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hopkp

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  1. hopkp
    Like you, I remember that old kit well and with great fondness, though I glued its pale blue bits together unassisted (and made an almighty mess doing so!). Mine was also unpainted and the maple leaf is as clear in my mind today as it was 50 or so years ago.....though for some reason I've never had any inclination at all to do JE-J again. Nostalgia's a great thing, isn't it?
  2. hopkp
    The silver one from the Dutch Decal sheet is quite attractive too.....
  3. hopkp
    I agree completely, it's definitely the one I'd go for. The WW2 RAF schemes must be the most boring of all time and have all been done to death at this stage, fair play to Airfix for offering something a bit different.
  4. hopkp
    Just curious - where are you seeing a fairing ahead of the wing leading edge?
  5. hopkp
    Very nice, that's something just a little bit different! Is there much 'fettling' needed to get the wings from the Mk.II kit to fit the Mk.V fuselage?
  6. hopkp
    I got one delivered today, I bought it from Modellbau Koenig in Germany. MN Modelar in the Czech Republic also has them in stock.
  7. hopkp
    ??? I hope the people they're employing to do the tooling for the kit are better at their jobs than the people doing their English translation work! It'll be interesting to see how the two new F-16 kits compare. I'm sure the Minibase one will have far more parts, but that's not necessarily always a good thing.....
  8. hopkp
    Perhaps the 'scabbed on' strengthening plates will be provided by Kinetic as PE parts? (Most of the Kinetic Gold' range includes a small frame of PE parts as best I can remember.) In reply to your question about the Hasegawa 1/48 F-16s, there's nothing at all wrong with them if you're OK with building a very basic kit that's now nearly 40 years old (e.g., as you mention, the wheel wells and intake are quite poor, you could also add the cockpit, the wheels/undercarriage and the exhaust to the list). Apart from that, none of the Hasegawa kits are representative of the 'post-MLU' aircraft used by the main European F-16 operators and which carried most of the interesting colour schemes. Only my view, of course.....a 'Stateside' perspective may well be different.
  9. hopkp
    It sure is a funny old world, and if anything it's getting even more daft on an almost daily basis (and not just in relation to model aircraft kits either)! Personally, I've given up trying to figure out Tamiya's logic.....if you're only going to issue a kit of one variant, why make the tooling in such a way as to allow multiple variants to be produced - surely all you're doing is increasing your costs? It'll be interesting to see how many F-4 variants Tamiya eventually does.....
  10. hopkp
    As far as I'm aware, the answer to that would be yes.....
  11. hopkp
    Ditto re. the Hasegawa kits, don't know what I'll do with them all now! As for the variant, yes, I guess everyone wants something different. For me it's mostly about the colour schemes, the European operators - particularly Belgium and the Netherlands - have done so many attractive 'specials' over the years; the fact that I've seen a lot of them 'in the metal' at air shows and open days is probably another reason that I like them so much.
  12. hopkp
    I’ll be having a few of these! I’ve been wanting a really good, ‘out of the box’ European F-16 for literally most of my adult life. The Tamiya kit is lovely, but they only ever did a couple of F-16C versions (despite the tooling obviously being set up to cater for multiple variants, but then again that's just what Tamiya does); the Hasegawa kit dates from the late 1980s and never properly represented the later European A+/MLU versions at all. You could admittedly get there using a whole raft of ‘aftermarket’ (or scratchbuilding if you had the skills, I don't), but if this is as good as Kinetic's F/A-18 ‘legacy Hornets’ and F-104s and then I'll be a happy man. I’m sure they’ll do an F-16B kit too.....and knowing Kinetic, probably an ADF, C and D also, but the A+/MLU is the one I really want. I have decals already for about 25 or so.....I wonder if they'd do a discount if I buy them by the crate?
  13. hopkp
    Very sorry to hear that.....thanks to John for all of the great stuff that AIMS has produced (decals, resin, etc.). Wishing him all the best for the future.
  14. hopkp
    Well, I guess I could always try building the two Hasegawa ones that have been in the stash for about 30 years.....does that answer your question? (I think I'm beginning to see the problem here.....I probably need professional help at this stage!)
  15. hopkp
    ZM makes us wait ages for everything!
  16. hopkp
    I completely agree. I would absolutely love a 1/32 Vampire, but for me that completely over-done surface detail would be a real deal-breaker. As you suggest, many will argue that it can be filled/sanded, but I've never had much success doing that and frankly these days I don't have either the time or the inclination to do so, especially when there are so many really good kits in the stash waiting to be built. I also can't help but think that if this kit was by - for example - Trumpeter or Hobby Boss that there would be a lot more in the way of negative comment about it - though maybe that's just me getting old and cynical!
  17. hopkp
    That's not modelling, it's wizardry! Admit it, you just waved a magic wand over a full-size one and shrunk it to 1/48, didn't you?
  18. hopkp
    Not so - according to a post on Hypersonic's Facebook page about accessories for the Revell kit, their own 1/48 SR-71 kit is still very much going ahead: "Apart from the wheels and seats, I am working on two more sets that will offer some nice additional options but otherwise we will concentrate our efforts on making the GasPatch/Hypersonic Models SR-71 kit as good as we possibly can. I still can't give you a time line, but I have high hopes that during the course of this year we will make substantial advances so that we will be in a position to offer more information."
  19. hopkp
    Interesting - the wording used by Airfix (i.e., "The Spitfire Mk.XVIII was visually almost identical to the Mk.XIV..." and "The new kit will feature this additional frame of parts...") would strongly imply that it's just the previously issued Mk. XIV with a new sprue and no other changes (in particular, the same wing parts).
  20. hopkp
    I'd say you're right, I'd be very surprised if this kit proves to be anything more than a re-issue of the Mk. XIV with an added 'rocket sprue' and a new decal sheet (though I'd be delighted to be proved wrong).
  21. hopkp
    Hobby 2000 has re-boxed some 1/32 kits, most recently several Bf 109Es (Cyber Hobby/Dragon) and before that a couple of Spitfires (Revell). Perhaps they're also now going to re-box some Hasegawa 1/32 kits; they have in the past re-boxed quite a bit of Hasegawa 1/48 stuff, so obviously have connections with the company. Could be interesting.....
  22. hopkp
    Apart from the missing 'P', how would you rate the kit?
  23. hopkp
    I'm sure someone, somewhere has tried it!
  24. hopkp
    There's one in the stash already!
  25. hopkp
    Not for me.....it'll take ages to sand them all off!
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