Lesser Known Classic GB: 28 Jun - 25 Nov 2025

[2996 Victor]

 I'm already on Ze Liszt! That's what happens when you go out drinking Theakston's Old Peculier!

[jimmaas]

1 hour ago, JOCKNEY said:

 

Hi @jimmaas

 

1990 be damned, I'm not going to miss an opportunity for you to build your Sierra kits. Please note I said KITS  @Enzo the Magnificent would be proud of me 

 

Cheers Pat 

Then add me to the list ( but singularly, my building is to slow for plural 'kits')

[Enzo the Magnificent]

1 minute ago, jimmaas said:

Then add me to the list ( but singularly, my building is to slow for plural 'kits')

 

To paraphrase Malcolm Forbes, he who dies with the most builds in progress wins.   

[IanC]

On 10/3/2024 at 10:28 AM, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Ian

 

I have no problem including Nitto, after all armour kits in any GB are not exactly common. Did you have a particular kit in mind ?

 

Cheers Pat 

 

That's good to know, Pat. Not sure at the moment. Ideally I'd revisit one I built in my youth - so from memory that includes the Panther, Panzer IV, M3 half-track and the Sherman. I loved how you got a little jeep or m/c combination, or some infantry, in each box too. I don't actually have any in the stash right now but that can be rectified! 🙂

[Mjwomack]

11 hours ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

 

To paraphrase Malcolm Forbes, he who dies with the most builds in progress wins.   

I fancy my chances 😜 

[Ray S]

Please count me in. Having just looked through your list of LNC manufacturers, I have only two - Contrail and Esoteric. So I'll have a bash if I may, subject to be decided, but kept to one as they are vacforms:

 

Contrail: Short Seamew

Esoteric: Grumman Guardian; Fairey IIID; Boulton-Paul Sidestrand/Overstrand

 

You can probably see why it would only be one, despite what Enzo may suggest

 

Ray

[rob Lyttle]

Oh this is going to be good 👍...😎

 

I've got several options stacked up, I'm sure you can flag me in for something. 

Protar did some great motorbikes in 1.9th scale, also European cars in a smaller scale. Have you got them listed?

I'd better have another read through the lists 

[vppelt68]

May I suggest that the cut-off year for all the Classic GB:s in the future would be "GB-year - 30 years" or something along those lines, and not the current "1990 forever". Not just us, but also the kits get older, and the really old kits get more difficult to find. Yet there are, fortunately for the hobby, also some younger members that prefer building good old plastic models over whacking PES, COD or GTA. Or at least they do both. Their "classic" kit may differ a lot from the general opinion at the forum, but should be recognised at least year by year.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

On 10/7/2024 at 12:12 PM, vppelt68 said:

May I suggest that the cut-off year for all the Classic GB:s in the future would be "GB-year - 30 years" or something along those lines, and not the current "1990 forever". Not just us, but also the kits get older, and the really old kits get more difficult to find. Yet there are, fortunately for the hobby, also some younger members that prefer building good old plastic models over whacking PES, COD or GTA. Or at least they do both. Their "classic" kit may differ a lot from the general opinion at the forum, but should be recognised at least year by year.

Ive suggested this before and it didn't seem to strike any resonance with anyone. I hope you can maybe do better than me VP. 

[Mjwomack]

On 10/7/2024 at 9:47 AM, Ray S said:

Please count me in. Having just looked through your list of LNC manufacturers, I

I might be completely wrong (like that ever happens) but I took the list of LNC manufacturers to be illustrative rather than definitive. Until @JOCKNEY sets me on the right path I'm looking for ever more obscure and old for this GB

[JOCKNEY]

2 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

I might be completely wrong (like that ever happens) but I took the list of LNC manufacturers to be illustrative rather than definitive. Until @JOCKNEY sets me on the right path I'm looking for ever more obscure and old for this GB

 

Absolutely right, the list really is to give people ideas of what might be lurking in the stash already or an opportunity to try something new.

 

Cheers Pat 

[Mjwomack]

36 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

n opportunity to try something new.

..in an old kind of way that is!

[paul-muc]

Once there was Tomy.
I have built the SS 100 and the 300 SL, both in 1/32nd scale and multimedia kits. Both outstanding in quality for that time and I am still looking for the Porsche 356 (meanwhile too expensive).

[JOCKNEY]

On 21/10/2024 at 16:10, paul-muc said:

Once there was Tomy.
I have built the SS 100 and the 300 SL, both in 1/32nd scale and multimedia kits. Both outstanding in quality for that time and I am still looking for the Porsche 356 (meanwhile too expensive).

 

Duly added thank you.

 

I've also found a 1980's kit in the stash made by Janusz Makowski so I've added this one as well

 

Cheers Pat

[JOCKNEY]

Just noticed Sutcliffe is missing, I know it's really repackaged Contrail but still needs including

 

Cheers Pat 

[JOCKNEY]

Whilst looking a various kits on Scalemates last night I came across Tower Models

 

 https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?fkSECTION[]=Kits&fkCOMPNAME[]="Tower+Models"

 

They used to specialise in buses and trams and definitely look old enough to be included.

 

Has anyone built one ?

 

As young Jockney used to go to school on an RT, it's very tempting !

 

Cheers Pat

 

[Richard Humm]

Enzo did a couple of their trams in The Golden Age of Transport GB earlier in the year but failed to finish due to dodgy decals. Here's a company history I researched a few years back when I picked up a couple of the kits.

 

Tower Models was based in a model railway shop in Blackpool, which appears to still be open, though now specialising in O Gauge models. The kits were produced by a partnership consisting of D. A. Brewer, C. A. Brewer, P. G. S. Bush and D. A. Calverley, according to the instruction sheets. D. A. Brewer is still the proprietor of the Tower Models shop.

The range marketed as Tower Models was three 1/76 scale bus kits (an AEC Regent Three, a Leyland National and a Leyland Olympian) which were marketed as Tower Models and came in various liveries – Scalemates shows seven versions of the AEC (although there are both RT and RTL variants, this only refers to the manufacturer of the bus, the RT being AEC built and RTL Leyland built), six of the National and three of the Olympian. All had London variants, while the Leylands both had Blackpool variants and the AEC a St Helens variant, so they were obviously after some local sales.

The Tower Trams range had eleven 1/76 scale kits, oddly not including a Blackpool one. Again, several kits were just reliveried versions of others in the range, though the two London E1 class trams did have different parts for the platforms, open and closed.

Scalemates gives a 197x date for those kits that it tries to date, but the instructions for the E1 class tram say that they were written in September 1988, so the kit would have probably been released towards the end of that year.

The tram kits are still available, having moved up the Lancashire coast to Heysham and now being owned by Bec-kits, though still sold under the Tower Trams name. The bus kits don’t seem to have been in production for some years, judging by some comments I’ve found on model railway forums.

[PattheCat]

Hi Pat @JOCKNEY.

All my oldies but goodies went KIA or MIA during multiple moves BUT I have the most recent (2021) repop of Dragon's 1/48 Ta152H-1.

That should be the Trimaster plastic inside the box (Trimaster is still clearly written on it besides Dragon).

If it's OK for you, could you please let me in?

[Grandboof]

I would like to join in Pat . Heaps to choose from . Great chance to clear some stash . 

Martin H

[JOCKNEY]

On 15/11/2024 at 17:04, PattheCat said:

Hi Pat @JOCKNEY.

All my oldies but goodies went KIA or MIA during multiple moves BUT I have the most recent (2021) repop of Dragon's 1/48 Ta152H-1.

That should be the Trimaster plastic inside the box (Trimaster is still clearly written on it besides Dragon).

If it's OK for you, could you please let me in?

 

Hi Pat

Superb name by the way 

Can you show the lineage on Scalemates ?

If so can you send a link it certainly sounds ok and I try to find any excuse for someone to build their kit 

Cheers Pat 

16 hours ago, Grandboof said:

I would like to join in Pat . Heaps to choose from . Great chance to clear some stash . 

Martin H

 

Great to have you with us mate 

 

Cheers Pat 

[PattheCat]

Hi Pat @JOCKNEY, I checked on Scalemates focke-wulf-ta152h-1 and on a thread over here

From that I understand it's basically Trimaster 1989 moulds BUT Dragon made new plastic sprue(s?) to replace original white metal parts.

 

Thanks, whatever the decision.

 

Pat.

 

[JOCKNEY]

39 minutes ago, PattheCat said:

Hi Pat @JOCKNEY, I checked on Scalemates focke-wulf-ta152h-1 ans on a thread over here

From that I understand it's basically Trimaster 1989 moulds BUT Dragon made new plastic sprue(s?) to replace original white metal parts.

 

Thanks, whatever the decision.

 

Pat.

 

 

Great stuff Pat

Look forward to seeing this one come to life

Cheers Pat 

[jean]

Hi Pat,

 

I find myself in an awkward situation, as only two of the GB I voted for got the nod for 2025.

Then I saw this GB, obscure to the core, and realized that I had a Dujin kit, more precisely a Loire Nieuport 161, with 100% resin and no fat nor gluten.

Sent to me a while back from Scotland by a dodgy character I wouldn't like to meet in a dark alley.

So what do you think I enter it? It is all NMF , so I may even be able to finish it in time?!

 

So what the hell, please count me in!

Cheers mate.

 

JR

[Mjwomack]

5 minutes ago, jean said:

100% resin and no fat nor gluten

@trickyrich will make you a very generous offer (no hot tubs or speedos to reassure you)

[helios16v]

After laying out GB possibilities, this one has made the tentative cut for my 2025 GB plans.  At the moment looking at a 1/24 1971 Ford Mustang.  AMT re-issue w/ parts to represent the red Mustang in the James Bond movie "Diamonds are Forever."  Original tooling of the kit is from 1971.