tempestfan

I paid around 10 Deutschmarks on average for my Fujimi Brit Phantoms (heavily discounted), way back when, so those come into the 5 to 10 quid bracket

I apologize I sometimes have to work when at work...I think that the F-111 family is homegrown Academy, if purely for the reason that I think they predate the Hase range in 72nd and the only modern 111 they could have drawn inspiration from was the Mono Raven. Come to think about it, the Esci 111 family must have come out at around the same time, so if the latter was tooled in Korea, they could have similarities ? I don't think I ever looked into an Esci 111 though. Fujimi has made some exquisite families, but they are not easy to find, many are rather expensive on the collectors' market, and the last reissues I saw of their kits had moon prices. Interestingly, you don't mention their Phantoms (of which the Brits are unsurpassed after 25 years) or their H-46/KV-107...

OK, so I got you right, but the "for Italeri" confused me a bit. I think I have read about that Italeri and Esci jointly developed/researched kits in the AFV sector during the 70s, with Italeri making them in 35th and Esci in 72nd and 9th. The F.1 makes a lot of sense, as it is distinctly superior to e.g. the 48th F-100. Here's a Sunny-TriS Tu-22M. My command of Italian is about non-existant, but I will fight through - so posting the link would be greatly appreciated. As we (I) have brought this thread somewhat - is there a subforum for discussions of this kind ?

Sunny is/was Japanese, but the Super Et. has been reported as having been "Made in Korea" - Sunny also had the Tu-22M that I for a long time thought was Academy's first self-developed kit. Indeed it is likely Academy bought the tooling. The ex-Bandais however were apparently bought by Minicraft who took the moulds with them when the ACA/Minicraft relationship broke, together with the ex-Gakken stuff, apparently. I haven't checked which ones exactly were concerned, but at least some of the ex-Eldon/Fuji (probably Marusan-tooled) WW I kits were again re-released by Esci during the Ertl years, so the Academy versions may well have been copies of the moulds - to this day I haven't quite figured out why Academy choseto copy mostly outdated Japanese aircraft moulds when they started their kit business.

Do you mean "to Italeri" ? Looking at some Italeri kits from the period concerned (first half of the 80s), they themselves seem to have outsourced part of the mould making, as their Tornado and F-16 have a decidedly different "feel" to e.g. the CANT 506, BR.20 or He 111. A Korean company would be most interesting, as the Esci "Crème" models were released when Idea turned out hopeless copies of old Japanese kits, and Academy was trying to learn to walk; Suntak therefore must have had quite a lead in experience. I guess the Italeri Super Étendard may be the proof for it, as it bears all the hallmarks of an Esci kit of their golden age, and ended up with Academy after (?) a stay with Sunny - but possibly Sunny came before Italeri.

Check out Mikemx's post in the "Lightning canopies" thread and you'll be surprised which manufacturers' canopies are also affected... Revell is a manufacturer who corrects things (at times, at least) - their large Hunter apparently had a problem with the ailerons which was corrected in later releases.

Giorgio, can you pin that Japanese mould making company, and do you know which kits precisely they tooled for Esci ? I assume the collaboration ended around kit #9050, as much of what came afterwards wasn't up to the standards of the earlier kits - the F-14s got a devastating review in SMI, the A-7s have been said to be slightly undersized near-clones of the Fujimis, and the F-8s are based on the Hase kit.

It had a flat "gull wing" as had all of their Spit kits so far (H-611, 48th Mk I, 32nd Mk II/"Seafire", 72nd Vb). It had a rather fat nose, a fuselage that is some 6mm or so too long, an oversized fin/rudder, an interesting wing leading edge curve, an undercarriage just as representative of the real thing as the Airfix IX, and on, and on... It's a child of its time just as the Airfix IX is, but IMHO the latter is a better representation of its prototype. The box art IS gorgeous, in fact it was my only H-600 kit for quite some time as Revell apparently did a limited re-run of it ca. 1981 when they had switched to the "eye box" atrocities a year or two earlier, so the other 600s with their often attractive art were gone when I started as a little boy.

Is there the possibility of German and UK upgrades diverging, resulting in differently- shaped solutions for the same problem ?

The admittedly ancient IX looks much more like a IX than Revell's H-611 resembles a II, BT-K resembles any known Spit mark, and Hobbycraft's Vampires resemble their respective Vamp marks. In addition - and I know this is not an excuse - there a few kits 54 years old that can compete with a recent new release in any respect, though there are some oldies that are rather accurate - Frog Sea Hawk is much better than Airfix's, e.g. Of course it probably makes not much sense to try to correct the Airfix kit, but it probably is very useful as a "perspective" build, showing what has happened in the hobby in the past 54 years. To this end, a build of an original issue that only had the few recessed panels but not the rivets etc. could be illustrating. Besides, it would be a tribute to its designer who passed away much to early (I mean John Edwards, not RJ Mitchell).

When were mods 455 and 458 (cancelled by 529 and 532, resp.) introduced/cleared, and how did the mod states differ ? Probably a question that has been asked before, but (semi-)relevant to this thread, I think.

There's only one real BT-K (actually, there's of course the Aurora "original"), the version commemorating the 48th anniversary is of course the buildable "mid" Mk I. But you knew that.

So you'd build a BT-K (see left) ?

Regarding Italeri, I personally would look for their older moulds (including many of the Esci toolings) rather than their newer (which is relative, as what I'm thinking about as "new" are probably 15 year old kits) ones - with older ones I mean those predating 1990, as it is my impression that they produced a good number of tools relatively recently that came in for hefty criticism (Me 109s, 110s, Spitfires). If you're interested in choppers, they have probably the largest range of moulds and generally one that seems of fairly consistent high quality. Revell started producing high quality new tools long before Airfix attempted (I'm thinking of e.g. the F-89 and F-101B here), and they have made quite a substantial number of new tools in 72nd since the mid 90s, falling broadly into the category of WW II single engined types and modern jets (F-4F/RF-E, F-16, Tornado, EF Typhoon etc.). But beware, as Revell tends to repackage other manufacturers products (e.g. Hasegawa, Italeri, MPM), that sometimes are older and/or have a differing design philosophy, besides re-running their legacy tools from Monogram, Matchbox, Frog and their own library.

Success is with those who persevere.

Weren't there versions of the B-52 with TF-30s ? That may be an engine for which clickety-clack is quite correct.

The good old Monogram B-52D had this gimmick in the late 60s, and I think there was also something from Lindberg, though all were for jets.

Thanks for bringing to my attention that this kit has seen the light of day for the first time in more than 25 years (if I haven't missed a re-release in between). One of the cleanest Revell H-600 kits. I could say that pilot looks like if he's desperately trying to use the pee tube but I won't. Have fun with it !

Eduard has recently gained a reputation for being oversized - actually it's 77cl. The Royal Class is the proverbial old bottle. I prefer the cork route you suggested, as recutting the thread will invariably lead to splinters in the Cabernet. I prefer Malbec or Syrah in any case.

The Matchbox A-7 is the Air Force D. While probably not quite in the league of the Fujimi kit, the Airfix A-7E is not a bad one and easily and cheaply obtained (in my experience). For the early versions which had a TF-30 instead of an engine, Fujimi is the best choice, Esci being reportedly an underscale copy of the Fujimi, and Revell being an oldie (and oop for a long time now - but also easily obtained). A Phantom version not mentioned yet is the N (updated , of the G mentioned above only 12 or so were converted from Bs to test an automatic carrier landing system or somesuch and converted back after the trials, IIRC. The were noteworthy in that they were camo'ed green, but otherwise they weren't particularly colourful (at least not the one of which I recall seeing a photo).

Only in the Royal Class bottling.

I'm not too intimate with the intricacies of injection moulding, but all those "family moulds" with gates blocking the unneeded sections of the mould essentially mean that part of the mould (core common sprues) is used a lot more than sections for variants. This may cause the manufacturer to be forced to replace the heavily-used parts earlier, depending on the "range" of the material used for the moulds. It therefore may make sense to make a complete mould for the variant, duplicating the common parts from the first kit in the process. I think Italeri has produced a lot of their variant kits (at least of those in the 80s) this way, while Esci apparently went the "gates" route. Besides, IIRC, the 48th Lightning's wings were not the easiest to build, and any problems might have been magnified in 72nd if they had been going the same route.

To get this thread back on track, yes, the first set of raisin parts for the Typhoo has been released, and IMHO it looks as if it will address all probs..

The fact a kit is in the catalogue doesn't necessarily mean it's in actual production, but merely that there are still enough stocks left - Airfix sold the Rotodyne throughout the 70s using up old stocks of instructions and presumably parts, as the mould never had parts numbers added. In addition, it's always possible that a manufacturer cut more than one mould to begin with or replaced a mould with an identical one over the years (which has probably happened with some Airfix kits). Otherwise, you're of course completetly correct, Airfix had the Typhoon in production for 53 or whatever years, and the Gnat, F-5A, P-40E and Scout can't be far behind.

Well, they recycled the original 2047 reference for the F-51D, so there was absolutely no way to release this one in S. 2 again Blame Palitoy as they started that madness when they, for whatever reason, announced the kit for re-release in 1985 in S. 3, along with a host of other "upseriesing" for kits which really didn't warrant that. Anyway, the Airfix Magister has been off their programme since 1983, so some may like to see it back. Still, as the kit is not really scarce, it will probably be cheaper to get an old one off ebay, as with most of the older moulds still in production.