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1/48 - de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen FAW.2 by Trumpeter - released


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Really struggling to understand Trumpeter's decision process for new releases.  It almost feels like they're trying to out-compete just Airfix.  First we have the 1/48 Defiant and now a 1/48 Sea Vixen FAW2.  I understand the whole "kits sold by Airfix won't provide money to Trumpeter" argument but any Trumpeter kit of either the Defiant or Sea Vixen would have to be very, VERY good in order to compete effectively.  There are plenty of aircraft types out there that haven't been well kitted in 1/48 scale.  Why not do one of those and, if done well, effectively corner the market?  The Blenheim, Battle, Hunter, Swift, P-36, Buccaneer all jump to mind before considering more esoteric types like the Northrop A-17, Martin B-10, Vultee Vengeance etc etc.  Sorry if this sounds a little curmudgeonly but if companies are going to invest in new-tools of types that are less represented, I'd much prefer to see them cover airframes that haven't yet been done rather than this type of duplication. 

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Instead of the Defiant, they could have done a Roc. Instead of the Sea Vixen, a Sea Venom. The potential market for a Defiant and Sea Vixen has to be much smaller in the wake of the Airfix releases. That doesn't even factor in the question of accuracy. Past performance suggests the Trumpeter kits will be found wanting in that area.

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3 hours ago, mhaselden said:

Really struggling to understand Trumpeter's decision process for new releases.  It almost feels like they're trying to out-compete just Airfix.  First we have the 1/48 Defiant and now a 1/48 Sea Vixen FAW2.  I understand the whole "kits sold by Airfix won't provide money to Trumpeter" argument but any Trumpeter kit of either the Defiant or Sea Vixen would have to be very, VERY good in order to compete effectively.  There are plenty of aircraft types out there that haven't been well kitted in 1/48 scale.  Why not do one of those and, if done well, effectively corner the market?  The Blenheim, Battle, Hunter, Swift, P-36, Buccaneer all jump to mind before considering more esoteric types like the Northrop A-17, Martin B-10, Vultee Vengeance etc etc.  Sorry if this sounds a little curmudgeonly but if companies are going to invest in new-tools of types that are less represented, I'd much prefer to see them cover airframes that haven't yet been done rather than this type of duplication. 

 

 

 

 

It makes you wonder if it's because they've got er...........easy access to something accurate (if you know what I mean).  

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11 hours ago, mhaselden said:

Really struggling to understand Trumpeter's decision process for new releases.  It almost feels like they're trying to out-compete just Airfix.  First we have the 1/48 Defiant and now a 1/48 Sea Vixen FAW2.  I understand the whole "kits sold by Airfix won't provide money to Trumpeter" argument but any Trumpeter kit of either the Defiant or Sea Vixen would have to be very, VERY good in order to compete effectively.  There are plenty of aircraft types out there that haven't been well kitted in 1/48 scale.  Why not do one of those and, if done well, effectively corner the market?  The Blenheim, Battle, Hunter, Swift, P-36, Buccaneer all jump to mind before considering more esoteric types like the Northrop A-17, Martin B-10, Vultee Vengeance etc etc.  Sorry if this sounds a little curmudgeonly but if companies are going to invest in new-tools of types that are less represented, I'd much prefer to see them cover airframes that haven't yet been done rather than this type of duplication. 

 

Totally agree….my sentiments over and over with Trumpeter and several other manufacturers that seem hell bent on producing rivals to already good kits…….Where's the new Hunter, Sea Venom, Vampire T.11, Scimitar, Blenheim, Tempest etc ??? 

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I'm never one to pre judge a kit before it is seen so, I will refrain from making any of the (by now) very tired and very predictable comments.  The choice is interesting but again, I see nothing to gain by going down another equally tedious "why did they do this and not that" sort of discussion. Any new Sea Vixen is welcome surely - especially with the Airfix kit long out of production and seemingly available now only at very silly prices. The Airfix kit will be a hard act to follow & whether or not it will be released again is a moot point.  If it isn't, then price will be the main deciding factor  in whether or not I buy this new kit. 

 

Allan

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If they could engineer the kit to be an FAW.1, with the FAW.2 add on parts (pretty straightforward, pinion tanks, obs hatch, windscreen base) it would be superb as it would allow most options from the box and I'm sure they would make a killing on that aspect alone.

 

I never get the negativity over these sort of announcements, let's see what come s in the plastic.

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Could be great. The canopy parts design has to be better than the Airfix and the plastic is likely to be crisper. I'm in, on a provisional basis at least.

 

Airfix, a home grown company, allegedly scoffed in laughter at the suggestion of a Scimitar, whereas Trumpeter may well tackle it in the fulness of time - on the basis of their still expanding FAA portfolio. 

 

Tan Model are freshly tooling a Buccaneer, so all in all a healthy outlook. Just wondering if Z-M are in fact doing the Spey Phantom II variants. Not many gaps left in this area.

 

Tony

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59 minutes ago, tony.t said:

Could be great. The canopy parts design has to be better than the Airfix and the plastic is likely to be crisper. I'm in, on a provisional basis at least.

 

Airfix, a home grown company, allegedly scoffed in laughter at the suggestion of a Scimitar, whereas Trumpeter may well tackle it in the fulness of time - on the basis of their still expanding FAA portfolio. 

 

Tan Model are freshly tooling a Buccaneer, so all in all a healthy outlook. Just wondering if Z-M are in fact doing the Spey Phantom II variants. Not many gaps left in this area.

 

Tony

Fair point. I cannot understand why Airfix would (allegedly) pour scorn on the idea of a Scimitar when they went ahead and produced a Swift! Hardly one of Supermarine's finest and definitely NOT one of the shining lights of British aviation history (as well as being a total pig of a kit to build!:angrysoapbox.sml:) One wonders how Airfix would react to the Wyvern? Again, not exactly a resounding success but, the subject of fine kits in 1/72 & 1/48 produced by the oft maligned Trumpeter!.  I agree with 71chally on the multi option kit. I think that would give us the best of both worlds. I would say "Good on you" to Trumpeter for announcing the Vixen (and " Even BETTER on you if you want to do a Scimitar"!)

 

Allan

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Given Trumpeter are Chinese and the Domestic market in the PRC is large and Airfix is not well distributed there and is expensive in local terms. Releasing kits that perhaps are obstensibly aimed at the Chinese Domestic market makes sense to Trumpeter.

 

Hence a Defiant and Sea Vixen. More so when someone else has done the research work and you can review their kit for 'inspiration'.

 

Conversely such releases  might make no sense to someone with free and easy access to a range of kits from a variety of manufacturers.

 

Girls und Panzer and Idol Master boxings of AFV's and Jets make not much sense to me but they do if you put them in the context of the JDM...

 

Cheers

Plasto

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On 28/12/2016 at 4:46 PM, tony.t said:

Could be great. The canopy parts design has to be better than the Airfix and the plastic is likely to be crisper. I'm in, on a provisional basis at least.

 

Airfix, a home grown company, allegedly scoffed in laughter at the suggestion of a Scimitar, whereas Trumpeter may well tackle it in the fulness of time - on the basis of their still expanding FAA portfolio. 

 

Tan Model are freshly tooling a Buccaneer, so all in all a healthy outlook. Just wondering if Z-M are in fact doing the Spey Phantom II variants. Not many gaps left in this area.

 

Tony

 

 

 

Some of the kits like the Lightnings and Vampire have been quite inaccurate but agree the plastic would probably be crisper.   Some of the latest Airfix kits are made of a funny soft styrene with an annoying texture.  

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Fully agree on Plasto's post on why make another Sea Vixen !

From my personal point of view, I hope that Trumpeter gets this right for one reason: there may be a chance, albeit small, that Trumpeter follows this up with a 1/72 kit, something that today I'm not expecting Airfix to do. In a sense I even hope that Trumpeter use Airfix's kit as a starting point, that may mean Airfix accuracy with Trumpeter mould crispness in 1/72, would be perfect for me

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Ooh, ooh, can I be the first to rubbish it for having shape issues!? :) 'Cause that nose looks more Dragon kit than real Sea Vixen shaped.

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On 11/30/2017 at 9:28 AM, Giorgio N said:

 In a sense I even hope that Trumpeter use Airfix's kit as a starting point, that may mean Airfix accuracy with Trumpeter mould crispness in 1/72, would be perfect for me

Trumpeter did not do this with the Boulton paul defiant, they developed their own tooling 100% independent and sharing no features with the airfix kit and paid the price with a deeply inaccurate kit, hoping Trumpeter will get this one right

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I wish they'd done a FAW1.  At least that would be something different than the Airfix kit.  My absolute preference, though, would be for Airfix to do the MkI...but that's not going to happen (and, alas, I don't feel brave enough to tackle the conversion).

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The CAD looks good to me, it doesn't seem to have the swollen belly of the Cyberhobby/Dragon kit.  The Frog kit doesn't really have the same shape issues either, just a bit too short.

 

Still strikes me as a bizarre choice, but hey, one can never have enough Vixens in ones life!

Hopefully a 72nd rendition will follow.

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At least they have the over wing fuel extensions the correct shape (nice and slim ) no 72nd kit ever got that right apart from cyber hobby  - all the others were too fat . The short nose on the Frog kit is a bit of a myth .Frogs canopy rail is too deep making the nose look stubby . Correcting the rail makes it look much better Imho

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...and (can opener in hand ) the Airfix nose is not perfect either ....on the real airframe at the point where the radome attaches  Airfix have a perfectly round fuselage cross secton .in reality the cross section is flat at the top ! (More like the cyber hobby kit . Just look for head on  photos of the Vixen with the radome open and you'll spot it )  its  not a deal breaker,  but to me , the Airfix  nose from in front of the cockpit is too streamlined . ( in many ways the cockpit section should be seen as a box with rounded corners that tapers sharply to meet the radome .unfortunatley a lot of kits start the "blend "too far back - Cyber hobby and Frog are aware of it but probably go a bit too far in the other direction  to capture the clunky look )  the problem seems to stem from the official De  Haviland  3 view drawing ( as seen in the Barracuda Vixen book ) which also has the  too fat overwing tanks illustrated ) so I blame this drawing for so many errors in so many kits . Somebody Please LIDAR scan the real thing ....

   Must dash the worms want me to watch a movie with them....

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