I Never Thought I'd See The Day When...

This last weekend I decided to have one of those moments we all have when we suddenly realise the stash is getting a bit large and maybe something has to go. Naturally I thought this would involve a selection of "vintage" kits being put to one side ready to be listed on eBay. But something unexpected happened.

If you're a regular reader you'll know that I've not really had a bad word to say about Tamiya kits and to a certain extent that's still the case. But this weekend the unthinkable happened and one of my pristine Tamiya kits ended up on the "for sale" pile! The kit in question is Tamiya's 1:72 Messerschmitt Bf-109E-4/7.

Tamiya's Bf 109E-4/7 Trop

 
Sometime ago I wrote an in-box review of two Bf-109 kits, one from Airfix, the other from Zvezda. I didn't include the Tamiya kit because I figured it would be a forgone conclusion that it's a good kit. And that's the thing, it is. I'm sure it'll go together well, the three colour schemes are interesting  and the addition of three spinners is typical of Tamiya's attention to detail. OK so the fuselage shape is a few millimetres out, not noticeable to the naked eye, but that's forgiveable in my opinion.

Why is it going? Well it is better than Zvezda's offering, but the more I think about it, the more impressed I am with the Airfix kit. And it's not just their Bf-109, they just keep on delivering excellent kits with each round of releases. And when you also consider my first ever review (titled: "The Worst Kit You'll Ever Build?") was of an Airfix kit, I can't help but be impressed by the continual improvement from Airfix, so all credit to them. (Revell take note, it is possible to invest time and effort into producing high quality budget kits, rather than buying up other people's old kits).

So there you go, I never thought I see the day when I'd sell a Tamiya kit over an Airfix one.

Bandai and Star Wars - The Evil Empire Strikes Back?

There’s disappointing news for Star Wars fans outside of Japan.

If you follow my Instagram you’ll have seen I recently picked up one of the incredible kits from Bandai, in this case an excellent 1:72 scale Y-Wing. These kits are so good there has been huge worldwide demand for them. It was originally expected that such kits would be for the Japanese domestic market only but as we live in the time of the global economy naturally word got out and people from other countries started buying them. Why wouldn’t they when they’re the best kits they can get?

No that's not Coruscant...

Disney appear to have realised that this would probably have an impact on sales in other markets for which they have different, (and in my opinion, substandard), ranges and different agreements and so they’ve come down hard on Bandai and ordered them to ensure their distributors and re-sellers don’t offer them for sale outside of Japan. I'm sure they're completely within their legal rights to do so but the fact it's been allowed to go on for some time before they've pulled the plug is somewhat frustrating. Sadly this seems to be the way with some large corporations, especially American ones. They’re the first to want a free world market but when things don’t go their way they end up crying off to regulators, lawyers etc…

So what does that leave those us outside of Japan with? Well we get Revell’s frankly uninspiring offerings (although they may only be available in the US).

Disappointing...

At this point I should mention that Revell have made a statement that they had no involvement in Disney's decision. Interesting though that they mention they have no license to sell in Japan, it took me a minute to find their items for sale in Japan, but we'll overlook that for now...

The starter kits are well and good for those that are new to the hobby, something I've championed before. However the so called “Masters” range is actually a case of Revell doing what they do best, buying up old moulds and re-boxing them. In this case it’s the Fine Molds kits (one of which I once awarded 5 out of 5). Most of us would have been happy with that if something better hadn’t come along in the meantime. Plus they'll cost more than the Fine Molds kits ever did, for what is essentially old stock, the rumoured price of the "Masters" (Fine Molds) Falcon is in excess of $300!

However there are ways for us model builders to get hold of the Bandai kits, in the short term at least. First of all most Japanese sellers have been very good at communicating how (slowly) they’ll be taking stuff off their websites, so if you want something be quick (one informed me that I have until the 20th of September to buy any remaining stock or get any pre-orders in, which they’ll honour). Second, market sellers such as those on Amazon, eBay etc. will be selling them independently, although I expect prices will rise sharply one sellers realise they can profit. Once that happens there’s the third option, kit hunters based in Japan. In this case individuals living in Japan will buy kits and mail them to you, usually for a percentage fee (there’s a list here of some, but I can’t personally recommend any as I’ve not used them yet) which may turn out to be a better option than paying a premium on those for sale in option 2.

In my case my remaining hobby budget for the year has mostly been spent and I need to inform Iana that lots of parcels will be arriving in the mail from Japan in the near future (and my poor postman who has to carry them all)!

The sad part is this all seems so unnecessary, I was looking forward to seeing the new film in December but now there's a bitter taste about it all

Advanced Heroquest Reborn - The Heroes

I thought I'd kick off my Advanced Heroquest Reborn project by taking a look at the heroes that would be taking on the Skaven menace deep below the Old World.

Interestingly the box art featured the original set of heroes from Milton Bradley's Heroquest, along with the full set of monsters from the same game, the familiar zombie, scimitar wielding Orc and the shifty looking Goblin to name but a few. However beyond the box art and a set of character sheets they didn't really feature within Advanced Heroquest itself.

The Box art featuring the original adventurers - Source : Advanced Heroquest (1989)

The game itself introduced a new group of heroes who featured heavily in the artwork and fiction of the rulebook. While they followed the common fantasy adventurer grouping of a human, dwarf, elf and wizard one noticeable change was the omission of the human barbarian for an armoured human soldier. They were named Heinrich Löwen (the fighter), Sven Hammerhelm (the Dwarf), Torallion Leafstar (the Elf) and Magnus the Bright (the wizard).

The "replacements" in action - Source : Advanced Heroquest (1989)

The miniatures themselves were early Games Workshop plastics, at that time Citadel and Marauder miniatures tended to be of the lead variety. They were comparable to the plastic miniatures commonly found in table top games of today, fairly soft detail but enough to clearly reflect the characters in the game book artwork. Apparently they painted up well as shown in the picture below, although I have to confess I don't remember painting them myself when I owned a copy of Advanced Heroquest.

Miniatures; painted by Phil Lewis (image from Stuff of Legends)

These models still pop up on eBay on a fairly regular basis and I did originally think about buying myself a set. However common sense eventually prevailed and I decided not to play into the hands of profiteers and overpay for what are some old and fairly simple plastic models. In fact it was that decision that was pretty much the beginning of this project.

And with that mention of my project it leads us nicely onto my vision of the heroes. Taking the artwork and the original models I built up my first mock-ups of how I envisage Heinrich, Sven, Torallion and Magnus to be.

With the Elf, I'm really limited in parts and I'm honestly not sure if that's a male or female head on my figure! However one thing I wanted to do was to get rid of the highly impractical bow in one hand, sword in the other pose of the original figure. And yes, I know, you're probably thinking the dwarf, Sven, is not even close to the art work and so as I write this there's a head swap taking place.
 

Painting wise, I'm going to start with Heinrich the warrior. In my next Advanced Heroquest Reborn post I hope to go into a bit more detail about how I built and painted him.