Thank You Very Much, Tim! I like what I'm seeing! Understated riveting and panel lines, crisp molding, and what seems to be the very nice-fitment of parts, as we've become accustomed to with EDUARD's aircraft kits. I've mentioned in another thread that I've already "pre-ordered" 2 of these D-5 kits. A D-10 is in the offing as a ROYAL Class kit for later this year. I'll probably splurge for that one once it becomes available as a "pre-order", as well... Not to go "Off-Topic", but what else can we hope for? TAMIYA will be providing us with what no doubt will be a popular 1/48 P-38F/G. It remains to be seen if they will go ahead and logically follow through with a P-38J/L-variant. A brand new all-new tooling 1/48 B-17 would be extremely popular with modelers, I'm sure, if retail-costs can be kept below the "two century"-mark... Could EDUARD or TAMIYA "bang everyone's doors in" with a brand new, newly-tooled P-47-series? The TAMIYA 1/48 P-47 has already been a record-breaker, but there is nothing that says it couldn't be improved-upon. Or how about the same in a P-51/P-51A/A-36/Mustang Mk.I, II, a P-51B/C/Mustang Mk.III and a Mk.IV to counter-balance the D-5 and the upcoming D-10..? "DITTO" for all of the all of the above for the "32-scalers"... Thoughts, anyone? Bedtime for Bonzo; I've been up since 1:30 this morning... More tomorrow...

I wish new tool P-47 in 1/48, there's no new SBD Dauntless also, it would be nice with those fine raised rivets from Eduard

Hello, Venko! AGREE! BOTH the P-47-series and the SBD were covered in those fine rivets, with the raised rivets on the SBDs especially, as you say. I hope that TAMIYA has taken this into account with their new, upcoming P-38F/G kit. It would also be nice to see the earlier P-47B, and C-models, with their shallow keels, less Engine Cooling Flaps, and no Dive Brakes in the lower Wing surfaces. Initially, there were no Wing Pylons in the earlier models, either. We could also use an all-new P-47N. Neither the ACADEMY nor the MONOGRAM/REVELL P-47N kits did the real Airplane any justice... As far as the SBD is concerned, I would like to see all-new SBD-2 and SBD-3 models- These are the ones which took part in stemming the tide of the IJN's and IJA's advances in the Pacific at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. New F4F-3 and F4F-4 Wildcats- NO ONE has done the Wildcat properly in 1/48, yet. All-new P-40s; the P-40E, the Merlin-engined F, and the K, M and N-models, all with their own distinctive fuselages. HASEGAWA's solution was to only give their P-40s separate Tail Empennage parts, which by and large, are very unsatisfactory in 2019-almost 2020... The MAUVE P-40s were absolutely nothing special, and the AMT P-40 kits were... Bad... Since I have just mentioned 1/48 AMT Aircraft, we could use an all-new 1/48 A-20-series, i.e the A, B, C, and G-models. Also, it would be nice to see new F7F Tigercats and F8F Bearcats- All models, please. The old TESTORS F8F, well, that was 1960s molding technology. Then came the HOBBYCRAFT/ACADEMY F8F and later, the HOBBY BOSS Bearcats. All new-tooling F8Fs, please... EDUARD could very-well stand to re-tool their 1/48 P-39-series of kits. There are a few flaws in them, and these flaws need to be corrected.. Aside of the TAMIYA Bf.109G-6, EDUARD has been releasing their latest series of re-tooled Bf.109s and Fw.190s, so these are already pretty well covered. If anything, EDUARD could give us all newly-tooled kits of the Me.210, the Me.410, and possibly, an all-new Me.163 and Me.262-series... MOST of HASEGAWA's 1/48 Aircraft kits are old left-overs from the late 1990s- That means that these could ALL stand all-new or re-tooling, as well. HASEGAWA hasn't really done much with their 1/48 Aircraft kits besides re-packaging them with new box-art and in a few cases, including new decals.. Big deal...

Hi Dennis I certainly agree with you on the need for a series of state-of-the-art Wildcats in 1:48! I was pushing for these back in the days of Accurate Miniatures, but sadly that all came to nothing... To add to your list, as much as I like the P-51D/K and am very keen to tackle the new Eduard kit in due course, what I really want to see is mainstream kits of the P-51H and F-82 in this scale. Lucky old Andy (Betheyn) has got an early sample of the new Eduard Mustang heading his way, so watch out for his take on the kit when it lands. All the best Rowan

Hi, Rowan! I THINK MPM(?) did a 1/48 P-51H a while back. It might have been someone else. DITTO, an F-82. In EITHER case, I think a P-51H and an F-82 are way past due for some love in 1/48 scale. At least we're on the same "wavelength"... I appreciate your "seconding" my mention of all-new F4F-3 and -4 Wildcats, too! (Forgot to mention the British Martlets- Sorry...) Having mentioned the Wildcats/Martlets, I would like to see the TBF/TBM re-addressed in 1/48 scale, with all-new tooling, of course. Ditto, the various SB2C Helldiver kits, which ACCURATE MINIATURES and MONOGRAM/REVELL also marketed under the "PRO MODELLER" label... The F-82 you brought up brings to mind a WHOLE RAFT of Korean War Aircraft which should also be re-done with all-new tooling. The list is quite lengthy, so I'll leave that one alone for now, at least... PS- I've never had the opportunity to converse with Andy, but I wish him all the best of luck with the new EDUARD P-51 "sample-kit"! PPS- As long as we've mentioned a couple of P-51 "derivatives", the H-model being a semi-experimental "light-weight" Mustang, and the F-82 being a dedicated Night Fighter "Twin Mustang", it came to mind that Bell Aircraft was testing a P-39F, with a sliding Bubble Canopy in lieu of the two "Car Doors", a more powerful Engine and a bigger 4-Blade Prop than was seen on the P-63 "King Cobra"-series. No Camo; just overall Natural-Metal... Might be interesting, yes? Also would like to see an all-new Goodyear F2G "Super Corsair". SPECIAL HOBBY made a couple of different kits of this one- A US NAVY/US MARINE CORPS version, and a Bendix-Trophy Air Racer. ACCURATE MINIATURES did a re-boxed version of the same basic kit, "Miss Port Columbus", which was also a Bendix-Trophy Air Racer. I have a couple of these, but I think they could have been much better... Hope to hear more from you, Rowan!

Hi Dennis Classic Airframes and HiPM brought out 1:48 kits of P-51H pretty much at the same time. Neither were suitable for inexperienced modellers and both had their shortcomings, but still looked pretty good when finished (I built the HiPM kit) and certainly stood out in any line-up of more common Mustangs. Modelcraft did the F-82 - and that has got some serious issues, both dimensionally and in terms of moulding. Mine is still in the Stash after all these years, because it will be such an epic project sorting everything out. I'd really hoped somebody would have brought out a new (and accurate) kit by now... All the best Rowan