"Plastic Jet Retailers for 1/144th and 1/100th?" Topic

Looking for plastic jet and helo retailers (and/or die-cast models), for the Cold War era, in 1/100th and 1/144th scales, preferably at a discount, and in the USA (international, e.g. UK is alright too, if necessary).

Want to get a jump on options for Cold War era Close Air Support Aircraft, from the 1950s thru today.

I've looked around a bit, and some US retailers apparently don't even carry 1/144th scale jets and helos anymore, let alone in 1/100th scales.

Thoughts, other than eBay?

Trumpeter, Revell and Academy 1/144 ranges cover almost everything. You can usually find them at one of the on-line discount suppliers or your local Hobbytown should be able to special order. I picked up a couple of 1/144 F4 Phantoms from Hobby Lobby. Most of the area stores have them on the shelf.

The real challenge is helicopters. Zvesda has the Mi-24 and Apache helicopters in their Cold War Gone Hot range, but expansion of that project is on hold.
Eastern Express makes the Mi-8 and Mi-26, but they are obscenely expensive when you find them.

Try Squadron.com

Dude, I just did a simple search on eBay on a few basic Cold War era aircraft and there is a full buffet available to choose from suiting all prices, and a large majority are from the US or Asia with free postage.

What Saber6 said. And if what you want isn't on sale, just wait a few months and it will be.

Doug

Thanks for the tips.

Actually, I thought of squadron, and they seem to be getting rid of a lot of their 1/144th scale aircraft, or their search engine doesn't work properly. Not sure which really applies, but I only found a few 1/144th scale offerings on their clearance page.

Hopefully, some will produce decent offerings again, at reasonable prices, as the Cold War era catches on again, e.g. AH-1G and S Cobra attack helos, BO-105s, Migs, etc.

Sorry missed the except eBay bit!

The biggest range of aircaft kits at the scale/s you are looking for are mostly now OOP and more or less only exist in the second hand market place. Some of the Japanese and other Asian eBay sellers also have direct sales that don't go through ebay. Their store links are often hidden within their eBay store fluff. I've shopped with a few now and haven't ever had a problem. All my online purchase problems have only happened with dealers where English is the first language in their country of origin.

Other than that, I can't help you!

1/100 plastic aircraft is pretty limited. Tamiya tried a while back, and made a very small number of kits.

1/144, however, should have LOTS of options.

No worries.

Sometimes you can find a decent deal on eBay too, though generally everything is higher than retail.

I'm really surprised to see the lack of 1/144th scale aircraft currently, at the couple of retail sellers I've looked at thus far.

Back in the day, 15 – 25 years ago, they were everywhere. Granted, not as many as for 1/72nd scale, but a lot of stuff seems to be OOP now.

Perhaps I'm wrong about that, but will need to look a bit more, I guess.

So, any other decent 1/144th scale retailers, in the USA, that sell via the internet, other than Squadron and eBay?

hobbylinc.com

I can find a hell of a lot of 1/144 scale stuff at Hobbytown USA. Do you not have one in your city?

We do, off and on.

They keep moving, and I'm not sure where they're at not, assuming they are still in business.

This is at least their third move in less than a decade, again, assuming they haven't moved again, or gone out of business.

You can find stupid amounts of this scale on taobao. Search: 144飞机

(or start typing 144feiji and let it autocomplete for you).

If you want help with a large order, email my user name at yahoo.com.