Please note; this has been passed to me, via text message, from a friend at Fairford, so this is the sum total of what I know/have been told. Hornby are attending the show, and are saying that the kit will be out next month, and it will be £99. If any more information comes in, I’ll tell you, but, at the moment, that’s all folks!
Edgar
Well the only thing I’ll throw in is Airfix did their 1/48th scale Mossie in 1980 and it was I believe one of their best kits ever. Granted, it wasn’t as crisply molded as the japanese competion did but it was accurate and well detailed. They even got their dimensions right while more than 20 years later Mr. Tamiya got his wrong. Time has passed that kit by but it is still the most acurate Mossie dimensionally out there. I have both, Tamiya’s and Airfix’s. When the 1/24th scale Mossie comes out, I may not be able to afford one right away but I will get one. The Mossie is my all time favorite ever since seeing 633 Sqdn back in the mid 60’s.
Would concur with jpk. The Airfix 1/48 Mossie is a very nice kit indeed, and probably the most accurate Mossie in any scale. Back in 1980, t was state of the art, and it is still very good. The Tamiya Mossies are better-detailed, more crisply moulded, and have recessed panel lines, but on a high-performance wooden airframe, there aren’t many of these. The new RoG Mossie has better decals and is more sophisticated all round, but has a number of important accuracy issues (main u/s, spinners) which lead to an overall lack of Mossie-ness.
The Airfix 1/48 Mossie, as many will know, did actually derive from a project at Airfix in the late 1970s to produce a 1/24 Mossie. This went as far as producing wooden patterns before the suits decided it was over-ambitious, and pulled the plug. They permitted funding for the (not very good) FW.190A instead. The pattens for the 1/24 Mossie were used to produce the 1/48 kit.
Cheers,
Chris.
Chris,
Wondering if you had built the 1/32 Revell kit, and, if so, what did you think of it ?
I built it many, many years ago as a kid. My memory was that it was, by early 1970s standard, big and impressive, but that the detail was a bit basic. Accuracy issues include the fuselage and nacelle cross-sections - both a little slab-sided, IIRC), and the canopy, which is too high in profile. This latter, in particular, serves to throw the proportions off.
The kit includes Merlin for the starboard nacelle, but this, and much of the cockpit detail, is not especially accurate. The undercarriage needs a bit of work, and there are no camera windows in the weapons bay doors. Recent releases of the kit include discs of black decal for these. You can dress it up with resin bits from Paragon, but then it gets expensive in a urry, and you still have to address the accuracy issues.
To help you decide, there’s a well-made example here:
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal3/2501-2600/Gal2563_Mosquito_Dzurek/00.shtm
Cheers,
Chris.
Update, for today; Hornby are not happy. They don’t know where the £99 came from, and it certainly didn’t come from Margate. It still might be fairly imminent, though, since the decal sheets have been printed, and they’re by Cartograph, so recent complaints, about the standard, shouldn’t be repeated.
Edgar
Hope so, Edgar. I got one of the new Bf.109Gs today. Their decals are supposed to have been printed by Cartograf too, but they’re noticeably OOR. And what’s with the total lack of cockpit detail, and the pilot in the bone dome?
Cheers,
Chris.
I suppose that I must take the blame, for failing to get this message through, but I-DO-NOT-WORK-FOR-HORNBY. Asking me questions, on an open forum, about Hornby production decisions, is a total waste of time. As I’ve said before, please direct that sort of question directly to Hornby management.
Edgar
The question was rhetorical, Edgar, wondering out loud why the Bf.109G had no cockpit detail.
Red Arrows Hawk looks nice - only kit so far to get the smoke pod right, qnd excellent pilto figures.
Cheers,
Chris.
Re: Revell’s 1/32 scale Mossie. I built it many years ago also and found things exactly as you describe Chris. The canopy really throws the whole forward section of the kit off. The observers windows on the sides of the nose are incorrectly shaped. That is fairly easy to fix. The interior is VERY basic and most of what is in there is grossly inaccurate. I tried to improve mine using the Airfix kit as a pattern. The landing gear is passable but looks a little like its been on a diet, especially the dust boots over the oleo’s. Just a little skinny when compared to photos. The aft ends of the Nacelles are a little thin also. The photos of the kit with Paragon’s resin really improved the look of the model overall. I may have to revisit the kit and spend a little cash with Paragon. With all due respect for the kit, it was first released in 1970-71…38 years ago.
I’m off to China for a year teaching English. If this kit is released in August I wonder if I can get one out there. I don’t usually do aircraft but I am rtealy tempted by this one. Thoughts on availability worldwide please chaps!
Lucky Model in Hong Kong
http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx
should be able to get one for you without difficulty, and at a good price. For example, they currently list tge Airfix Nimrod at less than 60% of UK retail.
Cheers,
Chris.
OOOHHH!!! looks like I could be in modelers heaven. Do they have a shop or is it mail order only?
I’m just a couple of hours noth of Hong Kong by Hydrofoil ferry. It looks like the model and photography stores are in for a bashing from me!!! Now… how to get my ill gotten gains back to the UK avoiding customs!
James
They have a shop I’m not sure if the address is the same as the one given on their website, but you could always contact them and find out. A friend who went to Hong Kong a few years ago (she won a competition run by Trumpeter - first prize was a trip to the factory, with stopovess in HK) went there. She said that it felt like she’d died and gone to modellers’ heaven.
Cheers,
Chris.