Worst box art of 2020 goes to the Dora 1/72 Lysander. I really, really like the kits that Dora has been releasing these last couple of years, but this box art fell short, particularly given how great the model itself is.
Best box art of the year goes to the Takom 1/35 Merkava Mk. 2D. I’m usually not a fan of head-on shots of armor, but this is nothing short of awesome.
If there were an award for most daring box art of the year, I’d have to give it to Airfix for their 1/48 Spitfire Mk. Vb. The plane is inverted! I don’t recall seeing another model marketed that way. Kudos to the graphic arts department at Airfix!
Every year provides its share of dazzle, amusement, and head-scratching. 2020 was no exception.
January
You may recall the crazy suggestion in 2019 to use cinnamon to weather armor. Well, this year we saw someone suggest using oatmeal to create water for ship models.
We also saw that the sexy women trend that we noticed in 2018 refuses to die, with numerous manufacturers releasing additional models, such as Armor35's bikini girl. At this point, I'm conceding that this is no longer a trend. It's clear that we're a horny bunch, and we're going to see more sexy women in the years ahead.
February
The Shizuoka Hobby Show, which had been scheduled for May, was cancelled as the Coronavirus took hold in China and other Asian countries. This would portend the cancellation of practically all model-related shows and contests through the remainder of the year.
March
Members of the Facebook Airfix Modeling Club worked themselves into a frenzy after Facebook began deleting photos of models with swastikas. Several members suggested creating a new forum on a different platform, but as far as I know, no one did.
Much of the world locked down for the Coronavirus, but modelers barely noticed as we carried on enjoying our solitary hobby in basements around the world. Rye Field Models kindly included two masks with orders for their kits; not wheel or canopy masks, mind you, but the kind you wear.
April
In one of the biggest disappointments to hit our hobby in the last 10 years — maybe even the last 20 years — Wingnut Wings announced the closure of their business. Kit prices have soared on the secondary market, and fans of the company’s kits expressed hope that some of the designers would find employment elsewhere. At least one has so far, Bryan Wall, starting Beacon Models and promising a range of kits in 1/144 scale.
June
Bandai announced their newest model…of a cup of ramen noodles. Yep. You can’t make this stuff up. Will we see a split in the Miscellaneous category at the IPMS Nats next year for “Food?"
July
A new company named Suyata releases some bizarre, abstract series of military subjects. If it entices newcomers to the hobby, why not?
August
In what is the most game-changing product to hit the hobby since Eduard introduced pre-colored photoetch, Quinta Studio’s released 3D-printed resin cockpit decals. Modelers were immediately impressed by their quality and the ease with which we can now represent cockpits in scale. And that’s one less skill we have to master!
September
Modelers went berserk on AK Interactive when they used video from POW camps to promote their new book, Condemnation: When Modeling Becomes Art and Art is Social Commentary. They apologized a day later, but the modeling community was not impressed. Regardless, the book features some well-executed dioramas.
We lost two significant players in the hobby. Bill Koster was an early pioneer in the cottage industry and helped design dozens of Monogram kits that are to this day exceptionally accurate, such as the 1/48 F-4C/D, F-15E Strike Eagle, F-100D Super Sabre, and P-51B.
Mark Bilas might not be as well known, but he produced nearly 150 decals sheets over the last 10 years, mostly in 1/72 scale, featuring roughly 900 markings. I could be wrong, but I think only Microsoft/SuperScale has been more prolific.
December
One of the greatest aviators of the twentieth century passed away, Chuck Yeager, capping off a year of suck.
What a year. Whatever we scale modelers might expect, there’s always something that takes us by surprise, and 2019 was no exception. HK released an unexpected 1/48 B-17G, Miniart released a series of 1/35 Grants, and we finally got our hands on AMK’s looooong awaited 1/48 F-14.
That said, some things seemingly never change, well, at least over the course of two years. Two trends that I wrote about in 2018 continued into 2019 — sexy female subjects and egg planes and all their offshoots. I’m anxious to see if that will change in 2020.
January
The influx of female subjects continued with many manufacturers introducing sexy figures in every scale imaginable. Right out of the 2019 gate, Nutsplanet introduced a new line of female busts with many more following through the year, most of them fantasy oriented.
Reedoak showed off this 1/48 figure of Miss Santa, posed on the intake of an F-14.
ZPLA jumped on the bandwagon with its 1/20 scale Girls in Action series.
Miniart released another variation of their weird ball tanks, this one with training wheels.
On a more mainstream note, Airfix’s announcement of a 1/72, new-tool Buccaneer was very well received by modelers, particularly on Britmodeller. Before the end of the month, Xtradecal announced a new sheet of Buccaneer S.2 markings.
February
In 2018 modelers were giddy when the remains of the USS Lexington were found. Nearly a year later they got equally excited when researchers found the USS Hornet.
March
RMG Resin Models released a 1/35 "modern toilet," and there was substantial discussion about toilet variants on Armorama. I shit you not.
April
Meng set the hobby on fire when they announced a new tool 1/35 Sherman, because, well...we didn’t already have enough of them already.
AMK assured us that their F-14 Tomcat was still coming.
And a small corner of the interwebz went berserk when someone suggested using cinnamon rather than pastels to represent mud. Seriously, this actually happened.
May
Not content to let a trend from 2018 die, Hasegawa announced four 1/24 scale female figures (Companion Girls Figures and Fashion Model Girls Figures) at the 2019 Shizuoka Hobby Show.
And Northstar Models teased a new line of naked figures, though I don’t recall them having been released yet.
June
The appetite for cutsie, egg-like models continued with Scale75’s release of toon figures of Rocky Star Cooper, Otto Von Lokimerg, and others.
July
Asuka left me scratching my head when they released a model of a tiny hamburger. Fess up guys; who's had this on their wish list?
Then something huge happened. Tamiya announced a new-tool P-38 in 1/48!
August
The month kicked off with buzz from the IPMS National Convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Tamiya offered a number of their new 1/48 P-38s via a raffle/sale, and quite a few of them found their way onto eBay, selling for over $100…never mind that they would retail for $50-60 just a couple of months later; I wonder how many of those early, overpriced kits were actually built before the kits became widely available. Also at the show, Eduard sold out of all their new 1/48 P-51D kits they'd brought with them.
Not to allow Eduard and Tamiya to dominate the news, AMK announced that their long-awaited 1/48 F-14D would be in distributors' hands at the end of August. Keep in mind that AMK first announced the kit back in June of 2015, so you can imagine that modelers were…skeptical, one person commenting, "End of August? Which year?"
September
As if new tool kits of the P-51D and P-38 weren’t enough, HK Models announced a 1/48 version of their B-17. And the crowd went crazy.
October
October saw armor modelers get WW1-era buses in both 1/35 scale (from MiniArt) and 1/72 (from Roden), which got me wondering why buses aren’t more popular, even in 1/25 scale.
Later in the month modelers freaked out across Facebook and the online forums after a rumor circulated that Rust-Oleum was going to discontinue the Testors line of hobby paints. A quick call to the company confirmed that that was not true. It turns out we can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Who knew?
November
Airfix announced their release of a 1/72 Vulcan, and guess what? Some modelers were excited about it and some were not, so bickering ensued. One forum participant said what more modelers need to say, “I’m not interested in the Vulcan. But I’m pleased to see Airfix still in business and releasing new kits." Amen to that!
December
Remember that 1/48 B-17 that HK announced in August? Well it hit the shelves this month. Quite the contrast to AMK’s 4 1/2 year launch of their F-14, eh? Naturally there was some rivet counting over the kit, but I think modelers generally agree that it’s very nice.
Here’s Flory Models' review on YouTube.
That's 2019 in a nutshell. We modelers remain a passionate group, and our conversations both online and in person are always amusing.
A few days ago I shared a summary of the big stories of 2018, but we should also reflect on the weird trends that caught my attention throughout the year.
Sexy women
2018 is likely to be the year of the #timesup and #metoo movements, but modelers could care less. We saw a large number of products depicting women in ways that many women wouldn’t be comfortable with.
Master Box released several female figures in their 1/24 scale “Trucker Series," from one that is likely intended to be a prostitute and a pair of sexy hitchhikers.
Master Box also added to their own Pinup Series.
Modern Armies in Miniatures released a number of 1/24 female figures depicting car models, runway models, and pinup girls.
Armor35 also jumped on the bombshell bandwagon with an extensive line of women in uniforms.
Even Dolman Miniatures, one of my favorite figure manufacturers with an outstanding lineup of military subjects, got in on the action with a couple of female figures, like this busty, saluting woman.
Not to be left out, Hasegawa offers these paddock girls.
Egg models
A few years ago I wrote about several trends in the hobby that I don’t understand, and one of them was egg planes. Apparently many of you enjoy them, because the trend exploded in 2018 with not just egg planes, but tanks and ships as well!
Freedom Model Kits released egg models of the F-5 and F-104 under a new “Compact Series.”
Meng Model released a number of weird warships in an egg-like series, such as the USS Missouri, USS Lexington, and the Scharnhorst.
They also have a line of armor, including the Tiger, Pz.Kpfw. III, and a Santa-themed M4 Sherman.
How do we know this is a legit theme? Well, there’s a book on the genre from AK Interactive, a Santa themed Sherman from Meng for the holidays, aftermarket (you read that right…aftermarket) from KASL Hobby, and a Facebook group (of course).
Oh, and a few modelers are doing conversions!
Bizarre German armor
The German military has been a source of fascination for modelers for a long time, and with the World of Tanks video game has provided fodder for the imaginations of modelers around the world. That’s manifested itself in a number of new kits of hypothetical German war machines.
I wrote about Revell’s flying saucer in my 2018 year-end review, but we also saw the strange Kugelpanzer 41 rolling ball thingamajig from MiniArt (with interior) and a huge line of 1/72 tanks from Modelcollect’s Fist of War series, such as an E-100 walking tank.
It's been a strange year in many ways. I can't imagine 2019 will be any different, but time will tell. Let's meet up here in a year and discuss what we saw.
Happy New Year, everyone! As always, build what makes you happy!
