I preordered directly from WIngScale and got an email response back that I was placed on the preorder list.
As with most of the really good kits coming out or already released, this one is priced way beyond the self-imposed cost cap of someone on fixed income disability. So I’ll have to stick with my $9.99 eBay Revell/Monogram 1/48 specials… Why oh why do the good kits have to cost so much. I swear, if I have to build one more 1/48 P51D Revell kit, I’m gonna hurl…
I agree with Gigatron, these guys are making small runs on these kits, 2500 and that is it.
Frankly, I was expecting the kits to be about twice what they are rumored to be going for, in the $200-$225 range.
First off, Revell USA wouldn’t tackle something like this, so Revell Germany would have to do it, and I can tell you right now that if they did, you would be paying alot more than $125 for the Revell Germany version, and it wouldn’t be nearly as detailed.
Frankly…I think $125 for these kits are a steal…if Wingscale can make and sell them that cheap…then why can’t Trumpeter or Hasegawa. I mean heck…a Hassy 1/32 Bf-109 goes for $80-$90…and while it is a nice kit, this thing is much more detailed and going for a paltry sum of $125-$130 for a much larger aircraft. Great deal in my book!
I just put in for one from Sprue Brothers, the B-25H “Gunship” version. By the way, new info from WingScale on the SB site… 1/32 B-17 prototype shots. If you thought the B-25s were big, they have a shot with both prototypes in the same frame. The B-17 is pretty massive.
I agree with Fred. I’m the same way - I’d rather have 10 high quality kits than 100 cheap ones. Quality over quantity any day. Plus, I’m so busy with things that a single build can take me several months even though my modeling desk sits right next to my computer desk in the living room. LOL! I work a litlle all the time. But I am also a huge fan of the large scale kits. I just wish more armor type stuff was available in 1/32 so I could make some nice dioramas with these 1/32 scale kits coming out!
-Ro
Heh… I make my own quality models from the “quantity” kits…
1/32 B-17!!! I want one!! Where was the info on SB site? Any expected release date.
Oh I found it! It looks sweet! [::DD0]
B17,
I showed my wife the B-25 and since she doesn’t know scales, etc. she asked me for a rough size comparison. I showed her the B-17 prototype photos, since one of them shows both the -25 and the -17 on the same table.
“You’re not actually thinking of getting that BIG one are you?” was all she said…
Hans, no one will ever deny that you do awesome work - but, at what point does cutting up quantity kits to make one quality kit, surpass cost efficiency?
If you have to cut up or piece out 5 $20 dollar kits, to make one high quality kit, what’s the point? Just buy 1 high quality kit, forego all the sratch building and having 5 kits that are now missing integral pieces.
I get it’s the priciple of “I refuse to ever spend $125 on a single model kit”. But if you’re spending $100 on 5 lesser kits, adding dozens of hours of bench time - all to get a, hopefully, similar result, it doesn’t make sense from any angle.
-Fred
Well, I’ve been making plans to build a new paint booth. Since it’s gonna be plywood and I’m going to have to have someone cut the sheet for me I’d decided to just make it 4’ wide and 2’ deep and tall. Then I wondered, is that too big? Now, after seeing pics of the B-17, I wonder if it’s going to be large enough. hehe I will have to come up with the cash for one of those. There will be no where to display it but I just have to build it. I’m really anxious to see what you guys do with the B-25.
Tony
I may be wrong but I don’t believe Hans cuts up kits to make better ones. What he does is remakes the kits he has by adding his own detail, making corrections that he needs to.
To me it makes good sense. It’s a hobby, we are not running a buisness here. So what does it matter how much time someone spends on it? In my eyes scratch building parts and doing custom work to a kit is as much if not a bigger part of the hobby than simply assembling the the kit.
I like adding detail to kits regardless of the amount provided by the kit itself. Lesser expensive kits usually lend themselves to this very well and a $20 revellogram provides and excellent platform in which to do it, usually having solid shapes and correct overall dimensions. The rest is up to the builder.
If you want to consider the economics of it, ok. I buy a $100 kit and toss it together in a week, paint it in another week and it’s done. If I buy a $20 kit and it takes me three weeks to build it because I add scratch stuff to it, paint it in a week then it’s done, I’ve got way less $/hour in the kit. Makes it cheaper entertainment than the more expensive kit. I don’t count time, I’m not running a buisness and hobbies are intended to take up time and be enjoyable.
BTW, if time is money and the use of it is vauable to a modeller then he should just avoid the hobby alltogether. Buying plastic kits to assemble so they can be stared at until they die is foolishness itself. Taking up excersise or gardening would be a much more cost effective hobby.
Shooter’s right Gig… I don’t chop up the “lesser” aircraft kits for kit-bashing projects (usually), although I DO cut some kits to add a fuselage plug or two, like in turning the Monogram F-80 into a T-33, or cut off parts of them to add a new fuselage area… One of my current projects entailing a lot of fuselage-cutting is a Monogram P-61/F-15 Reporter conversion… I use them as a “base-kit” to build a detailed model… Same with other, “lesser” kit manufacturers like Lindberg, Arii, Eujimi, AMT, etc… Also, if I wanted to build, say an Me109Z (Zwilling), I’d use two 18.00 Revell kits of the Bf 109G to make it, rather than buy a ready-made one at 40-50.00… Same with turning a Mongram F4F into an FM-2… Just redo the cowl, exhaust, and lengthen the vertical stab and cover up the outboard guns…
However, I digress…
That said, I don’t have a “job” per se. I’m retired form the Army and I manage an apartment building, which means I’m “At work” whether I’m sitting in my living room or at my model bench in my “War Room”, lol… Apart from picking up garbage that’s left in the parking lot, unclogging toilets, fixing a window, changing a lock, or cleaning a vacated aparment priviously occupied by a slob (that bailed out in the middle of the night because he three months behind on the rent), or vacuuming a hallway, etc., I don’t have to leave the house, lol… So I got all the time in the world to build models (And post in here, lol)… So my time is my own, and I putter around the bench all day… It does take a few weeks to turn out a model, but that’s ok… I got the time…
But I’ll take the “bare-bones” kits any day over the “High-End” kits… I LOVE to scratch-build and I never have to spend more than a buck or two in materials… About the only time I buy After-market parts is if I lose a part like a canopy or something similar, that I can’t fabricate, ot build a mold for… I vacuform and cast parts, and I plan on learning how to make my own P/E parts someday. There’s a great article in an 80’s issue of FSM that shows you how and has a list of materials needed to do it… Then again, maybe not… It IS expensive, and I can flatten wire & solder for a lot of that stuff like seat harness hardware…
All my kits are destined for dioramas as well, so building the kit is just part of the total project… I’ll still have bases, terrain, foliage, figures, and structures to build, and I don’t spend money on pre-fab stuff there either, except for some items that are just too tedious to make. A 1/48th prefab PSP base is one item I bought. However, I used it as a mold to make many more PSP airstrip or hardstand sections from aluminum foil… (See my post on “Got PSP? Cheap Marston Matting From the Frugal Modeler, Hans von Cheapskate” in the diorama hooch… /forums/p/104507/1051410.aspx#1051410) At 16.00 per, one is enough, and I use a LOT of PSP bases… Besides, it’ll only fit a smaller, single-seat fighter like a Mustang, and I needed it for a Tigercat…
So, thanks for the kudos on my builds, Gig, (and I REALLY appreciate you noticing them) but I’ll keep building the “quantity” kits and encourage other to try them too… There’s so much more to do with them than a kit that has all the “bells & whistles” and a 250 parts count, but costs me half a month’s rent… I can get it done with a 12.00 kit and a buck’s-worth of sheet & strip styrene, stretched sprue, and electrical wire (and maybe some solder too)… [t$t]
Ordered mine from Wing-scale and paid through Paypal and just have to wait for the release. Chose the glass nose and may never even build it. Itching for the P-61 though and may invest in the B-17 as well. Looking forward to seeing what these folks can put out there later on.
Depending on where you live, that might be a good thing. If you live in North America it might not be. The cost of shipping such a large kit might prove to be very pricey.
Not my scale but they sure look nice. I will probably grab one when they release the A-26. I did the “Always” fire bomber in 1/48 so I’d like to do it in 1/32, would be awesome!
Anyone out there heard any more news about Wing Scale’s 1/32nd B-25? Sent an E-mail to Sprue Brothers, no reply yet.
I haven’t heard anything about it but I was thinking about where it is, cause it is March already.
As soon as the kit is ready, it will begin production and ship to the dealers. The owner of Wingscale has posted on forums such as Large Scale Planes that he won’t be providing and new updates until he can finally say…they are shipping. Releasing a new kit even by an established company is hard. Its even harder when you are a new company. Patience will be rewarded!
I was just thinking about this the other day. I remember initial reports were for March.
I thought maybe I had accidentally been left off the interest list, since I hadn’t heard anything. Good to know that they’re still a go, even if it is for later.
-Fred