Darren Howie

Great build and wonderful paint thanks for showing us a great piece of work! Looks like Border just copied the Trumpeter kit with its pointy nose and the far to rounded lower cowl. I dont think ZM, Hasegawa or Kotare have anything to worry about from an accuracy view. Thanks for sharing!

Be all over a few of these the Spitfire sets from Matt where fantastic. Hoping he turns his eye to a Tamiya Mosquito bomber/NF conversion..mm Tse,Tse.. So many Mossie options left unturned in 32nd. Ill have to grab a few more D9’s glad they are cheap in Japan..

I’m with you id rather my money go straight to Kotare for taking the risk and reward them than a distributor. Distributors ARE the reason Tamiya kits and Hasegawa are 300% the price i pay for them retail in Tokyo far more than what posting one would cost. I feel sorry for retailers being gouged and will support them wherever i can for instance we get great Eduard prices in oz. Anyway i ordered my Kotare direct as id rather see the money go direct to them to hopefully encourage more projects..Typhoon, Mossie bomber/recon NF family, etc etc.

Ill pop this in here even though its several years down the track to add some more info. First having been taking photos professionally and as an amatuer i dont know any pro photographer who does use custom while balance. Cameras for the last 20 years do an excellent job of setting white balance and shooting in RAW allows you to shoot and correct of required in post without any ln drop in quality. There are many reasons why but a white card is the incorrect way to set it you use a 18% neutral grey card NEVER a white card. Locking in a custom white balance and shooting in JPG is a recipe for disaster if you do not remember to reset your WB back to auto OR lighting changes which happens literally every minute in the wild ie not a studio. Given how many pro's still use JPG for speed of workflow and uploading etc custom white balance is a major NO NO to anyone shooting sports or other action even with various light settings. One minute your target is in the sun then a second later in the shade without auto WB your JPG may be cooked and shot lost or look horrendous doing a 2000K kelvin correction. I see numerous modellers spreading incorrect photography information frequently that flies in the face of what happens in the real world of professional photography. Simple rules if you shoot JPG WB will be an issue if you get it wrong by not using a neutral grey 18% card OR use auto and do some test shots to check if under artificial light. If using neon be prpared to use low shutter speeds to avoid shadow lines ie less than 1/60th second. If your shooting in RAW and your using anything better than an IPHONE and even they have good WB settings these days it doesnt matter as you can correct in post and even the Iphone has RAW. RAW takes away all your issues except storage space and basically is a get out of jail free card and there is no reason to not use it shooting models given how much flexibility it gives you combined with how good cameras are today.

Given the stunning quality of Laminars work id be right in for a couple of Mossie conversions and with his quality of fit and design a two stage conversion for Tamiya would be a walk in the park for them! Anyone raised it on his page?

I think probably the easiest way to see the issue is simply to look at the word NAVY on the rear fuselage and look on the kit with the same positioned marking the differences in the letter shapes it makes it really easy to see. First the real jet i like this shot as you can clearly see the reflection line of where the curve on the fuselage runs. Notice the A the V and the Y in the word Navy. Another note the distinct curve from the second vertical in N going lower to end up causing most of the Y to be curved. And here is the Tamiya F-4. The ssues are way bigger than the ZM 48th kit which is minor in comparison and pretty easily fixed Tamiya's not so easily. As you can see the curve is far sharper higher and commences further aft. I think this shows it really clearly again focus on the word navy and the shapes you see which have none of the curve are far more vertical and straight. Once you see it you can never unsee it...

From the sound of it Kotare is doing the K and E and leaving ZM to do the G family. Pretty smart to not step on each others toes and as they have similar price points outside Japan gives those the option of wanting an engine based late 109 with ZM and a clean kit the Kotare K. Nice work by Sam on the interview very insightful discussion and long term plans. Radu really is leading the pack with his superb 32nd designs Now how about a new 190D-9 family, Typhoons, Spit Mk14’s etc..

Glad to hear the K isnt far away and tweaks are complete. Ordered a couple more im sure it will sell like a cracker.

Heli scale already have a nice water tank available and twin main gear legs. The tank usnt specific to the F being carried by any version of the Skycrane so hopefully ICM have one in the box. I find the twin wheel look much more attractive to the eye than single tyre.

Great to see the Arado coming back it really was the golden age of Revell! Great kits very accurate and lovely to build for a great price. Why they never went on to release a Ju-88C or G is beyond me. Its rare that manufacturers miss such an opportunity but Revell have made some very bizarre choices. Dragon started with the best selling variants the G’s and worked backwards and almost 30 years later are still repopping the G6 and G1/10 successfully in 48th Revell the king of lost opportunities.

it will also be 7 times the street price of the Hasegawa kit for defects that took years for people to notice. Im not sure how on earth Kotare can be cheaper than a Hasegawa kit with every piece of resin ever made for it thrown in. As marketing pushes exceedingly smaller margins of perfection by amplifying the errors of previous generations to extoll newer benefits the cost increase is an issue. The ZM 109 which is the best 109 ever released and easily the equal of anything Kotare could produce and it comes with a magnificent engine, gun bays, cockpit that fit perfectly as opposed to using resin. All that for 40% less what i can by a Kotare Spitfire for and it has none of those options and if i do will cost easily double plus plus. Now i cant wait for Kotare to do a Spitfire Mk5C etc but have got a Tamiya Spitfire AND a Laminar flow Vc conversion today for less than an Imaginary Kotare kit would cost. I bought the Laminar sets as they are out now and come with multiple options that will cost me hundreds from Kotare. Already owning a pile of Hasegawa K’s with resin cockpits as much as a Kotare K would be great cant justify for the large cost for minor accuracy advantages buying any more than one. Lets be really blunt Kotare kits are super expensive for what they offer compared to Tamiya or ZM or Hasegawa. No engines, no gun bays very few options like the ZM 109 can you you can build almost any 109G6 to G14 yet the Kotare are double and a half the price. Great kits yes, lovely and accurate and sure im lucky enough to afford to buy one but this pile on of criticism of the Hasegawa kits which can be found for 20USD to justify spending 150USD is hyping up what really is a basic kit with a huge price. Keeping it real..

What is a "fact" in the EU is far from so elsewhere. The F16Am came and went from shops all over Japan in under a month and is now fetching almost 100% more than its retail price was on release. Now going for over 400 dollars and a perfect example like Wingnut that you buy on release or roll the dice and generally lose.

The JG54 boxing was released in late August ive got two sitting on my desk. Magnificent kit but im interested in a easier build option with the same level of general detail. Still not complaining about a checkernose A4 and two versions of a well known JG54 bird.

Sorry to hear abiut your health issues mate really hope your situation improves. Loved your products of which i have a truck load so thanks for all your efforts to improve do many kits. thanks and good luck!

The Revell A kit is excellent. The 2 seater had some design issues that create some fit problems that are eliminated in the single seater. ive still got some Trump kits but doubt they will get looked at Revells are excellent.

Not sure if these have been put up but a fabulous tool for a kit with average 8nstructions. Money well spent and some fantastic tips and a great build sequence. https://shoptly.com/i/3vz5 Superb instructions fixing a pretty poor manual from Takom. https://glennhoovermodels.com

The best way to deal with the canopy issues is build it canopy up. It breaks up the profile making it look better. It doesn't fix the complete absence of Omega shape but no kit has ever captured that for the 105 although the CE set helps.

dont you think the people buying these kits today would be ensuring thecjits they own right now Would have perfectly usable parts? Or do you thing people dont look at the parts on the kits they buy?

Pretty sure VFS subsequently released the P-47M as well only a few years ago as a limited edition.

Love to see an Erickson Aircrane mod set for the ICM kit. The Crane has a pretty massive worldwide profile in countries affected by fires personally think it would outsell the Vietnam original comfortably.

Kit itself is very good. Check out Gary Wickhams very thorough coverage at TMN it covers its issues very well. in shortvlots of options but poor instructions leave you needing to chase up what parts go with what markings. Mirage 2000 has plenty of options so if you have any knowledge of your version you can work it out pretty easily.

I think thats based on how expensive the Kotare kit is and i think thats fair. Same price i get a ZM 109 or 190 with piles more detail most of which is aftermarket resin standard. If Eduard released a new 109G-6 as a base kit with a fleet of aftermarket tailored for it they capture both markets the clean builder and those who want great fitting engines gun bays etc. I think they have been crazy to not try 32nd again especially with the tightening up of their research since the 48th 109G debacle meaning far less windows for criticism.

Tamiya or Airfix, the 24th Spit is slightly more detailed than the Tamiya kit AND is easier to get together, particularly the cowl fuse area if building it nose closed. Its a very very impressive Spitfire in 24th and as much as i love the Tamiya kit if im paying the same money its Airfix all the way. For me im paying far less than the Airfix price for Tamiya Spits and even though i grabbed two Kotare kits its a distant third on value for money for me.

Id just buy the Trump Cat. Has flap down option, fully scribed, the intake “issue” has been overblown unsurprisingly like most Trump criticism. Now ive got Zactos intakes but to be honest they are a major amount of work for something you can only see when looking at kit level from nose on and even then its no biggie. As for Phoenix palettes well you cant even see them. Having spent a pile of money on aftermarket right now a Trump F-14 wings spread flaps down canopy open with resin seats and a Quinta cockpit may be all ill use, possibly burners. Wouldnt touch any other kit as they all require huge work to even get close to the Trump kit. Plenty of examples here and online places of gorgeous Trump F-14’s done many with no aftermarket.

After reading so much on multiple sites i was intrigued to see what the actual kit was like. With numerous people posting some pretty disparaging remarks then directly comparing those opinions against the kit i must have a different kit, im buying another two. I have been taking photos for 40 years had many images published in books, magazines etc so have some idea about cameras and photography. One major issue ive seen appear is the use of mobile phone cameras for many images and people judging them on face value. To be short those images can have major issues. First most people RAW format isnt used. With Iphones applying sharpening, contrast boosting and default HDR format any photos of plastic kits will immediately boost the appearance of panel lines and apparent depth as edges are all enhanced lighter areas brightened darker areas darkened etc. Ive seen plenty of pics posted of this kit and the pictures with these default phone properties both Iphone and Android make this kit look FAR worse that it actually is. Even poor editing of the best files ie RAW taken with a dedicated camera can unintentionally create artificial changes. Id highly recommend anyone put off by images of the kit go look at it in person i have zero issues with the panel lines at all. In fact most of the debate after seeing the kit was a generated by people who havnt seen the kit judging it based on images clearly suffering from enhanced detail caused directly by poor quality cameras ie mobile phone based. The properties of these cameras is not accurate capture of detail but 99% of their use is personal photography of places/events and not for product photography. Basing any judgement of images which by default are altered to enhance colour, detail and contrast to make them more suitable for FB or Insta, Tik Tok etc is fraught with issues. An excellent post at HS on the new 48th Corsair where the kit was being slaughtered by the usual suspects based on some mobile phone images. When someone with correct light and a decent camera did a side by side of the new kit and the Tamiya kit unsurprisingly the depth and sharpness of the panel lines and rivets where almost identical. Mobile phone cameras for assessing plastic and details are absolutely 100% not to be trusted.