Five models I did not buy on Black Friday

This is something of a companion piece to an article I wrote four years ago, “Five kits I did not buy at the Nats.” I often see conversations about the kits that we buy, so I think it’s interesting to talk about what we did not buy and why.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, and quite a few online shops offered a variety of discounts and deals. Some were lackluster (7 percent off -- really?) and others were more enticing (offer me 20 percent and I start looking for my wallet). The traditional highlight of the season, Squadron’s 40 percent sale, no longer excites me now that the threshold for the maximum discount is $500, though in fairness it’s a no-brainer f you and a few friends can compile an order together.

Nonetheless, there were a few sales that prompted me to browse for bargains. I found a few, but I fell short and spent literally nothing over the weekend.

Zoukei-Mura 1/48 F-4C - Try as I might, I couldn’t find a vendor here in the US that has these in stock, so this one was a non-starter.

Zoukei-Mura 1/48 F-4S - Found this at Sprue Brothers. Could have scored one for $60, but it was out of stock.

Trumpeter 1/48 T-38A - I’ve always appreciate the sleek lines of the T-38 and would like to build on in an old school, 1970s white scheme. MegaHobby has it in stock, but I just couldn’t quite pull the trigger knowing that I have too many 1/48 scale models in the stash while my focus has been largely on 1/72 scale. I also learned that the Wolfpack model is slightly more accurate, so there's that, too.

Trumpeter 1/35 BREM-1 - I’ve always had an affinity for Soviet/Russian engineering vehicles. I was thrilled when Trumpeter released their BTM-3 last year, so I've been eager for them to leverage their molds of the BMP-1, T-72, and T-80 to produce respective examples. I was excited to find Trumpeter’s BREM-1 at Squadron, but lo! It was out of stock. So this shall have to wait for another sale or an order from a seller in China or Japan.

Italeri 1/12 Fiat Mefistofele 21706cc - If you’ve seen photos of this model on web sites or Facebook groups, you know it’s an outstanding model. I’m continually tempted to get one, despite it’s heft price tag (around $200), so Black Friday seemed to be a good opportunity to get one at discount. But after a good deal of thought, I decided to wait. I’m not a car modeler, so I’m not sure I can do the kit justice, and, frankly I have many other models in the stash that excite me more. Who knows; maybe I’ll come back to it some day.

I hope you had more luck than me. Happy hunting!