Pleased to be able to reveal this now as I've been sitting on the knowledge, sworn to secrecy, for too long! New mould, folding wings and optional armament configurations for torpedo or bombs are planned. This is the first all-new 1/72nd scale kit of the type since the 1970s Mania release subsequently re-issued by Hasegawa and very, very welcome. It completes a Pearl Harbor trio for Airfix with only the Aichi D3A1 'Val' as an old moulding so let's hope that they re-do that one too!
The two images above are of the prototype kit during development and include the B5N1. I understand that the interior detail will be more complete and accurate than the Mania/Hasegawa kit.
Additional sprue shots of the kit taken at the Nuremberg Toy Fair by Thomas Volgt:-
6 comments:
Nick, the first words out of my mouth when someone told me about the Kate was that I hoped the D3A1 would be next! (Although, truth be told, I do wish they'd redo their RE.8 and SPAD VII C.1 too.)
Warren
If it's to the standard of their other recent releases, it should be very impressive. Looking at their list of 2014 releases, there's two on there I thought I'd never see: a Shackleton and Whitley. The others - Beaufighter, Martlet, Stuka, and the 48th scale Hurricane and Spitfire also look delicious. It's nice to have a company that listens to our wants, I just hope that we modelers reward them with sales.
It looks terrific!
Good news - always wanted that one!
What a juicy news! Yes Airfix has recently been doing nice models and this B5N promises very well. It comes just in time -I was near to rebuild an old, lovely Mania one - now I will simply wait for this new kit. Thanks a lot, Nick
Danilo
I cannot wait for this kit to come out, I've been wanting one of these for my collection for a while now. I'm really glad the new tooled Zero has a companion. I hope they build the Val next :)
Post a Comment