My father is building a 1/72 scale model for every aircraft he worked on in an Air Force career that went from 1963 to 1993. His career spanned from the C-47 to the F-15E. One plane that is proving to be extremely difficult is a 1/72nd scale model of the Cessna 310. He worked on the AF version of it. Any help would be apprectiated.
Bill
Comet did a kit in very close to 1/72 that was later reissued by Aurora. Both show up on eBay from time to time. It's accurate but has no landing gear or cockpit/interior detail whatsoever.
And, IIRC, panel lines at least as deep as any Matchbox has been roasted for.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
The Aurora/Comet kit is 1/65, IIRC. It's of the early "straight-tailed, tuna-tank" 310. If he worked on the later version, he'd have some modifying to do. Not a real big job tho. I'm hoping since Gremlin is making a Cessna 335/340. they'll also make the 310 series now as well.
The Comet/Aurora kit scales out to 1/69, close enough to 1/72 scale for most people.
Everything said about it is true. Very old kit, no landing gear or interior, deep trenches. I'll add that you may want to replace the clear parts with vacuform or paint the clear parts and ignore the interior ala desktop models.
The original Comet boxing goes for $10-15. You could probably find a later Aurora boxing for $5-10, just be patient.
Good luck,
Tom
Thanks a lot for the info. I'll keep my eye out for it.
Bill
Maiesm72 wrote:
Not sure where you find your pricing on those kits, but most "collector sales lists" I see & on eBay, those 310s go for 3-4 times your pricing. They may be worth $5-$15, but they're selling for $30-$50.
Picked one up at the Santa Rosa contest earlier this year for $12. Aurora box.
E-bay is not the be all and end all for price estimates. In fact it tends to be rather innaccurate. A kit going for $10 one day can go for $40 a couple of days later and $8 a week after that.
Tom
That's why I also mentioned sales lists. I don't think I've ever seen one for less than $25-$30 in over 20 years. Now, whether they're selling is a different story.
I absolutely agree here. (I would buy all I could get at $5 - 10!) At $25 - 30 they ALWAYS sell. (By the way, the last completed auction on eBay was in excess of $100... with FOUR bidders over $75! I've got a Aurora 310 on eBay right now, so I've got my fingers crossed. ;-) ) Most of the Aurora/Comet private aircraft are immediate sellers from any catalog. I also just sold a 1/88 Aurora Beech 18 to a customer at around $33.
I disagree with pricing kits for catalogs at the extreme of the price range. Yeah, you might have a customer who'll pay $50 for a $25 kit, but if you have two, I feel you should price the item lower to sell both. If an item is on someone's catalog sales list month to month, what does that tell you? Additionally, what if you sell one at $50 from a list and then you can't sell the second for that price and then you finally price it down to $25 to sell the second. It tells your customers that your pricing is not firm or thought-out. Not good for the long run.
Jeff Garrity Rare-Plane Detective
A quick question, was the the larger or smaller of the two that Aurora did? I had both, one that appeared to be 1:72 and one much smaller, maybe 1:100 to
1:120. What is the smaller one worth these days?-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------
The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger
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