Meng have announced that they are going to be releasing a P-51D Mustang in the very new future

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Thanks!

Hi there

I'd have been really excited if they'd announced a P-51H or Twin Mustang.

All the best

Rowan

Morning Rowan I think it is the start of a series of Mustangs from what they are saying, so you may see a H version yet. Hope all is well with you.

I will wait for the Eduard's one if you don't mind!

Interesting,they are really branching out with this and theie naval stuff.

Imagine that -another P 51 - How unusual !

Cheers Adie

It's about time there was a mainstream kit of either the P-51H or the F-82, but I hate to say I doubt that Meng have them lined up as part of an intended Mustang series - they were such different beasts from the earlier variants.

All the best

Rowan

Before you chaps hang Meng out to dry, remember, the hobby needs some new blood to keep the kits flowing for us"experts"...! This kit is a snap together affair with a few shout outs to us old time glue sniffers if we still want to glue it up. I see no point in making kits of weird variants to please the "old" crowd, when the ranks of noobeez are dwindling. Sure, "another" Mustang can be a ho-hum event release to us regulars, but if a company can snag some new blood because the kit is a lot easier to paint and construct, I say more power to 'em. The only way we will see ANY new kits hit the market is if Meng can make money, and the only way you are gonna make money is if you get a wider audience with kits that are less finicky to build...IMHO anyway...

Personally I'm always happy to see another pony plane no matter the Mark. This kit is a little different since it can also be built without glue but from looking at the photos on Meng's site the detail looks really nice, I'll be getting it. I'm a sucker for Shermans, Mustangs and B-17s

The sliding canopy is a great feature!

Definitely, when I was a kid and here in the States we had Revell and Aurora, Hawk and Lindberg it was pretty easy to save up my weekly allowance to buy a kit, or to have my folks give me several for my Birthday or Christmas. Now with 1/48th scale kits running 30.00 (USD) plus it's nice to see some effort by manufacturers to build up some "seed corn".

One issue to keep on mind about snap tite kits is that the more finesse pieces need to be beefed up so that they can be snapped into position. And those receptacles are usually much larger then usual as well. Landing gear struts have been one of the major issues in past snap kits. At my age, I think it's fair to say that I'm well past the snap tite stage.

Joel

it appears to be well above average for a snap kit!

Hi again

I'm all for cheap and basic kits to encourage new/young modellers (see my overviews of Pegasus Hobbies and 21st Century Toys), but we're talking as though the Mustang's definitely going to be cheap because it's snap-fit. I hope it is, but do we know that for sure?

All the best

Rowan

Neil,
I have the Academy 1/72 F4 Snap tite kit that I'm slowly working on for a review. Many parts are much beefier then necessary compared to other 1/72 scale F4s. As I said the receptacle support for the landing gear is quite large and ruins the overall look of the wheel wells, as is the struts on the beefier side. The one piece cockpit glass fits into holes with no option for opening up the glass. Many other pcs has those issues as well. These are really nice kits for younger children, but I wouldn't call them kits aimed at the hobbyist market by any means.

Joel

Price on Hobbyeasy is about $30 US, including shipping.

Cheers Russ

I thought that level of detail must come at a price. It does look a like it could be a nice kit (if for no other reason, from the CAD views, it looks like the designers got the spar right in the mainwheel wells correct), but any hopes of it being in the "pocket money" price bracket to encourage youngsters look a bit optimistic. But easy build-ability will certainly be a draw in that respect. As Joel suggests, there could be some scale play-offs - and, if the designers have managed to avoid them, then full credit where it's due.

I'll be very interested to see it - but I still dearly want to see a really late-mark Mustang or a Twin-Mustang.

All the best

Rowan

Yeah, an "F", "G" and an "H" would be cool as would a really good Twin. Heck I'd love to see a kit of that turbo prop COIN version from the 1960s.

As someone who has gotten back into modelling in the last couple of years (after almost 40 years away), I have to admit that the idea of a fairly detailed kit that assembles more easily, has parts that fit well and has part assemblies designed to make painting easier sounds attractive. For example, in recent Tamiya armor kits, I appreciate that Tamiya seem to be increasingly focused on making their kits easier to build by "keying" parts to minimize mistakes during assembly and by providing more positive engagement between parts.

For those of us, like myself, that are not expert builders, it is frustrating when parts do not fit together well or when assemblies require the complicated assembly of very small parts (A 1/35 T-26 I've been building off-and-on for months comes quickly to mind), or where there is no positive engagement between parts to be glued together. Also, until the final model is released, we won't know for sure that the model cannot be further upgraded by more expert modellers.

The above being said, I don't necessarily need a kit that can be built totally without glue. If the parts can be fit together without glue and it does not affect the appearance of the parts significantly, that's great. For example, I think one of the great features of Tamiya's 1/35 Mk. IV (WWI) tank is that tracks are snap-fit but still look great.

But, sometimes to achieve a really good fit does involve using glue, even where there may be some underlying "snap-fit" to the parts. So I would prefer that Meng make less of a fetish about some of their new lines of models not needing glue.

From the CAD drawings it looks as though it will be fairly rugged making this kit attractive to younger kids who like to actually play with the models.

I will definitely buy this kit for my son. It could very well get him interested in model building.

Well, it seems I have to have a look into this box .. see Bretts review over at Hyperscale.

Hi Steffen

I really admire Brett, but how could he take a "no glue" kit and not clip it together?

All the best

Rowan

Cheers Rowan




This might be a snapkit but it is not simple...

thats why I really want to have a look at it.

cheers

Steffen

Hi Steffen

But it kind of makes a mockery of reviewing a snap-together kit if you don't snap it together!

You can always pull it apart to build it "properly"...

All the best

Rowan

I've been slowly as time permits working on the Academy F-4 snap-tite kit that I got from Jim as time permits. While the detail is pretty good, the parts all suffer from needing to be on the beefier side.

The landing gear really shows this issue. What's more rather then the traditional small slots or holes for the gear to be glued in, they're much larger raised cup type receptacle.

The bottom line is that a snap-tite kit will have these issues, and just can't compare to what a traditional plastic model kit.

Joel