This is a very interesting topic of conversation for everyone. I, for one, agree with Rush on the subject of not allowing people's 'reviews' or 'analysises' of a diecast influence to my buying decisions. The reason? What are people basing their reviews/analysises on? Books, photos (both color and black-n-white), combat footage (both color and black-n-white), etc.? These are all helpful, but not the BEST source for an accurate analysis. Your best option is to have the ACTUAL aircraft or tank there in front on you to compare your diecast against. I have a huge advantage over virtually all of you because I was able to observe some of these WW2 aircraft being restored, to operating condition, at one of the best restoration shops in the world at that time, the Flying Tigers Warbird Museum in Kissimmee, Florida (the reviews came from Flypast magazine and Trader magazine, 2 of the leading warbird magazines in this business). How many of you have seen a self-sealing tank and knows of its composition? How many of you have seen a 9-cylinder Wright Cyclone engine from a B-17, broken down for repair? How many of you have seen the hydraulics and electrical components of a Goodyear Corsair? How many of you have seen a FW-190F-8, up close, the BMW engine, and the original (not reprinted) tech manuals of this aircraft? Please do not take this the wrong way; this experience does not make me better than any of you; it simply means that I had the incredible opportunity of Tom Reilly, the owner, hiring me as one of his tour guides (the youngest that he had ever hired, by the way!!
) and me asking a number of questions about the restoration process, sheet metal work, etc. I was fortunate enough to explain the Sperry electrical systems of the ball turret of a B-24 to those on the tour, for example. I also observed many repairs of warbirds flown in to Tom's shop since he was one of the best in the business. I saw a B-25H (the variant with the 75mm recoiless cannon in the nose!!
) fly in for some repairs to some hydraulics and electrical systems; on another occasion, a PBY Catalina flew in for repairs to its starboard blister and port landing gear strut.
For example, people will hammer Franklin Mint aircraft because they believe that there are some inaccuracies in the diecast, which I do agree with. However, will this prevent me from procuring them in the future? Absolutely not!! Some people do not like the screws on the ventral side of the aircraft. Oh well, just the Rolling Stones sang........"You can't always get what you want, but if you find sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need"
