The Hummvee is still not available separately. So many conversions could be made, and probably more people would take a notice to 1/48 with modern subjects. I sure would like to build Hummvees but not with the fleet of Stealth that comes with them. It's like the AFV 251 with so many conversion possibilities, but saying you must also buy a Me 262 to go with each. Dude!

Marketing consultants. That's why.

Tim

www.fighting48th.com

Yes it is.
Cheers,

José César

I worked on the cancelled LOSAT project for Lockheed-Martin, and that used a very heavily modified HMMMV as the launcher-carrier. I got a HMMMV driver's license out of that experience, and the chance to watch solid non-explosive missiles do things to tanks you would not believe. Unfortunately for Lockheed, their own Javelin AT missile eliminated the need for LOSAT, which was a cumbersome system. The follow-on CKEM suffered technical problems and was cancelled also as far as I know. Still, it was a neat little vehicle and I have all the data needed to build a 1/1 scale model, much less 1/48.....

I am also interested in future combat systems, mostly fictitious, and I may transfer this from 1/35 to 1/48, now that there are modern figures available. Vehicles with active armor and active camouflage (almost doable with current technology), and a really vicious looking scout/attack chopper I stole from a GE Marconi ad in Defense News or something like that. Same thing: active armor and active camouflage, neat stuff.....

I also have bought several of the ghastly Kitech "Kung Fu" dreck kits..... "Cheap on eBay", the siren song straight to perdition..... The resin correction sets are way to expensive to buy for these things, so we'll see what we must do (there's always eBay..... ). GasoLine's M1A1 Abrams is superb, and it is tempting for the futuristic fictional stuff I seem to have stuck in the back of my mind, but I really like the far-out things I dream up reading old Aviation Week and Space Technology issues.

One of the advantages that the other scales have over us (armor)quarter scalers is choices other than WW2 subjects.
I think that if a good manufacturer would offer some modern armor, say an Abrams and a Chieftain, that the number of modelers working in 1/48th would surely increase by a healthy margin. Follow up with a Stryker, the Bradley(s), and maybe some soviet targets like the T-62 and T-72.....
There are lots of good subjects out there. Here are a few more with lots of possibilities:
M-48
M-60
M-113 !
Leopard 1 and 2
BTR-60
Centurion

Lots of paint schemes, eras and conflicts covered here.
Then,if the marketing weenies knew the subject of either armor or modeling, or dare we imagine BOTH?, some enterprising company would release an A7V, a Mark IV in two versions with male/female sponsons, a Schneider, St. Chamond, and the ubiquitous Renault. The A/M and paint companies could surely get into this market with goodies to suit the most avaricious modeler's soul, and there you have it.
I guess the point is, offering only the WW2 era leads to the sort of kit overkill that you can see in 1/35th. Ten more years of that will leave us with no-one who knows how to scratchbuild. Thank heaven for quarter scale and the joys of actaully creating something...besides, more of OUR boxes will fit into the average closet than THEIRs...

Best, Dan Wilson

So long as they object of the exercise is to be SURE of making a profit, subject choice will be conservative. And driven by success of existing kits. The only reason the 35thers are getting so many obscure types is they have had 40 years to cover everything else and there is nothing left to do. And still they want more....

What we really need is a Patron Saint like Peter Jackson.....

Tim

www.fighting48th.com