Pete G.

P-51 or 109G would be good for sales, but man, imagine a F4U-4 loaded with ordinance. Presence on the shelf for sure! I know, same argument could be made for others.

Absolutely fair question. I hear that the Hasegawa 109F is good. I also heard the Hasegawa 109K is pretty good. For the record, I haven’t built either yet. Hasegawa already had a 109K but Kotare did one anyway. It seems to me that the Hasegawa 109F doesn’t stay on the shelves long and I’ve only seen the one tropical version of the kit. By gap, I meant there seems to be a gap in supply vs demand. I should have used better wording. Cheers!

If they were to extend the 109 family, there would be a gap to fill with the F model.

Haven’t checked on this thread for awhile. Lots of great insight and a lot of what I think would be solid selection criteria (read less costly to produce and still achieve a high level of quality and be very marketable from a business stand point) Already mentioned: 1. In-line single engine. 2. Easily researchable. 3. High desirable by a large segment of modelers. 4. No recently tooled kits in existence. I am going to be a bit bold and state the 190D family is a solid bet.

I know this subject gets hashed a lot. Very few givens in the model industry. Maybe a few: . Model kit companies have to be difficult to keep profitable, especially if they keep their subjects constrained within certain genres. Probably exponentially so for less common scales. Hard to imagine stacking the deck against oneself much more from a profitability stand point than diving into 1/32 aircraft subjects. . Making a kit of a subject previously not covered at all or previously covered with a poor quality kit will likely get a company only so far. The company HAS to make a subjects that generate enough volume/revenue to sustain itself. . 109’s sell. Spitfires sell. Anyone who frequents model forums long enough knows this. Any other subjects? Definitely maybe… The SO WHAT of this is: Launching a model kit company takes GUTs, maybe a bit of insanity, and, if you are producing 1/32 kits straight away…passion. I will buy Kotare kits simply to show my support for a venture I want to succeed, regardless of subject. Now I’m off to my dart board to determine what they will make next.

Agree completely! Still even worse is a two seat Spitfire. I grind my teeth into dust every time I see one. Have to acknowledge their intended purpose though.

I may actually have to get one of these. I've been trying to stay away from twins but this one is so different to me personally! Beautiful aircraft!

I'm getting old. I saw this photo and jogged my memory. I didn't think I had this set. Lo and behold I do along with a 21st Century spinner. I don't remember getting these items at all!

Love it! Awesome that the first photo in the thread has a pilot in farmer's overalls! Just like jumping on a tractor!

Well, I found the reference. It was Osprey's Mustang Aces of the Ninth & Fifteenth Air Forces & the RAF. But, I could not find any photographic evidence of a different bird. It was certainly easy to find photos of 36315 with both original and Malcolm canopies. Kind of makes me question the claim of two Ding Hao's.... Anyway, hope Dave's work pushes a new tool P-51B-C forward faster! Thanks for sharing your efforts with us! Pete

Dave, Fantastic work! Chris, thanks for the info regarding the decals. Not sure I could have noticed the national insignia changes had you not pointed them out. Now they look obvious. I need to check my sources, but for general knowledge, thought there were two Ding Hao’s? I think the Malcolm hood bird is a different Mustang? I’ll dig around and try to confirm. Pete

Others may disagree, but that looks pretty spot on to me in spite of being 1/35.

Glad you were able to spot the issue Brian! Keep up the awesome work! Pete

I would say no, unless you had an AH-1F conversion set from Werner’s Wings. The conversion set is for the Revell kit but, but at a perfunctory glance comparing the Revell and ICM kits, it looks usable with the ICM kit. The only part of the kit used in the conversion is part of the airframe. Canopy, cockpit, weapon stations, doghouse, engine, rotor assembly, tail rotor assembly and gearbox are all different. So pretty much everything else is different unfortunately…

A decent Huey and Loach to round out the Vietnam collection is second on my wish list to a good P-51B. Bring them on!