A Box From Bob

Model collecting isn't always a friendly business, but at its heart 1:400 scale has a good community of collectors who are happy to go the extra mile for each other. I have made some great friends in my time collecting. Due to the tyranny of distance I don't get too many models from other collectors but just this week a box arrived from Oz so here I'll look at the contents and how you too can get hold of some rare models from the same source.

1:400 models are certainly commoner in Australia than New Zealand, but even so the prices are rarely competitive with the US (even after postage). So, it's not often that parcels wing their way, across the ditch (i.e. the Tasman Sea), from fellow antipodeans to my door.

I learnt about this sale via Facebook, as it was being advertised on several of the groups by the seller's son, but it turns out I already know the seller. Bob is already a forum member (QF787 on 400 Scale Hangar) and a recipient of my monthly newsletter. It turns out that Bob has a large selection of, often rare, models, many of which are duplicates in his collection, for sale.

I got in contact and it wasn't hard to find quite a few models I was interested in on his list, which unsurprisingly has a lot of Qantas, Ansett, TAA, Virgin and Jetstar on it. So I picked the top 6 models and Bob very kindly made me a great deal for them.

A week or so later and the models were here in Auckland. Bob had done an excellent job packing the box with each aircraft box individually wrapped and then all surrounded by packing foam. Plus he included a letter and a complimentary Qantas tiepin. An excellent service all round as of course all the models were also in perfect condition.

So what did I acquire? I find older Australian Aeroclassics, especially Qantas, hard to come by and so it was awesome to be able to pickup four aircraft, which talk to the flag carrier's earlier years. These included an attractively packaged Aeroclassics boxset containing a Super Connie and Electra:

To go alongside these props were the first Qantas jets that replaced them in the shape of a pair of Boeing 707-138s.

My Ansett fleet is near completion but was missing a Delta scheme 727-100 and any DC-9s so these were top priorities for me also. Oddly Aeroclassics has never made an Ansett DC-9 and so this is the Jet-X example, however the mould is almost as good and the cockpit printing on these Nines much better than on some Jet-Xs.

The only none US model acquired was a rare Virgin Atlantic BigBird 747-100 in the early days Virgin scheme. 

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Bob still has over 250 models for sale, including rarities like the Air Niugini A300, Qantas 707s, IPEC DC-9 and Singapore A380 with a great mix from all the major manufacturers. If you want to see what Bob has got and do a deal please contact him at [email protected]