This is one of those kits that I often get the question “how do you find these things?” And the short answer is “because I look.”
Of course, short answers usually require more verbiage afterwards, and that is actually something I feel I specialize in. My wife would probably call it “being long winded”, but I think perhaps she just doesn’t have an appreciation for the plethora of finer points of elucidation an old man of my illustrious reputation can pontificate on. (That sentence alone demonstrates the veritable cornucopia of lexiconification I am capable of… 🤣)
But I digress…
Yes, I find cool, odd kits by looking for them. And I find in that looking, I find good sources of weird kits, which I bookmark, Periodically I then go back with the basic question of “so what’s new?” For instance, I “found” this kit years before it was made.
I love to build Warhammer kits from Games Workshop. And I also watch more than a few videos about building Warhammer kits. And of course, in those videos creators may mention other franchises. One that I heard of was Warlord Games. I checked it out and while some of it seemed cool, nothing really grabbed me.
Later, another creator did a video about a game system from Warlord Games that was based on Bolt Action, a historical tabletop game. The “new to me” game was called Konflikt ’47, which was a “World War II never ended and now we have scifi elements” system. And it was from… Warlord Games. Armed with that additional info, I found this. And THAT added Warlord Games into my list of sites to periodically check to see what’s new.
And the same applies to Mantic Games, Hobby Link Japan, and so many more.
Take Hobby Link Japan, for instance. I don’t go to it and “doom scroll” for hours… that would be too much. but I bookmark the search results page for yet to be released kits for Ma. K, SciFi, Good Smile Company, Wave or other franchises, genres, and brands. Then, once a month or so, I see what is interesting by just opening the bookmarks folder. It just takes a quick glance. And I also learn over time when to expect new releases.
And if you’re on social media, keep an eye open for cool looking stuff. Use Google’s image search tools to find out “what is this thing?”
Now, do I buy all of what I find? No way… I couldn’t afford it. But it lets me see what is out there. Now and again I buy (usually pre-order) something. And on occasion I will add it to a list of things to consider in the future. And I know that if I don’t order some things now, they may cost more in the future.
The point is I find cool kits by deliberately doing the things it takes to encounter them.
It’s like anything else in modeling. I get questions all the time about how to do something, and I try to answer as thoroughly as possible. But the ultimate answer is you must try it. Not sit in front of your keyboard asking for “that one piece of advice that let’s you do advanced modeling immediately“… which was a real question I received.
It’s about choosing to be proactive and pursuing the hobby and not expecting everything to be handed to you. It takes work, diligence, and persistence. It’s worth doing. Give it a try. Ask questions, yes. But put in your own sweat, work, and brain equity.
So here is a cool stompy thing being assembled that is from a company you may not have heard about, for a game you don’t care about. But man is it fun.
Now you know about it.
And according to GI Joe, that’s half the battle…
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