"1:48 vehicle availability " Topic

Is there a good source of 1:48 or 1:50 WWII vehicles? By 'good' I mean they have a wide selection and are generally in stock.

Other than the normal haunts; eBay, Amazon, try "48Track" out of Canada…specializes in 1:48 scale stuff:

track48.com/shop/home.php

I bought from them a few times, great service and the Canadian money exchange with U.S. is a plus too; unlike European countries exchange.

P.

Are you interested in plastic kits? I've been thinking about 1/48 myself, at least assessing what is available. It's a bit of a crapshoot. Tamiya no longer makes the Panther (odd choice to discontinue) but you're in pretty good shape with late war German stuff otherwise. There is some late war Soviet stuff available too, but you often have to go with a conversion kit.

I can second Track48 as a supplier – I've only used them for decals but had good service from them.

Blitzkrieg makes some 1/48 resin models if you want to go that route.

In 1/48 you are in the realm of modeling it seems and gas.o.line in France (available through track48) make some interesting conversion kits for vehicles you couldn't otherwise get. They make a kit to convert a Hobby Boss T-34 into an SU-85 for example.

Eaglemoss vehicles. Pre built and painted plastic. Pretty big compared to Warlord Games 1/56 though. Nice stuff

There's also Blitzkrieg Miniatures in the UK:

link

And Battlemart but their stock is a bit light at times:

battlemart.com

Don

All of my WWII vehicles are either 1/48 or 1/50. While 1/48 still lags behind 1/56 in the sheer variety of vehicles covered, the range is pretty wide and growing still. Tamiya just released a new Panzer IV Ausf H with side skirts in 1/48, for instance. Below is a list of manufacturers that produced WWII tanks and vehicles in either 1/48 or 1/50. Even if a certain vehicle (like the Tamiya Panther G) is discontinued, you can still find it on Ebay, Amazon or online model kit retailers like Sprue Brothers with a little bit of effort:

Plastic or resin model kit manufacturers:
Tamiya
Hobbyboss
Bronco Models
ICM Models
AFV Club
Skybow
Ken Swenson models (nice resin kits, see his listing on Track48)
Precision Model Designs aka Battlemart (resin)
Blitzkrieg Miniatures (resin)
1st Corps (resin)
Gaso.Line (resin)
Wespe Models (resin and some metal)

Plastic and diecast pre-assembled/pre-painted models:
Corgi (1/50)
Classic Armor Diecast (1/48)
Hobby Master (1/48)

I don't recommend Eaglemoss (IXO/Altaya) 1/43 scale vehicles. They are nice and cheap pre-built/pre-painted models but are oversized compared to the 1/50 and 1/48 models from the list above, and WAY oversized compared to 1/56 as Hlaven said.

I also don't recommend the sturdy diecast Solido/Verem/Tank Museum 1/50 or 1/43 models because they are "toys" with chunky metal-linked tracks that simply don't match the details of the others above.

Last but not least, the old 1/48 Bandai kits you can still find on Ebay are not as good as later kits and some claim the scale is bigger than 1/48.

Cheers.

Thanks for all the advice.