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Thomas V.

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Everything posted by Thomas V.

  1. Thomas V.
    Its Eduard's kit.
  2. Thomas V.
    Airfix is far better kit, from surface detail( cannot believe I am saying this, but true) to internal ones, far superior, unlike almost all other Hasegawa kits, He 111 has trench like panneling, on the contrary, one of the best or constrained surface detail on Airfix kits is in He 111 boxings. Again interior detail is better in Airfix.
  3. Thomas V.
    no
  4. Thomas V.
    As they say, everyone is entitled to its own opinion, I would beg to differ, there is no objective reason for such price ( if true ),even if Tamiya used slide moulding tech of 2021 ( they did not ), it would still be excessive, not only for what you get( size and quality ) but also compared to ZM and Academy, judging from pics seen today again there is no such quality gap between mentioned and Tamiya, we will see...
  5. Thomas V.
    With this part breakdown, they can go from F-4B to F-4G,of course they won't, but they can. But and a big but, two biggest EU Tamiya importers/distributors cite price very close to 100 euros, we had that conversation earlier, if it really comes close to that number , simply- way too expensive.
  6. Thomas V.
    Hasegawa has quite large production capabilities( not facilities ), as they were among the first plastic kit manufacturers to introduce fully automated/robotized production, reducing manpower until last part of the process( shipping packs) They produce their kits in house, and again have ample of production capabilities, unfortunately for all of us, their new menagement decided to take u turn regarding aviation related subjects. Even after decade of more or less passivity they still have dozens of excellent and unsurpassed toolings, they re-invented 48 and 32nd scale in early 90's and early 00's but stopped in 2009. I had good fortune of seeing glimpse of their " world" and had they continued among others we would have seen new Eurofighter , Viggen ,Jake and Seahawk family in 48th.scale, new Ki-43 in 32nd scale as well as Greyhound in 72nd, as they produced 4-5 totally new toolings yearly , in my view huge , huge loss for all of us building and more realistically collecting aviation related subjects.
  7. Thomas V.
    As with most recent kit- its budget tooling for Airfix, not so budget for the final buyer, instead of tooling Sabre with all the possibilities of 2020 tooling, cornering Sabre market for the forseeable future, this will be easily surpassed by anyone deciding to tackle the subject in a serious manner.
  8. Thomas V.
    It was change of menagement in 2008/9 that tilted the company away from aircraft to mix of Japanese centered subjects, not to mention huge price hike at the time ( 50%)+ no so good trade policies ( linked purchases) , to top it all , after "rubicon" of 2009, they had some big flops like Su-27/35+F-22, what is astounding is that they are incapable of issuing back some (even today )superb toolings, instead selling them to other brands for substantially higher final price.
  9. Thomas V.
    My bet is also on Mauve, as they have been quite liberal in labelling old kits " New Tool" .
  10. Thomas V.
    its Accurate Minitures kit, tooled by ACE of S.Korea
  11. Thomas V.
    The kit is designed to be released as a Gunship, AC-130U/H most probably, maybe AC-130A( I wish), so patience...
  12. Thomas V.
    did not notice it until I compared it to Promodeler, it really sticks out, so much for all the so called reviews, out of dozen nobody even checked fundamental proportions, cannot say if bomber nose is ok...
  13. Thomas V.
    hope they sort out the nose, gun nose on the current kits being 5 mm too short, quite visible omission, in fact with Bu 131 wrong prop hub position biggest ICM omission ( aviation wise ) in the last few years...
  14. Thomas V.
    Nothing, its just Italeri's way od doing business a.)not announcing anything new combined with b.)selfharm of not having items that should be permanently in their catalogue in some cases for a decade if not more, re-releasing them as, or after far better kit from another manufacturer arrives.
  15. Thomas V.
    F-5A is Esci tooling.
  16. Thomas V.
    For the size and complexity of the kit, there is no objective reason why it should cost wanted amount, while it may not be new, its in the same price range as their 1/32 Phantom, and yes 32nd has its shortcomings, but just the difference in size should keep 48th kit price at bay. Regarding detail and finesse, while Tamiya kits do fall together in my view today they are behind GWH and Eduard, for a price 30-40% higher than mentioned competition, as of last 5 years disparity between mentioned categories and brands growing wider, not o in Tamiya's favour. its simply beyond any reasoning why in this age they are pricing their aircraft kits so high.
  17. Thomas V.
    Had hard time with Lightning and Tomcat, but Phantom for asking price-beyond ludicrous, no way I am paying 100+euros for kit of that size, can be of divine provenance-no way.
  18. Thomas V.
    No Fujimi, Platz or Hasegawa reboxes, Korean theme without long absent H-19, aside from MB-326 48th scale all totally obsolete, F-35B could be a winner but have serious doubts about surface treatment, could have been far better only taking re-issues into account,although they do reserve 5-6 catalogue numbers for later announcement, could be far better.
  19. Thomas V.
    So true, lets hope that rumoured revived Hasegawa contact will bring some interesting boxings too.
  20. Thomas V.
    Good deduction on your part too, as they issued 1/32 Italeri one, and as we have only Meng not so stellar 48th one, 1/48 would be my option too. On the other hand Tamiya is Tamiya, no amount of deduction and analogy applies to them, so we may even see 32nd scale one now or down the line. To digress, while I still stocked Tamiya and visited them regularly at Nurnberg Toy Fair, being captivated by 32nd scale kits and being given regular small lecture by highly patient and polite staff on how mentioned are conceptualised. Key word was engine, to cite them engine being most expensive part of the tooling with app.30-40% of the new tooling costs being set aside for engine, thus if not being German subject, something with R-2800 or Merlin is a given.
  21. Thomas V.
    Think we are all in for a big disappointment, but my bet is on a P-47 family in 32nd, P-38J/L in 48th, Spitfire Mk.I in 72nd., although would not be surprised by F-35A if they were given access to JASDF ones.
  22. Thomas V.
    No one knows what they will release, least of them Italeri, new year releases were reserved for Nürnberg, but with company being run as a cottage industry as of last few years-who knows. Expect 2021-2022 catalogue in February.
  23. Thomas V.
    They have been in decline for 20+ years, remember exact catalogue( 1998 ) when their pricing for certain items of my interest ( Hasegawa and Tamiya aircraft in 72 and 48th scales)was almost 30% higher than of their growing competition ( Roll Models etc..) Starting from late 90's even superb discounts couldn't offset astronomical ( euphemism ) international shipping charges. Golden years of cca.1982-1997, good pricing, cheap postage,superb packaging, every month some deeply discounted items, big savings on advance orders, highly anticipated montly supplements...I will miss them. Of course time changes everything, but what should definitely be saved are their Squadron Signal book series, even in today's world they present what they always were- source of good and cheap info, their revival in last decade producing truely stellar books for their value. P.S. Someone please save the publishing part.
  24. Thomas V.
    Its Stransky kit with parts for C-6 being made by KP, like 1/48 one.
  25. Thomas V.
    Aviation wise-good list, I will add Cl-215/415 to the before mentioned, but even taking into account those kits for which there is no competition yet, these kits are between 35-50 years old, adding to that 2/3 of the re-issued kits have long time ago been replaced by SH, Revell, Airfix and Hasegawa. Now my biggest beef is pricing, these kits under Glow2b ownership have seen prices skyrocketing by 40-50%, in my view even before there was small market for them, with new pricing there are non sellers. As for automotive and naval subjects, they do offer kits not tooled and most those likely never to be tooled again, but again non sellers under wanted prices. To sum, coupled with that Glow2b has become informal Kinetic EU distributor and again prices went up by wide margin, I don't forsee great revival under their ownership, I would like to be proven wrong, but again ownership provenance does not in my view offer great future, pricing structure for re-issued Kinetic, SH and RV kits being strong indicator.
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