The MV Hobby, De-Mob

[jdmcm]

Even with prices at almost record highs on many of the collectible military vehicles there are ways for people to use their own hard work and ingenuity to participate. For example there is a group here on the west coast that has built a "replica" M10 Achilles tank destroyer. They began by salvaging a fabbed up tub from a scrap forestry yarder that itself used surplus Sherman running gear, and from materials they had around they built a fantastic homage to a WW2 tank destroyer. From 50 feet away you would be hard pressed not to believe it was real. Now I'm sure the rivet counters will deride it for being an imposter, and the value to a collector is negligible, but the fun factor is off the charts! And they didn't need to spend a quarter million or more dollars to do it. With the technical skills I see the young crowd applying to customizing their cars, trucks and motorcycles, they are well capable of building a variety of replica vehicles that would otherwise be unavailable to most of us. Now changing people attitudes toward "replicas" and welcoming these as legitimate representations of the hobby is another matter....

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

I have a different take, and not quite so pessimistic. While there are fewer youngsters per capita taking up the hobby, there is still a large number coming from an increasing number of countries. Re-enactors will take the opportunity to buy the old guys' vehicles (starting with the cheaper, smaller ones but inevitably working up) and will of necessity learn how to work on them. I expect the large, partially restored and expensive to operate trucks will fade away but the fun, sporty, historic ones will endure. I predict good, solid, accurate restorations will all find homes. What's out there is finite...they aren't making them any more and any un-restored ones will be to far gone to fix, so prices will stay reasonably strong.