Your model wishlist

[Dave Homewood]

Most injection moulded plastic model companies seem onsessed with releasing new versions of the same old aircraft over and over again. Namely these types...

Focke Wulf Fw190
Messerschmidt Bf109
P51D Mustang
F14 and F16, F18

They have so little imagination and so little understanding of the historic value and interest in other important types from history. Usually these types they may see on the fringe of interest are done by smaller companies in vacuum formed or resin releases. But they're never the same, and if only a good injection moulded version was done, I'm sure it'd sell well in many cases.

So, if you could write a wishlist to Hasegawa, Tamiya, Revell, etc, and ask for some types to be done that you want to see on the market, what would they be?

here are mine
1/48th Scale
Airspeed Oxford (hugely important trainer type totally ignored by mainstream)
Avro Anson - another important type in both training and coastal reconnaissance
Lockheed Ventura - all Mks
Blackburn Baffin - won;'t sell as well but I'd buy a couple
DH89 Dragon Rapide/Dominie this would be very popular with military and vintage modellers
Hawker Hind - in fact all the Hawker biplane family, only the Demon has been done (Airfix) and it's not the best
Lockheed Lodestar
HS Andover
Short Sunderland
Fox Moth
Fairey Gordon
Vickers Wellington
Handley Page Halifax
Short Stirling
Vickers Vincent/Vildebeeste though Dave Lochead is working on a short run of this, I'd love it to hit the world market as a plastic kit

1/32nd Scale
I sincerely wish a company like Tamiya or Trumpeter would release the Harvard in this scale. It's importance has been underplayed by model companies. Only two 1/48th scale kits ever, very few in 1/72nd, none in the larger size.

There are others I'd like to see in the larger scale, Oxford, Anson, Rapide

What do you want to see made? They don't have to have NZ connections like mine do, and can be WWI, modern or whatever...

[Calum]

I agree with the Ventura, Wellington and Stirling. Their is a 1/48 Haifax , I believe a french company do one. Not sure of the quality though.

As i said in the earlier post

A new TA-4
a good Tornado GR-1 (I've heard Italeri one is OK)
A Good Jaguar GR1 (I've heard the Airfix one is OK though)
A good Buccaneer in 1/48
A Bristol Blenhiem ( I believe Classic Airframes do one though it's not cheap)
A Bristol Beaufort (might be a 1/48 one out there?)
A updated B-26 Maurader (recessesed lines etc)
A decent Boomarang and Wirraway would sell well in Australia

[Dave Homewood]

Ah yes, you're correct about the 1/48th scale Halifax. It is made by Fonderie. I'd forgotten that. I was thinking in terms of an injection moulded version like a Tamiya kit, but this one has that plus resin detail and vac formed canopies. And it looks pretty good from what I've seen here, if you're a good modeller that is.
hsfeatures.com/features04/halifaxme_1.htm

[Dave Homewood]

Or you could scratchbuild one like Phil Robson is doing
hsfeatures.com/features04/halifaxpr_1.htm

hsfeatures.com/features04/halifaxpr_2.htm

[Bruce]

I would love a decent 1/72 MR5 Sunderland, Hudson and Lodestar, an affordable 1/72 Boeing 727 and a 757 would be nice. There is actually a Hind kit, out of production though, made by Merlin, as a reissue of prewar Frog kits. The quality is shocking though so a kit of that series would be nice. Most of the other RNZAF kits I have sourced, or at least on the trail of, except the DH Puss Moth, Hawker tomtit (surely there would be a demand for such a lovely aeroplane...) and Miles Aerovan (less of a demand!) A Beech King Air should be able to get enough worldwide sales - the bidding was frantic when I purchased my Rareplanes Vacform on eBay - an injection molded one would be really popular.
One of the advantages of 1/72 is increased selection, but 1/48 and larger are growing in popularity, its time kit makers thought of that scale as well...

[Dave Homewood]

From my experience 1/48th is the choice scale of the serious modeller, those who love to superdetail. 1/72nd is too small, and 1/32nd is too big to store. However the latter scale is growing in popularity.

For me 1/72nd is way too small and fiddly. Good starter scale for modellers, but once I was converted by a friend to 1/48th I never looked back.

[caromeg]

A-1 E Skyraider I know that 5- 6 yrs ago Tamiya did the big radial and the H and J models (single seaters) are common but they missed a golden chance with the big side by side model. All we are left with is the Matchbox kit (if you can get one) and kit bashing with a J and aftermarket stuff to get half decent. - lots of work.

[phil]

A Hasegawa 1/48 TA4.

[agalbraith]

Mmm, for me:

All 1/48th
Airspeed Oxford
Orion
Andover
Sunderland
Fox Moth
Bk 117
TA-4................

[kiwi]

Classic Airframes have at least a couple of 1/48 Ansons out and one of the MPM crowd have announced a 1/72 Lodestar .

[Craig Sargent]

In 1/48
TA-4
TAV-8B
A-6 family (new tool)

In 1/72
Legacy F/A-18 family - despite what Dave said in his first post, there IS no accurate kit of the Hornet in 1/72 (though latest news is that Academy may be answering that prayer next year). This would top ANY wish list I would ever have.

In terms of scale, 1/72 is not neccessarily for beginners and is good if you want to do a collection of aircraft types (i.e. RNZAF or Heyl Ha'Avir), as it takes up less room and when detailed, is actually MORE impressive than a 1/48 counterpart, as it takes a lot more skill to get the same level of detail into a smaller kit.

My IAF is all 1/72, whereas my RNZAF models are limited to those on worked on, so those I worked on the aircraft are 1/48 (Macchi, Strikemaster, Skyhawk - A-4 and TA-4, CT-4), and those I worked on systems for are 1/72 (C-130 and P-3). On the other hand, my VMFA-451 Squadron History is all 1/48 as I want to pack maximum detail in using resin and with minimal scratchbuilding - that and the best kits of the subject types are all 1/48 (Corsair, Hellcat, Panther, Furies, Crusaders, Phantoms and Hornets).