[John Youngs]

I'm going to be acquiring a new digital camera soon & I'd like to know from all of you if it'd be worth posting some photos of 2 models I've acquired - one very recently. The first is of the SpecCast, "pre-production" (only 6 ever made - this being one of only 3 depicted with the L/E slats in the "down" or "extended" position), "in-the-white", F-86F Sabre that "Jim" of SpecCast sent to me as a "parts" plane to replace some parts that came missing on a plane I bought straight from the factory that they no longer carried or produced (see my previous thread posting on this if you want to know more). I never removed the parts - I decided to keep the model "as is" due to it's rarity.

The second, is a plane I very recently acquired that for several years, I began to doubt that they were ever produced at all. A model who's availability I checked "religiously" and faithfully at least once or twice a week through eBay, Craig's List, & Google (both "web" as well as "image" searches) and up until this point, had never seen either the real model, nor even a single, solitary photograph of the model - EVER!! This is a model I acquired through a gentleman in Tennessee that I had previously done some eBay business with, and had proved to be very reliable & accurate in his descriptions of selling items. He notified me he had one of these for sale & would I be interested... - I can't print my immediate response herein, but needless to say, I was MOST DEFINITELY interested!!! We dickered on a price (which I won't mention, but needless to say, it was well within the 3-figure bracket...)!! He also sent it to me within the original Armour "white shipping box" that has the matching product numbers stamped on it, as well as the top of the box being approx. 1/3 covered with Australian mailing stamps. The model, of course, is none other than the B11B584 Australian, "Black Panther", CA-27, Mk32 Sabre model which was made available back in 2002 as a "limited edition" just for the Australian market; - just in time for the takeover by Franklin Mint. Stories I got (unfortunately, un-verifiable by me) from someone who said he worked for Armour at that time, said that due to some disagreement between the new owners (FM) and the distributor in Australia regarding payment schedules, resulted in FM literally "chopping off" production right then & there, so-to-speak. Various production figures over the last 3-1/2 to 4 years (the period of time in which I became aware of this model's existence) were quoted to me (again, all un-verifiable by me) as from a low of 51 total to a high of around 250 - and several figures within that range. I'm still trying to pin that down; if anyone out there has or acquires any additional infomation on this model in the future, please feel free to share it with us!!
In closing, let me put this another way: In all this time, I've been in touch (again, at various times) with over 30 diecast model dealers within Australia concerning this model. ALL but two of them had indicated to me that "They had never seen a single one of these models - ever!"
If you'd like to see photos of this plane, let me know via replies to this thread, and I'll post some just as soon as I get a new camera & learn it's basics. All photos will be by me, and, as such, will be un-copyrighted & can be used or reproduced by anybody. Hopefully this'll happen within the next few weeks or thereabouts. I'll let you all know. - JY -