Category: My Collection

2020: The 400 Scale Year In Review - Part 1

4/1/2021

With 2020 behind us I thought I’d take a look back at the year in 400 scale that was and pick out some salient points for discussion. Obviously for most it was a year best forgotten but in 400 scale it was actually a superb year. In general, the scale seems vibrant and healthy with some excellent innovation and models being made. In part 1 I take a look at 3 of the major brands.

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In Praise of Dragon Wings DC-10s

19/11/2020

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Dragon Wings get a lot of flak nowadays, especially from younger collectors. Some of this is warranted but a lot of it isn’t. For their time they were excellent models and many of their production remain really nice and more than capable of holding their own in any collection. I admit I have been gradually replacing old Dragon models as replacements become available but Waffle’s last collection sale gave me the opportunity to reassess my opinion of the Dragon DC-10 as there were four, I just couldn’t resist.

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Indonesia Ahoy: Starting A New Collection

18/9/2020

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Given the number of models I own I really ought not to be starting new areas of the collection, but the post-deregulation period in developing nations has always been of real interest to me and Indonesia in particular is super interesting. In recent years there has been a nice selection of relatively obscure releases made, often in partnership with retailers, and even though I know I shouldn't have recently I started an Indonesian fleet too.

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The Final Hangar Addition

4/9/2020

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It has been clear for sometime that my 400 scale collecting has gotten well out of hand and of course with lots of models you need lots of box storage and lots of display cabinets. Just this past week or two I have slotted in what is potentially the final piece in the hangar display system and which has finally allowed me to retire my first cabinet. Read on for a tour of the changes to the US part of the fleet.

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New Collection Additions: April/May 2020

18/6/2020

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I am very happy to say that New Zealand is out the other side of its lockdown, and now we are level 1 almost everything is back to normal. Things that aren't are international travel and postage so it has taken some time for models to reach me. Nonetheless 14 models did make it through in the past two months, many of which have already received detailed reviews.

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New Collection Additions: March 2020

27/4/2020

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March was the month level 4 lockdown began for New Zealand and there was further dislocation to the manufacturing of 1:400 scale, with most companies delaying new releases. Even so there are always older models to acquire and with my job holding on for the timebeing I was able to take advantage of some nice Aeroclassics sales.

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New Collection Additions: February 2020

29/3/2020

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The model world has been hit like all others by this bloody virus outbreak and that meant that releases from several manufacturers dried up in February as China began to tackle the problem. So there were no NG Models to be seen and less models than usual arriving at the Hangar. In fact, there were almost none since the disruption to air traffic appeared to disrupt parcels to Aotearoa too. Fortunately the mail got through eventually.

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New Collection Additions: January 2020

27/2/2020

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January seems like a long time ago now, with the Coronavirus outbreak delaying the shipment of February’s models and causing suspensions to at least some manufacturer’s production into March. It was however a fairly standard month of purchases for my collection with a focus on my favourite pair of 1:400 manufacturers.

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New Collection Additions: December 2019

23/1/2020

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The end of the year saw a wide range of excellent releases and December had 14 of them joining my collection from 5 different manufacturers. With that many models it is little surprise that they weren't all great successes but still overall it was another good month for me.

4 Comments

New Collection Additions: November 2019

24/12/2019

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November proved to be an expensive month with excellent release sets from my two go-to manufacturers in 1:400 scale: Aeroclassics and NG Models. In this post I'll take a look at what flew in to join the collection last month and offer some opinions about them.

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Dabbling in the Dark Side: A Big Nugget 727

17/12/2019

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Focus is one of the keys to collecting, know what you want and get it but don’t dive off down too many rabbit holes. This has always been a problem for me but one that I have been able to accept by expanding any rabbit holes into new warrens (it’s the main reason the collection has gotten so big)! This you can get away with in 1:400 scale, if you have a bit of space, but trying this with 1:200s will get you a divorce and bankruptcy. So I really should stay well away from 1:200 scale but…

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New 1:400 Additions in 2019

27/11/2019

3 Comments

Back in September I posted about some of the new second-hand models joining my collection. Of course I buy lots of new releases too and in this post I'll take a look at some of the new additions from this year, which gives a good idea what I've been buying.

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Full House: Manufacturer Colours Fleet Update

9/10/2019

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It wasn’t too long ago that if you wanted to acquire manufacturer house colours models in 1:400 scale then your most likely avenue was the series of Dragon Wings examples, which usually utilized their poorer Airbus moulds. Things have certainly changed and in the past two years there has been an impressive array of new house colours releases. This has helpfully fed my appetite for collection expansion.

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Second-hand Additions in 2019

17/9/2019

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I admit to getting quite a few new models a month, partly as a result of new purchases but also from the second-hand market. Overwhelmingly these come via Waffle Collectibles Collection Sales. Say what you like about Waffle but he gets the stock and ships it out efficiently at great prices. Here's a selection of 11 additions from the past 9 months acquired from the seconds market, mostly from the Waffle man.

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A Box From Bob

4/8/2019

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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.

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<<Previous

2020: The 400 Scale Year In Review - Part 1

In Praise of Dragon Wings DC-10s

Indonesia Ahoy: Starting A New Collection

The Final Hangar Addition

New Collection Additions: April/May 2020

New Collection Additions: March 2020

New Collection Additions: February 2020

New Collection Additions: January 2020

New Collection Additions: December 2019

New Collection Additions: November 2019

Dabbling in the Dark Side: A Big Nugget 727

New 1:400 Additions in 2019

Full House: Manufacturer Colours Fleet Update

Second-hand Additions in 2019

A Box From Bob

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