Hi all

It's often said we're in a Golden Age of modelling - and a look at some of the releases announced for 2007 leaves me in little doubt! There's stuff here I never dreamed of.

A word of explanation - the lists are based on manufacturers' announcements, so some of the kits are already out - and some may never make it into production... If you have extra items to add to the lists (or spot any major mistakes! LOL!) please send contributions to the Support Center and we'll strive to keep things as current as possible. That said, it's always advisable to monitor the manufacturers' own sites, link to many of which can be found in KitMaker's Links area.

Anyway, here are the checklists:
Small-scale
1/72 scale
1/48 scale
Large-scale

All the best

Rowan

Thanks Rowan for the list.
Oh well, that's me skint for another year :-) .
Andy

I need a lottery win to buy all that I want fellas.....
DAMN you for posting this Rowan.......! :-) :-)
It's gonna be a good year 2007 me thinks.

Oh my, there goes my money this year! :-)

Special Hobby's coming up with a 1:72 VL Myrsky II? Sweet...
Morane-Saulnier MS.410 from Azur... Looks like a good year for modeling Finnish subjects. Westland Lysander from special hobby, MiG-15UTI by Eduard, and the list goes on...

And what do we have coming in 1:48 scale? A new Fokker D.XXI, Dornier 17 and what else. And finally Fine Molds is releasing a Curtiss R3C-0 from the anime Porco Rosso!

Somehow I'm foreseeing my stash constantly growing...

But in the long run, the same "standard" kits keep being reproduced and major segments of history, and here I'm thinking the "Golden Age" - the 20's & 30's - military and civilian - are virtually ignored, especially in 1/48th ... sigh ...

And to top it off, we've been waiting on a 1/48 Hampden (other than the Contrail vac) for decades & all we get is FM ?|:( CA/Jules, where are you when we need you ???

John,
who nonetheless is anxiously awaiting the CA 1/48 ASW Gannet and the CA 1/48 Venom's, as well as a few others ...

Oh man...pardon the unsightly drool folks. Fokkers and Spads... I may have to get a second job. Thanks Merlin

Hi all!

John, it's better than nothing... or not? :-)



Rowan, that's quite a list! I wanted to calm down a bit this year but I'm afraid it won't be possible!
I hope the Siebel Si 104 is an injected one!

The problem is that with all these new releases, one can trash the equivalent older kits of his stash.

Jean-Luc

Hi Jean-Luc

I hope so too - but it seems a bit of a coincidence that those kits from MPM were among the subjects they released as vacuforms in the 90s... Mind you, they were very nice vacuforms! (I've still got the Siebel, plus a couple of Dorniers and Fw 58s in the stash )

All the best

Rowan

Jean-Luc and Rowan!!! Here is sage wisdom from my rules of Modeling 101.
The Theorem of Progression
Much like the events that cause a stooge to fall from a flag pole mounted outside a window of a 17 story building the 'progression develops' thus.
1.) As soon as you scratchbuild a model, a manufacturer will release a vacuform kit of it.
2.) As soon as you finish the vacuform kit, an injected molded version (this includes slush plastic, resin or metal) of the prototype will be released.
3.) As soon as you convert the injected molded kit of the prototype to the version you want, your version will be released by another manufacturer who will, include the refined versions of the decals, resin or photo etch that you had suggested to them on their website. But they will not mention you or provide you with gratis examples for your trouble.
4.) You can't win.(Because manufactures will inevitably simplify their processes.)
5.) You can't break even. Unless you value your own work.
6.) But, you can publish an article that will give you a chance to review their kit and point out its flaws.

1/72 dornier 17Z-
GET OUT OF MY WAY!
seriously, i've been looking out for one of these in this scale for ages. its listed in new arrivals on hannants, so i'm going to keep an eye on it til its available (and its my birthday next week)

Oh, add in a REALLY nice-looking Buffalo from Czech Model (1/32nd scale?) . I actually was given a sneak-peek at one of the first production models...

Trumpeter will be pulling me back into Aviation this year with their Fleet Air Arm releases. When I get a chance i'll post some pics...

On another note, in a sense I feel I owe Aeroscale a bit of an apology. At Nuremeberg, I honestly wasn't able to do the Aviation releases justice. This is something that HAS to be resolved before next year's Trade Fair...

Hi Jim!

No need to apologize! You made a good job I think. And thanks to Steffen we had our daily infos from Nuremburg.
I really hope we can meet there next year though...

Jean-Luc

Jean-Luc, pencil in the dates for next year's show and it should be easy to get a Press Pass organized...

There are so many great new kits going to be released so it is impossible to comment on all of them. However, a few are definently on my shopping list:

The Trumpeter ME 262 in the nightfighting configuration. *drowling*

The ME 110 from Eduard. Hope it will have the same standard and "aftermarket" items included as their FW 190s, which are already added to my stash

On a more general note: I really like 1/48 and 1/32 as aircraft scales. 1/24 I guess is fine as well, especially for smaller aircraft like the BF 109. However, 1/18 Dauntless?? What is that all about? Where should one put a model like that? Park it in the garden next to it own runway? :-) :-) I can see the level of detail can be great, but the size must really be a limit to where one can actually have a model like that...

I wonder if the TBD-1 that AM is offering with the TBF-1 for the 65th Anniversary of Midway will be the old RM Devastator?

It would be great to get a TBD-1 in 1/48 without the rivets and raised panel lines. Are you listening AM?

Hopefully the Eduard Royal Class Hellcats will have folding wings.

Looks like a Great 2007. Who says this hobby is done!!!

Indeed. But I would suspect they wouldn't reissue that old a model. At least Eduard's airacobra they reboxed is from this milennium.
A completely new model would go nicely together with their other recent kits of US bombers.
Just spotted this at hypescale: http://www.hyperscale.com/reviews/kits/mpmpreviewbg_40.htm

"SH72116 Fokker D.XXI 4. sarja „Wing with Slots“ 1/72"
Well, that earlier 4th series Fokker (slotless wings) should have had the slots as well, since most of twin wasp engined-Fokkers were modified with slots as a stall countermeasure.
I hope they now get the decals right this time. MPM/special hobby's earlier Finnish swastikas had a too light shade of blue in them, but were in only (well, if you ask me, I wouldn't mind if they were complete) two pieces. This fiirst 4th series Fokker D.XXI kit (SH72113) has a much better shade of blue for the decals, but they are in three pieces!
I wonder which marking options will be included, and whether the kit mentions the possibility of using the "bare" landing gears (without the lower part of the spats) to build a post-war Fokker.

Is AMtech back??????

Good question! I've wanted one of their F2Hs since I first read the announcement about a million years ago, but then it all went very quiet for what I gather are the worst possible reasons. Would be nice to see them back ...

I hope they are back.. I've been wanting all of their P61's and everything else they have in 1/48...

John, you are right on the money. A lot of these 1/48th kits aren't really new at all. Do we really need more Mustangs, FW-190s, F-104s, F-14s, etc.? These planes have been done to death! And a lot of the new ones were only used by one country. The Piper Enforcer, apparently, never even went into service at all!
On the other hand, there are some bright spots. The Pilatus PC-7 has flown in the colors of several different countries, as have the Albatros, the Zlin 326, the Su-17 and the Soko Galeb. The fact that they were widely used means we'll have lots of markings options. It's good to see more MiG-21s, and new helicopters are very welcome, I think: the Mi-1, the Westland Merlin, and the Panther are pretty cool, and have seen service with a few air forces.

Hi all

I guess this is a good opportunity to apologise for not concocting similar lists for this year's planned releases - it all coincided with a totally messed-up internet connection and, by the time that was sorted, I'd missed the proverbial boat.

Incidentally, i wonder if anyone with time on their hands has ever kept track of how many of the 2007 batch actually saw the light of day - I'm sure there's a few on the list ready to be snapped up when they appear.

All the best

Rowan