There are some rather interesting items in the new Italeri catalogue! Does anyone of you know more about those 1/72 and 1/32 ww1 aviation subjects. Old molds (like HobbyCraft for example)? New tooling?

Italeri 2015

Mikko

Seems like interesting stuff, but mostly reissues. I'll be looking at those 1/72 Phantoms though.
I'm going to guess that the 1/72 WW1 kits are old Esci and the 1/32's might be Hobbycraft or Academy. Italeri have reboxed Academy in recent years, so my money would be on those.

..and Academy reboxes Hobbycraft. So the 1/32 Camel and Noop 17 are probably old Hobbycraft stuff?

Mikko

We'l learn more when they hit the shelves. And to confuse things I remember reading that the Hobbycrafts were copies of the Academy's. Or was it the other way around?

Actually, if it is the Hobbycraft 1/32 Camel, it's probably pretty good. They reworked it there at the end and released a Clerget and LeRhone boxing, both of which were quite well done. They did a good SPAD XIII as well but I don't see that. The Nie.17 is almost certainly the old Academy kit but it's also pretty nice. Guess we'll see.

The Mirage IIIC is the one I'm drooling about though! Man I've wanted a 1/32 kit of that one for ages.

Michael

I really can't agree, I'm afraid. The newer Hobbycraft Camel still has the shape of the fuselage wrong. It is very hard to fix. If you don't mind about that, you'll get a reasonably good looking Camel in 1/32, tho.

The old Revell 1/28 Camel has the same issue with the fuselage. I think the Hobbycraft Camels are actually copies of the Revell kit.

Mikko

Actually, I've built two of the Hobbycraft Camels, and one of the Academy Camels-- they are totally different kits. The Hobbycraft Camel's wings are more accurate and reflect the three section top wings, with fine rib tape detail. The Academy Camel is much more crude in the fuselage and wing detail, another more noticeable differences is the area just behind the engine on the bottom of the fuselage and the fabric stiching detail, Hobbycraft's being a little better. I think the confusion about these kits is the fact that Hobbycraft initially packaged many of the Academy kits in the old Hobbycraft style boxing (as they did the Academy Nieuport 17, which is not a "bad" kit). There was a lawsuit between Hobbycraft and Academy in Great Britain, I believe Academy won--so Hobbycraft changed their line (and then re-packaged many of Trumpeters kits with permission (The MiG 15 and P40 come to mind). The later Hobbycraft boxing's Camels were all their own and packaged as "Le Rhone Aces" or "Clerget Aces", and these are not "bad" kits either. They do require a lot of detail work, especially in the interiors, like the Nieuports, but I wish they'd market them again. If the Italeri kits are the newer Hobbycraft issues, I'll buy a couple more, but only if the price is right. On the other hand, if they are the current Academy release, I'll leave them on the shelf because there is too much to correct-- especially in the wing and fuselage area. I'm hoping these are the later Hobbycraft issues, as Academy has just released their Camels and Nieuports again in "centenary editions"-- cant see them selling their stuff to Italeri so soon, but one never knows. VR, Russ