This will be a test for the URL's.
Its only a single link and its my
Big Kahuna in the US.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/
EDIT- This is NOT the same company as "Hobby Link Japan", who also has a good selection but prices, shipping fees, and shipping times may be a turn off for North American customers.
Hobbylinc can best be described as your local (US) hobby store's warehouse and distributor.
If its sold as retail in the US, they probably have it in stock.
This includes parts for RC and trains, wooden ship kits and accessories, current-issue plastic models, most of the plastic model aftermarket parts and scratch building supplies , glues and paints, what ever you can think of.
I'm not kidding. Their front page looks like most other online hobby stores BUT start digging and you'll get an idea of how deep their selection goes.
As an example, you know that display in your hobby store for Evergreen plastic sheets? Hobbylinc carries the ENTIRE Evergreen line and Evergreen started out as a supplier for structural models (like, you want to build an entire factory in 1/48th scale to test the lay-out). They also have the entire line of K+S metal tubing and shapes.
As another example, let's say you're a happy guy in Texas building a 1/350th scale Ohio class SSBN.
Let's say you break some of the blades off the prop.
In your rage, you wonder why no one ever made one of these props out of real metal- for Pete's sake! As it turns out, someone did.
Dig deep enough and you'll find a solid brass copy of that part, warts and all but in solid brass. I had to buy one just to put it on the shelf near my spare parts drawer. Its much too heavy to attach to the plastic kit and it would take days to clean and polish it out, but its there..
If I had to guess, its meant for one of those carved mahogany wood models.
This brings up the downside of HobbyLinc.. They probably have "it" in stock, you just need to
find "it". Pack a big lunch and settle down for a long session of searching, better yet- wait for a three day weekend.
Don't let that generic looking front page fool you. They most likely have what you're looking for. To put this in perspective, most of my more oddball gizmos I use to scratch build, I found
by mistake at HobbyLinc.
I have a long-term project to build a heavy duty, operational trailer hitch in 1/18th scale, using as many metal parts as I can find. The tough part was to find an accurate-sized hitch ball. This is where RC came to the rescue, I actually found the right sized ball for the main part of the hitch in the "servos" parts section. I'm just waiting to find the smaller ball for a sway control.
The only other thing to watch out for is HobbyLinc's "backorder" status. I'm guessing HobbyLinc's definition of "backorder" is "This company still exists and we're assuming they will produce this kit or part again sometime in the future". Always check the availability status and use common sense. Order stuff ONLY if its listed as "in stock". While they have a strong selection of European and Asian kits, they don't carry everything. This also includes many of those "short run" kits. Remember what HobbyLinc's "bread and butter" is, selling wholesale to the hobby stores.
Service on-line is great, you'll get e-mail updates as your order gets packed and shipped. Packing is done well and prices overall are very fair with shipping prices (mostly UPS) in the "low to middle" category. Service outside the US is unknown on my part, although you'll find comments from Canadian buyers that are positive.