S.79 Sparviero in 1:24 scale

[nuuumannn]

Looks like a neat scam...

I remember years ago Prado Publishing of Spain had this similar thing where you could buy into the "Aircraft of the Aces" series of books and models. Every month you'd get a reprinted Osprey title, with a few pages of line profiles missing and a small diecast metal model of the aircraft featured in that month's title. You could choose either the books on their own, or the models on their own, or both together, which was the most expensive option. I opted for the books on their own option and I though it was a good deal, at around 7 quid a month it was cheaper than forking out 15 quid's worth of Osprey title. There were 60 titles. I've still got most of them.

 

[msxyz]

Gentlemen:

Just curious, as I'm interested in this kit / model too. If the modeler elects the payment method, then he / she also pays extra for the shipping of the parts, which can potentially add up to 50+ separate shipping charges (Weeks spread out over a year) on top of the costs for the components, correct?

Also, on that note, it would appear to simply purchase the whole kit outright & work out financing arrangements from another source (monthly payments on credit cards, or through PayPal's payment program, bank, etc.).

So the differences between payment methods on a piecemeal basis & outright purchase of the whole kit is exponentially huge!

If you buy it directly from the publisher you're sent a certain number of issues (3-5) inside a box monthly to reduce shipping fees.

In the past, it was common to buy these kits at newsstands, but with the periodic magazines sales now dwindling down, most of the people prefer to buy it directly from the publisher.

Anyway, it would be interesting if such models can be sourced directly from manufacturers or if they're custom made according to the client specs. Who's the manufacturer behind them? Over the years, I noticed also a difference in build quality and materials among different kits. Those by Hachette publishing are usually high quality, other not so. The most common problem with low quality models is the fitting of various parts and the tiny metal screws having bad threads or being made of soft metal, so that you must be very careful when you drive them in, least the head cut will be ruined by the screwdriver.