Thomas V.

Outstanding news, I've grown old waiting for Tamiya early Merlin lineup, and if its close to WNW overall quality we're in for a treat. Still don't understand how Tamiya was not able in more than a decade to fully exploit Mk.IX.c tooling, since (as already mentioned ) tooling was designed to enable Mk.I/V kits down the line.

V.Šulc stated several times on https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=95280&start=32730 that Seafires Mk.I.b, Mk.II.c, Mk.III were in longterm development as well as PR.IV. For those not familiar with webpage link posted above, Mr.Šulc actively interacts answering lots of questions, mostly...will you do..xyxy....

I have my doubts about 32nd scale jets, at least here in EU, I am old enough to remember when Tamiya re-issued their Tomcat, when Eagles and Phantoms came, none of them were great sellers, they were too expensive, and that was one of reasons Tamiya issued four boxings in four years, becacuse initial C/D was shelf sitter, all that in a time when prices were much lower than today. Same goes for hordes of Trumpeter 32nd kits that lingered and are now being dumped but still no one purchases them, neither distributors neither end buyers. Only jets in 32nd scale that sold excellent were Academy's F-16 and F-18, because they were fairly priced, comparison wise in today's world with Tamiya F-4B in 48th being priced well above my line of good taste( big euphemism ) i dread the price sticker on newly tooled 32nd.Phantom.

Tooling produced in S.Korea and Taiwan, with injection processes in situ, did not hear PRC provenance. Meng outsources tooling production.

Oldtimers retired, new blood came, with it new ideas, but why their non limited catalogue is almost without any change for a decade, one of life mysteries, same for selling long oop but still top plastic for few $/€ to third parties instead of re-issuing those toolings themselves...mindblowing compared what and where they were decade ago.

That unfortunately is very true.

Cmelak truely does have charisma, and the kit is simply outstanding, as far as I understood the kit tooling was outsourced to another Czech manufacturer, and they did superb job, hope more kits will come out of their cooperation, would not mind new Fieseler Storch ( and K-65) family from Eduard.

SH Mirages III/V went back to the drawing board after Modelsvit releases, quality found on Mirage F.1 deemed not satisfactory.

If viewing in pure mathematical terms-right you are, but I am comparing values to set figures of yesteryear. But to better illustrate with semi public info- without breaching any professional or friendly confidence with other examples , Airfix Typhoon in 1/24 scale from start to finish cost Hornby app.30.000+ £ ( thirty, not three hundred ), and excellent sales saved the company for few months in winter 2014/5, Now one has to take into account that Airfix outsources tooling production( not development, but production), and has already well oiled processes-that does shed costs. So 1/24 Typhoon with all of detail intricacies, number of parts, etc....30K £ ( highest I heard all inclusive app.35K £). , that without having tooling production in house....compare that to sums cited by few, supra proliferation of new kits last years and dwindling number of production runs...

As Eduard mentioned- no tools were damaged during the fire, but it will take time for them to re-stock. Due to informal/formal war between Eduard and Special Hobby on one side and AZ/KP on the other, both of the former are keeping smaller scale plans very close to their chest, there will be plenty more 72 kits, but will remain secret until very close to their release date.

At least in my text there is no mention of so called absolute accuracy, mentioned does not exist in real life, nothing is 100%. Affordability and accuracy are not contradictory terms ( when speaking about shapes and sizes ), whether certain machine drills, mills a block of future tooling right or wrong ( accurate or inaccurate ) costs the same. So..those obsessed with accuracy are missing the boat catering for vast majority ( that you feel comfortable speaking for ), how exactly would that be? ...missing the boat by producing more accurate product? I will stick with airplane modelling, where a panel, rivet pattern, windscreen frame can make difference between subtypes, that is the level of accuracy one must strive to achieve, below that better not be in this business, and that is not absolute accuracy (that does not exist) but accuracy. There are plenty of people who view this hobby far too seriously ( unfortunately that can also be a euphemism ) , but regarding condescending and derogatory term rivet counter for a normal person that strives for more accurate product ( as accuracy is paramount in scale modelling, that we hopefully can agree on ) is beyond comprehension, given that rivet counting designers are behind of what best of 2021 has to offer- literally. As for Kinetic- agreed, they truly know to listen unlike some others, but are also prone to host of inaccuracies that are well. well below that 95%, so being amused by modellers rightfully being sceptical about certain details that make certain subtype, is in my view not amusing. It is ( again in my view ) among other similar posts by the few-poorly masked agenda usually mystifying model kit production processes for purpose of either pushing sub standard products ( eg.Zvezda Mi-24 recently ), certain brands or validating sharp rise of kit prices ( mostly by new brands ), again both is legal and legitimate, but so is replying to such I would say not so benign and hobbyesque spirit and action.

What does affordability have to do with accuracy? There is a long list of Kinetic doing it wrong, thankfully their F-104 is truely Gold standard, unlike some other of their kits that claim/ wear that title, given complexity of F-104 everyone sceptical has every right to be sceptical about, not easy to capture all the differencies.

Right type of distributors are as rare as water in a desert, numerous known Far Eastern brands vanished from shops throughout EU due to overhead in some cases reaching 60% , a certain Western European official distributor to app.5 EU countries of a highly known Japanese brand, adds 50% before taxation.

Someone will buy their toolings, they won't disappear, as far as I am concerned, between way too high prices, non quality plastic , and quite larger number of omissions on majority of their kits-not surprised, but more likely linked to the end of some sort of government subsidies.

No 3D renders, no CAD, 3/4 of AZ / KP kits are hand made , usually copies of either resin or other plastic kits, as mentioned with most omissions taken over.

Right you are both, Viggen in 48th the is first SH full run, V-1 in 32nd.being second, although whoever tackled former may dispute that title.

V1 is a new tool, but right you are, Grunau Baby is full run too, Siebel being partially ( only small parts )

This is Special Hobby first full run injection kit in 1/48 ( aside from V-1 ), I wish them best sales so they can continue with full run 1/48 kits, and hope they did better homework than on their 1/72 kit, that has more than few mistakes and omissions.

As said before would prefer someone else doing PC-21, if nothing else, one of the most beautiful plane with prop in front, what would I give for Revell to tool one in 32nd.scale, but when another round go government subsidies kicks in no doubt HB will release one, hopefully will fall into 20% of TRU-HB without any major inaccuracy.

Since this re-release is in my view last one before someone issues totally new tooled MB-326 kit, early AMI, as well as early-mid RAAF and SAAF schemes would have been perfect since I have not seen such decals in 1/48. MB-326K will probably be re-issued next year or as an out of catalogue item who knows when, regarding latter hope that Italeri won't just copy-paste their decal sheet from 2012, but also include proper SAAF Mil-Killers, plenty of info now available on mission and aircraft.

This kit was ideal subject for Historic Upgrade( had they continued with the concept ), since cockpit is almost non existent, at the same time having fine surface detail, nose is a bit off, but even with few swipes of sandpaper can be remedied to acceptable level. Usually Italeri does give interesting markings, since shortcomings of the kit are well known, another missed opportunity in my view is not including larger decal sheet with early operational schemes. ,

One usually pays package from certain manufacturer covering more than one specific type, such package may be initially expensive but taking number of possible releases into account, rights seldom go over 5% of unit wholesale price, usually 2,5-3%- definitely not huge amounts.

MiG-19 of late 2019 is by far the best tooling AZ/KP has produced till today, MiG-17 of 2013...run away.

Maybe some of our Czech colleagues have insider info for 2022, unfortunately i don't, but that pic is strong indication as well as informal teaser that Mustang is in the pipeline.

Good catch!...although Bf 109G/K, Tempest Mk.V, P-51D/K have been mentioned in the first wave of " 72nd scale revolution" , this is first "news" or teaser in a long time.