Sunday, March 21, 2010

1/144 Spitfire - Petersplanes Gold Series


1/144 Spitfire - Petersplanes Gold Series

Although Petersplanes planning started before Wing Kit Collection, it will not see the light of day until later this year.

It should however based upon other aircraft mastered by Kampfflieger it should set the new benchmark by which others will have to reach!?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actual offer of 1/144 Spitfires is:
- Mk I (Bandai)
- Mk V Academy/Minicraft (kit) and the new F-toys ones9 mk IX Century Toys
- Mk IX Century toys (not too good) there was a voice about a Sweet Mk IX...
- Mk XVI new Kami de Korokoro one.
(plus the Airalex resin range)

A better choice would have been a Mk VIII or a better Mk IX or a Mk XIV (or at east a tropicalized Mk V)

Why another Mk XVI?

bluedonkey99 said...

Anon

I am sure peter will drop buy and give you an answer.

In short he ran a number of polls on his website and a discussion on the Small Scale Modellers forum on Yahoo.

The net effect was a two main spitfire candidates for a "Merlin" spit and a "Griffon" spit. The ones with the most votes and commitment to buy went into production.

The fact that another vendor such as KdK has also produced one of a similer mark in a overlapping time frame unfortuneatley often happens as people finally respond to the demans for aircraft X Or Y and they due to circumstances take choices or options than lead us to where we are where planes are duplicated, and often at the same time even if they started in development at differing times....

at least now you can choose which XVI/XVIe to purchase!?

The airalex one are an interesting range and useful hole fillers, but do not really compare to the KdK or new PP Gold range...

As for sweet.... hey ho... mqaybe one day they (or, Platz) will sort sort their act out?

badger said...

Anyone know when Peter will have the Beaufigher for sale? Saw one on ebay a while ago, but no news since then. Would love to pickup a few of these awesome kits soon!

pbhawkin said...

Hi Anonymous,
As BD says I ran a poll as well as asking on a few forums. The poll is still open and can be seen at: http://poll.pollcode.com/D6r1_result?v
Note that there has been a very close race as to what is most popular at any given time and I guess that a few people tend to vote more than once!
Also, a lot of votes are for a Mk.1 which has been done by Bandai (and others?). Although I realise they are hard to find.
Also, note my FIRST Spitfire is a Mk.XIVe (Griffon power) NOT a XVIe as the KdK is.
However, if it does well then I am open to further suggestions.
MAYBE, BD would be so kind as to run a NEW poll of Spitfires marks for next cab off the rank (as he has far better coverage than I get on my site)?

regards
Peter

pbhawkin said...

Badger,
I am waiting on the new masters to arrive from Roman (along with the Spitfire master).
I got him to rework the Beaufighter master for ease of molding and to reduce the thickness of the traiing edge when cast as well as the seams that appear on the rear fuselage with the current mold.
MIND YOU if you check out my pictures of the planes I have made with the "pre-production" mold you will see that they are still VERY acceptable models (but do require a little more clean up than I would like). See pics at: http://www.petersplanes.com/avions/Beaufighter/Beaufighter.htm

regards

pbhawkin said...

HMM, there should be a 'm' at the end of the last URL!

See pics at: http://www.petersplanes.com/avions/Beaufighter/Beaufighter.htm

regards

smeg1959 said...

Anon,

It's the old "waiting for a bus" syndrome. Nothing for ages then five turn up at once! Now that the dam wall has been breached, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a Spitfire appear in the Sweet or Pfalz ranges. And Miniwing is also a possibility for a resin entry.

One thing for certain is that Peter's Spitty will be right on the money based on his Beaufighter. Badger, as Peter's "decal artwork bod", I have a pre-production Beau TFX with thimble nose and can attest to the excellence of the moulding and surface detail. As PBH would tell you himself, he's come a long way since his first Arado Ar196 casting.

Incidentally, exactly how much longer you'll be able to get Airalex kits for is open to debate, as Alex Trant is currently selling off much of his modelling stock.

bluedonkey99 said...

I asked him about that whne the sales first came up:

Airalex is only selling off his "stash" as he has relaised he

(a) doesnt have the room to store them
(b) is not likely to build them all anyway!

He will still be running the sales part of his business for the resin kits.

Anonymous said...

My apologies to Peter!

I usually have a hurried look to Kg144 (and linked sites)in my lunch time. I simply have mistakenly read Mk XVI instead of Mk XIV!
The view from top, without the peculiar mk XIV profile helped my blunder.

I already have the Airalex XIV, and I was going to use parts from spare minicraft/century toys to finish it. I'm considering Petersplanes offer, now.

A better Mk IX, a mk VII or VI are not too difficult to obtain, but there is still place for those kits in the market.