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Tamiya announces new tool 1/72nd F-16CJ


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Is that what it says on the box? Because prices in the Japanese market are often significantly lower than in North America and elsewhere. I'd rather hear it from an official source.

Edit: Given the Tamiya 1/48 F-16's MSRP is 3600 yen, I sincerely doubt that the 1/72 box will be the same price.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10055295

Just did the USD to JPY conversion without looking their respective values,I don't know how much it will be in yen for the japanese market.I think 2500 yen or so but I'm looking to Hasegawa pre orders section for the next month,going to snatch it from there since here in Italy the Academy version costs around 30€ and the Revell one is or was around 21€,for sure since is Tamiya or Hasegawa his price will be inflated to around 40€.They dare to sell a 72 Dragon Panzer III Armor Pro series for 30€ which is not even an exclusive so no wonder that is going to be expensive here.

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Is that what it says on the box? Because prices in the Japanese market are often significantly lower than in North America and elsewhere. I'd rather hear it from an official source.

Edit: Given the Tamiya 1/48 F-16's MSRP is 3600 yen, I sincerely doubt that the 1/72 box will be the same price.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10055295

Given their price range of recent Zeros in 1/48 (3200) and 1/72 (1400) I'd say the F-16CJ would be in the 1600-2000 yen range.

Edited by Inquisitor
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Given their price range of recent Zeros in 1/48 (3200) and 1/72 (1400) I'd say the F-16CJ would be in the 1600-2000 yen range.

I kinda guessed that earlier in the thread, but given we have an semi-official person, I thought I'd ask.

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I can state with full confidence that injection molding technology has not changed whatsoever in the 5-10 years since the Revell kit came out.

I agree, but there is improvement in 3D software not only for designing basic shape, but also in designing of molds and machining of molds and simulating plastic injecting... i was refeering on whole process from design to production :-)

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I can state with full confidence that injection molding technology has not changed whatsoever in the 5-10 years since the Revell kit came out.

Wait what. Only last 5-10 years now?

People keep saying things like this as if they are axiomatically true. What exactly is "molding quality"? How do you measure that? The Hasegawa F-15 kit came out in 1986, and aside from increased use of CAD design and slide molds (not itself a new technology by any means), injection molded kits today are pretty much exactly the same as they were in 1986.

There is no such thing as "old molding technology". Kits today are (sometimes) more cleverly designed, but that's only because our expectations have increased. What was perfectly acceptable in 1986 isn't in 2013. Manufacturers have simply (in some cases) followed the expectations of the consumer. It's the same for cars, etc. Imagine buying a car with manually cranked windows today? Even the cheapest models have electric everything.

I would be interested to know what kind of old kit has level of detail matching lets say R-60 exhaust in MiG-29 kit.

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That has nothing to do with 'molding technology' - stuff like that could have been done ages ago if there had been a call for it. There wasn't. People make like there are these cataclysmic leaps in molding technology, and there just aren't. The basics of injection molding polystyrene really haven't changed very much since the 1950s. 3D CAD makes more things economical to do, and the use of slide molds in plastic model kits has increased, but even that isn't remotely anything like new technology.

And in any event, what does it matter?

Edited by Jennings
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The basics of injection molding polystyrene really haven't changed very much since the 1950s.

And no one has ever been arguing anything against that, that is obvious. Just like airliners now are basically airliners of 60's and so are the cars. And rockets. The "small" improvements seen on everything mentioned above has also been seen on molding technology.

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No one? :(/>

I've read two theories. One is that, for the 48th scale kit, Tamiya might have been thinking about a kit down the line that would include a simulated engine sound and the panel would be where the on-off switch would be be. The other is that it was a random extra panel with no logic so when another kit copied it, it would be obvious they copied Tamiya. And then Kinetic did, indeed, include this extra panel.

I'm not trying to suggest either one of the above theories is valid, but I will also say that that a very knowledgeable F-16 expert has stated emphatically that there is no logical reason to have this panel separate--meaning that there is no version that has anything else different there. And this has been supported by others who are knowledgeable.

By the way, an inaccuracy in the Tamiya 48th scale kit is that the panel lines in that area are incorrect in that they are symmetrical (the top left and right fuse in that area) but they should not be. This is minor enough that you rarely hear about it, and it certainly doesn't bother me. However, the discussed extra panel couldn't be related to this issue. So, again, the mystery continues.

Mike Todd

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I'm not a Viper "uber-expert", but I believe there are some panels in that area that vary from block to block, leading to the conclusion other kits may be in the works.

There are panels that vary between blocks but not at that location. In fact Tamiya has released their 32nd and 48th Viper kits as representing different blocks without changing panels that ARE different between blocks, all while not correcting the ones they got wrong (as noted by dedalus).

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It's just a panel where you can permanently place an anti-theft device behind. Or some similar stealthy ID chip. Who knows...

No, really. That panel makes no sense to me, either. Maybe it has something to do with the way the tooling was made?

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Any news ? I'm curious about weapons. For A2A AIM-9M, AIM-9X and AIM-120 C(?) that's for sure in box will be. :tumble:/>

According to gtypecanare, he was told just AIM-120, it was also what the prototype model was armed with. But a picture of the supposed box art showed the aircraft in SEAD configuration, so who really knows.

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not sure what the 1/32 one comes with, but the 1/48 has 9M, 9X, 120C, 184, and 88's. One would guess that the 1/72 would have the same. Tamiya will give us enough to build one with a nice load of weapons and tanks.

(looks like the 1/32 comes with 9M, 120C, 184, JDAM, and 88's).

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