/48 scale and used extensively in Europe, the Pacific, etc. By VJ day, over 15,000 had been built.
I was looking at pictures of M7B1 Priests and M36B1 Jacksons. They have the upswept return roller arms on the bogie assemblies. Therefore a HobbyBoss donour kit is needed if these are conversion kits. Will you also make a mid-prod Priest so that the Tamiya chasses and bogie assemnlies can be used?
The M4A1 and M4A3 76mm tanks and the composite hull M4s also seemed to have mostly upswept return arms. So does the Jumbo. If you guys could make these bogie assemblies complete with the threee bolts on the bottomm and casting numbers which the Tamiya ones lack, I, for one would be grateful.
The upswept trailing arms identify the last version of the VVSS bogies. The Hobby Boss M4A3 75mm and 76mm kits both include upswept trailing arm bogies, and also have the original flat arms with NO pillow blocks on the second set of bogies. The HB M4A1 76mm has the flat arms WITH pillow blocks bogies, and also the original flat arms with NO pillow blocks on the second set of bogies. Note that the HB bogies with raised trailing arms do have the three bolts on the bottoms of the bogie towers, but the original flat and flat-pillow block bogies do not. Photographs of the early M4 bogies with flat arms and no pillow blocks do not always show the bolts, and they may not have been obvious on the early bogies. Look at photos to see if your subject vehicle should have them.
A number of the earlier M4A3 large hatch and M4A1 large hatch Shermans did have the flat trailing arms with pillow blocks, so photos will have to provide you the guidance as to what you need for a particular model. Frankly, considering the serious shortcut Tamiya took molding the return rollers as part of the bogie tops, I'd prefer to use the HB spare bogies for all my Tamiya Shermans. I'd cheerfully use the Tamiya bogies for all Shermans equipped with full or at least upper run sandshields, as the return rollers would be completely hidden at that point. I will have a bunch of raised trailing arm bogies from all my HB parts kits.
Who's to say that some Master-making Nutcase won't have a few too many Millers and make replacements for the Tamiya Suspension units. This is another one of those "Open Mouth,Insert Foot" situations I believe! Oh well, 20 new 48th kits/sets in 4 months, I still have 8 1/2 months until 2009 and a good bit of the newer stuff is already started, half done or almost done.
Now excuse me while I get back to those ???????? 48th Scale figures.
Bob
What do ya think Bruce, alittle too much Evil or not enough?
Bob and Steve
Top Gun Military/IRON DIVISON Resins
www.topgunmilitary.com
I'd recommend the casual drink for the discriminating elderberry wine fan: Tsing Tao beer, a very nice, smooth, full bodied brew from China; it'll empty out the cobwebs (or add a few more, as the case may be) and allow you to become one with the resin (uh-oh, another trip to the ER.... ). Press on, sir; the world awaits... I'm hoping to see the Mercedes fairly soon, and as for the results of my other evil endeavors, we'll let the others wonder about that..... I believe they'll really love the jeep stuff.....(but I'll never tell).
). Press on, sir; the world awaits... I'm hoping to see the Mercedes fairly soon, and as for the results of my other evil endeavors, we'll let the others wonder about that.....