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1/48 - Grumman F-14A/B & D Tomcat by AvantGarde Model Kits (AMK) - F-14D released


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A very good question indeed.

 

Recently there was a "live" youtube session revealing the weapons. These looked quite nice. It is a shame they do not make something to hang them on...

 

Oh well, Tamiya becomes the option of choice then.

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11 hours ago, Nocoolname said:

Are AMK still going? Is this still a thing that's happening?

Well their last Facebook post was back in Nov 2018, that’s not what I would expect from a modern company in this ‘Social Media’ era of communications.

 

I’m not in the market for one of these kits, however have been intrigued by the length of this announcement none the less. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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As I said in my post on January 14:

 

"I'm aware that the good folks from AMK have previously responded to posts in this forum, meaning that presumably and hopefully they are reading this and previous comments. If so, come on AMK, please tell us what is happening with this kit that did, and hopefully still does, promise so much."

 

Well......so far the silence is deafening!

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It always was a bit dicey picking a complex shaped American fighter and then throwing themselves at the red line annotating brigade. The thread on ARC got closed down after it had degenerated into a discussion of shapely women's posteriors, Finnish desserts and rude comments about POTUS. 

 

I loved AMK's Foxhound and honestly believe they should have stuck to Russian jets. We still need a good Su-15 Flagon series in any double-digit scale. Alas, they diced it and were overtaken by two Tamiyas, with a Great Wall Hobby Tomcat likely to beat the AMK into fourth place.

 

Tony 

 

 

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1 minute ago, tony.t said:

It always was a bit dicey picking a complex shaped American fighter and then throwing themselves at the red line annotating brigade. The thread on ARC got closed down after it had degenerated into a discussion of shapely women's posteriors, Finnish desserts and rude comments about POTUS. 

 

I loved AMK's Foxhound and honestly believe they should have stuck to Russian jets. We still need a good Su-15 Flagon series in any double-digit scale. Alas, they diced it and were overtaken by two Tamiyas, with a Great Wall Hobby Tomcat likely to beat the AMK into fourth place.

 

Tony 

 

 

 

Another rumour is the GWH tomcat is the AMK kit

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12 minutes ago, thepureness said:

 

Another rumour is the GWH tomcat is the AMK kit

You may well be right, albeit quite possibly a GWH labour-saving and AMK cash-injecting hybrid. 

 

I'm still hoping the Tamiya biggie this year isn't the 1/16 Sheridan tank but an all new tool 1/32 F-14A Tomcat. 

 

Tony 

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RUMOURmonger at its best !

The shutdown of the HP and the standstill on FB since Nov 17 are indicating something serious.

We know that Mr. Sio´s core business is not scale plastic modelling but supplying automobile (maybe other branches, too) firms. We also know that the world economic situation is heading a new crisis and therefore Chinese producers are going to make very serious considerations about future investments. This is, in short, the result from talks with some people situated in Asia (including some talks in Telford ´18). So the idea of selling the F-14, if not the complete line, makes some reason. Though it might not only be GWH who is interested.

Regards

Andreas Beck

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12 hours ago, thepureness said:

Part of me is starting to fear the worst on this, AMK's website has now vanished unless anyone else knows an active one

AMK never really had an active website. Also Kitty Hawk Models, who are producing some kits, shut their website down. Why?

 

Bottom line. AMK has some shape issues with their rendition of the 1/48 F-14D. They are serious enough for them to go back to the drawing board and start again. Fuel door at wrong angle, big rear end, come to mind. 

 

If AMK were to issue the kit that was shown as test shot sprues on November 2018 the Ramsay Bolton faction of the modeling community would be filled with glee as they flayed AMK on the Internet.:deadhorse:

 

AMK going back to the drawing board doesn't harm anyone. In fact it may mean we really do get a very nice and affordable F-14D in 1/48 scale. There are now how many companies making quarter scale P-51's?

 

I wish AMK success. They've made some very nice kits. Hope to see more.

 

Now I'm going to open my bottle of Ammo of MiG liquid glue and go back to work on my Hobby Boss (with it's issues) F-14A Danger Zone by Eduard.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Masinissa said:

I wish AMK success. They've made some very nice kits. Hope to see more.

 

 

I, too, wish AMK all the very best with their F-14, but wouldn't it be great to hear some news / reassurance from them about where they are with the kit....anything would do!

There a lot of folks out there, myself included, who have shown their faith in this kit and the company by placing pre-orders........AMK could easily and quickly repay that faith by giving the faithful an update.

We used to get regular contributions from Martin at AMK, but have heard nothing from him for months now.

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14 minutes ago, Sebastien said:

March 15th at Hobby Easy... 

 

Hmm....the ides of March.......and we all know about that date!

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3 hours ago, Masinissa said:

AMK never really had an active website. Also Kitty Hawk Models, who are producing some kits, shut their website down. Why?

 

Bottom line. AMK has some shape issues with their rendition of the 1/48 F-14D. They are serious enough for them to go back to the drawing board and start again. Fuel door at wrong angle, big rear end, come to mind. 

 

If AMK were to issue the kit that was shown as test shot sprues on November 2018 the Ramsay Bolton faction of the modeling community would be filled with glee as they flayed AMK on the Internet.:deadhorse:

 

AMK going back to the drawing board doesn't harm anyone. In fact it may mean we really do get a very nice and affordable F-14D in 1/48 scale. There are now how many companies making quarter scale P-51's?

 

I wish AMK success. They've made some very nice kits. Hope to see more.

 

Now I'm going to open my bottle of Ammo of MiG liquid glue and go back to work on my Hobby Boss (with it's issues) F-14A Danger Zone by Eduard.

 

 

 

It's all good saying this, but if a manufacture becomes inactive over a large duration of time it can be worrying. 

 

As I commented above, their kits seem to be on auction sites at inflated prices as well.

 

Now it could be that they are closed due to Chinese New Year and will wake up again in March. But there is fear going around. 

 

 

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53 minutes ago, thepureness said:

Another issue now if their kits are neing sold on ebay at inflated prices

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F173768188553

 

That's funny, we were selling them at a giveway price, as no one wanted them. Still took over a year to sell five of them. In fact, they are still readily available at the UK's biggest model retailer for £56.99 + post. We would do them for about £50 plus post. People would be insane to pay £100+ for them

 

 

thanks

Mike

Edited by Mikemx
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3 minutes ago, t15dja said:

I think the £100 example is just another eBay joker trying it on.

Here's another example....being offered as a "huge saving" 🤣

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/163477398707

 

Would anyone 'love' their prices? 😂

 

thanks

Mike

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On 13/01/2019 at 18:04, redcap said:

Having built their MIG 31, whilst nice, IMHO it wasn't quite the uber kit everyone went on about and hyped in the mags etc. with seriously weak u/c needing their metal set to correct and Revell like heavy panel lines.

I have to say that I disagree with everything here but the landing gear weakness.  It's a superb kit, and I'm blind if I can't find any of the heavy panel lines :nerd: 

 

mig-31bm-1.jpg

 

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I built their L-29 and it was a lovely kit also so I have to say the models they produced from my experience were/are lovely.  However that alone might not have been enough - take Accurate Minuatures for example.  I have built almost all of AM's kits and they were fantastic but they ended up folding and Academy got their molds.  Even if AMK as a model company does not survive steel molds will and they are worth quite a bit so someone will pick them up and re-release their kits at some point.  That being said, things change in business and they may still surprise us.  

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2 hours ago, Mike said:

I have to say that I disagree with everything here but the landing gear weakness.  It's a superb kit, and I'm blind if I can't find any of the heavy panel lines :nerd: 

 

mig-31bm-1.jpg

 

It is a subjective assessment Mike and a nice model btw. Compare the panel lines however on the AMK kit to, say, Tamiya's current F-14's and then tell me you can't see the difference? Likewise, just look at those on their F-14 kit (should it ever see the light of day) which were on BM a couple of weeks ago when discussing that one and those are also much heavier than those seen on Tamiya's or even the now ancient Hasegawa F-14 kits. As I said...each to their own and as we both agree, the metal u/c (certainly for long term integrity) is an absolute 'must' with this kit 

 

Gary

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If my interpretation is correct (= the option "Pre-order" has been changed to "Add to chart"), HobbyEasy now has the AMK 1/48 Ordnance Set in stock as of 2019-01-22. If this is correct, I guess there´s still hope that AMK is alive and well but just layin' low. Still puzzled why the decals for this set is seperately available from HGW, though......

 

https://www.hobbyeasy.com/en/data/xg2xtngbl4jnxl4g9ajt.html

 

https://hgwmodels.cz/en/wet-transfers/721-us-ordnance-set-stencils-148-248054.html

Edited by Phantom726
Spell check!
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3 hours ago, redcap said:

It is a subjective assessment Mike and a nice model btw. Compare the panel lines however on the AMK kit to, say, Tamiya's current F-14's and then tell me you can't see the difference? Likewise, just look at those on their F-14 kit (should it ever see the light of day) which were on BM a couple of weeks ago when discussing that one and those are also much heavier than those seen on Tamiya's or even the now ancient Hasegawa F-14 kits. As I said...each to their own and as we both agree, the metal u/c (certainly for long term integrity) is an absolute 'must' with this kit 

 

Gary

 

Gary

 

Don't take this the wrong way, but many people argue that the Mig-31 is possibly one of the best model kits ever produced. I've got it in my stash and at the moment I'm not brave enough to build it as I want to do it justice. But even looking in the box I'm stunned by the quality. 

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