STWilliams

I recently received their 1/32 F4U/F6F wheel set, and it is exquisite, but a little more pricey than the competition. I didn't realise they were printed. All this 3D printing stuff has me in two minds. It allows superb levels of detail to be very easily added, but part of me (the old, miserly, miserable bit) thinks it's a little sad, as it's a step further along the path where the size of your modelling budget dictates the quality of your finished model. How long before you order a 3D printed model that has been produced to your exact specifications, and it arrives a week later in half a dozens 3D printed bits, and all it requires is an hour or so of your time with a bottle of glue, to produce an outstandingly accurate (in both detail and finish) model that just needs painting? Or, bit further in the future, it arrives in a matter of hours, printed out as you watch on your families 3D printer via the internet? Of course, by then your robot will need to pick it up and bring it to you, as humans will have evolved into having only a single finger on each hand for typing, with arms 6 inches long so that only those unable to touch their faces will have survived the various viruses spreading around the planet. I'm playing devil advocate here to a degree, but it seems inevitable that the onset of 3D printing will have a potentially massive effect upon aeroplane modelling. In the longer term it seems it may lead to a reduction in modelling skills, and an increase in modellers becoming constructors, with more emphasis upon research and painting than of construction? Not trying to judge whether this is positive or not, just an observation going forward.

Me? Non-Brits?

Finding it difficult to get too excited about this one. Only around 100 built, standard RAF camo, unspectacular & short career. Am I missing something here?

My teenage son would approve.

Your book is very, very strange. WNW made 70 odd kits of some of the very finest 1/32 models on the planet in the space of 10 years, birthing a cottage industry of WWI 1/32 aviation as a result. ICM are not anywhere remotely near that, both in terms of quality & quantity, whilst Lukgraph kits are nice enough, but largely resin, not many of them, & damned expensive. Both decent, but I've never heard anybody claim they are more "special" than WNW. Is this a widely held belief? Don't overlook Roden's existing 1/32 WWI kits. They are older and cheaper than WNW's, but they are pretty damned good kits, well within the purview of any decent modeller. Their Albatros D.I & D.III get particularly overlooked following WNW's D.V's, but for around £30 they are superb value. Agree that CSM are just too small and have fingers in other pies to concentrate on 1/32 WWI aviation, especially as their much heralded Nieuport line of kits failed to sell as well as expected. Still in denial? Despite the staff having all been sacked? Despite the website not taking orders for many, many months? Despite the remaining WNW kits having been sold to MBK & Hannants? Despite the WNW Fokker Triplane turning into the Meng Fokker Triplane? Despite the availability of WNW kits declining so much as to double & triple prices? Despite former staff confirming that the company has ceased working, besides filling older, pre-shutdown orders? Despite hearing directly from former staff that the company abruptly ceased, with zero warning, with all work ceasing stone dead and part-completed projects just abandoned? Despite the company now being managed by Wingnut company accountants? Despite TVA also massively reducing its operations, with similar staff cuts & zero investment? I fear we have already seen how it all ends, because it has ended already. However, your optimism is marvelous. I still believe that money talks, even with PJ. The moulds are worth something, and it would take a particularly pig-headed person to turn down good, hard cash purely out of some spiteful, selfish desire to stop others enjoying them. So I think that at least some of the kits will reappear eventually, in the not too distant future, under new ownership.

I think I'd prefer plain crow.

Filling a gap in the market the size of a flea's nads.

I am strangely unenthused by the prospect of this kit, even though WWII is my favourite period. I don't know why, maybe it just has a touch of the HpH's about it. Looks great in the box, costs a small fortune and goes together like a 2 million piece jigsaw that's been mixed with another 2 million piece jigsaw and then dipped in bleach for 24 hours to remove all trace of any graphics. The multiple additional sets for additional money suggest the base level of detail will be somewhat limited, otherwise why bother? Will this end up as a classic HpH type kit, bought in smallish number, built in very small numbers? I'll let others buy it first and build it, whilst I wait in the wings with all my natural cowardice to the fore.

The only reason I ever order any kits from China is always, 100% the same - to save money. To do so, I swap speed for savings, because I'm a tight arsed git. And because, like pretty much 99% of this here forum, the kits will stand in the stash for a good few, um, years, as I, like everybody else, already have a healthy (or unhealthy, depending upon your spouse) stash that is already intimidating me and poking its tongue out, because it knows it's already too big for my rapidly aging self to ever deal with. In other, simper words, why rush to get a kit that you're not going to immediately build, when you have numerous others that you are working on and planning to work on, just sat there, waiting? Why did you order from China? Did you expect to save money and get it first, does it operate like that in Aus?

Mine are on the way!! Then I remembered I took advantage of Lucky Models $8 shipping offer. At $39.99 and $8 shipping and a 15% discount (I had to order 3 to get the discount, like I needed an excuse....), the downside was that they're being delivered, literally, via a slow boat from China. Or Hong Kong, not sure. So it's travelling at around 15 knots, with 11,000 nautical miles to travel, I reckon it'll take almost exactly 31 days of sailing, just to get to Amsterdam. Of course, it'll probably stop to load & unload on the way, so that'll slow it down even more. Then once it hits Europe, it needs to get to the UK. Then Parcelforce get their hands on it, and that delays it another 3 months as they kick it around the warehouse, just in case it's a football, before sending me a ransom demand to pay the VAT before handing over the now rather knackered kits. So, by the time it arrives WNW will probably have risen from the ashes and released their 8 different Fokker Triplane boxings, Roden will have re-issued theirs with improved detail, Encore will re-release their re-release and a brand new Chinese company, Wingynuty Wingsy, will suddenly launch 75 new 1/32 WWI kits, all of which have been done previously by WNW. Except they'll disprove those suggesting industrial theft & IP violations by pointing out the completely different name, which is applied to stickers covering very WNW looking boxes. As the furore gets louder, Wingynuty Wingsy will launch not one, not two, but four kits WNW never did sell, just to disprove the doubters. The HP O/100, the HP O/400 and two Avro Lancaster boxings. Then they'll release a not-quite-finished Hansa-Brandenburg D.I, which proves to be the last kit they ever produce.

Nice of you to interact with us "gutter-snipers". Although if "lack of perfection" were important, we'd be reviewing the 1,562nd 1/32 Bf 109G-6, lamenting that it's nearly perfect, but a single misplaced rivet out of alignment by 0.5mm just won't do......

When I sell kits on EBay, I photograph every individual sprue, the decals sheet, PE & the instruction manual front. I know some people try it on, but I have previously told them to go ahead & complain to EBay, and that I would send them photos of the contents as it was when it left my house. That shuts them up & they suddenly find the "missing" parts. It's absolutely correct that EBay is biased towards the customer, that's one of the reasons I like using it to buy modelling supplies. BUT, as a seller, it's easy to get burned by unscrupulous, deceptive buyers, who say they never received a kit, or it had bits missing, or was damaged. Hence the photos & every single item being sent recorded delivery. Since doing that, I've never had an issue.

Agreed! Then again, I rather think the entire wing warping reaction is a tad overdone. From the WIP's I've seen here, and over on WW1aircraft forum, 2-3mm of warp in a wing is absolutely of no consequence for 99.9% of modellers. I just don't understand why the review even mentioned kit- bashing a Roden Triplane as a possible fix. Same with the "1970's level of flash". Seems like all perspective was lost on that review.

Who needs the opinion of a renowned worldwide expert & modeller, who has written innumerable books on the subject, and may be writing another on exactly this subject, who has the kit in his hands and is building it? Just hop over to the WWI aircraft forum. They know so much more than over there. "1970's flash", how did Ray miss that? All that horrible flash on the ailerons? The numerous mold seams? The incredibly wonky wings? The too wide axle wing? The overall kit so poor as to encourage CSM to come to market with their own new tool Fokker Triplane kit? Ray will never live this down.

"Thanks to Artscalekit in CZ, I now have the MENG kit and it's a beaut! More details later!" Followed by a large "Stop Hating" GIF. The above is verbatim from Ray's Facebook group.