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On 7/5/2018 at 7:00 AM, RCAFFAN said:

I googled "first day of summer 2018 Australia" and the answer said the Solstice was at 9:23 a.m. (Eastern Australia time) on December 22, 2018 and there was no mention of December 1st anywhere and that was good enough for me so I reject your disputes and go with science...........Besides I suspect you guys in Australia won't see this kit for Christmas (regular or Russian Orthodox).......

 

You took Google's word?

 

I know it's the accepted story in North America, but picking the middle of summer (the solstice) as the start of summer makes absolutely no sense.

 

Uh. Maybe you should have read on. Even Wiki has it right.

 

It's not germane to the subject in hand which is better measured in terms of continental drift than ephemeral stuff like seasons

 

Shane

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Is it really so hard for AMK to set a definitive date for release? Seriously. At this late stage in the game they must be able to say "Kit will be released on [ENTER DATE HERE]" and be done with this never ending speculation or continuing on with the "soon" or now  "Summer 2018" routine. Honestly, if they are saying "Summer 2018" then they must have a specific target date in mind. So when is it?

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6 hours ago, Don said:

Is it really so hard for AMK to set a definitive date for release? Seriously. At this late stage in the game they must be able to say "Kit will be released on [ENTER DATE HERE]" and be done with this never ending speculation or continuing on with the "soon" or now  "Summer 2018" routine. Honestly, if they are saying "Summer 2018" then they must have a specific target date in mind. So when is it?

 

Tamiya said "summer 2018" too, at Shizuoka hobby show in May, 

later, they said July, then July 18th for USA, and the kit is already available now in Germany.

Note that the whole product (box, sprues, decals, PE, masking tape) and marketing about it were ready in May.

 

It gives you a pattern for a release schedulde of a kit.

 

Here, we're definitely not at this step neither at the shizuoka hobby show's one.

 

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2 hours ago, shion said:

 

Tamiya said "summer 2018" too, at Shizuoka hobby show in May, 

later, they said July, then July 18th for USA, and the kit is already available now in Germany.

Note that the whole product (box, sprues, decals, PE, masking tape) and marketing about it were ready in May.

 

It gives you a pattern for a release schedulde of a kit.

 

Here, we're definitely not at this step neither at the shizuoka hobby show's one.

 

Agreed that Tamiya set a timeline for the release of their F-14D and pretty much adhered to it. They announced their F-14D in April 2018 and it's in many modelers hands in early July 2018. Approximately three months from announcement to delivery to modelers. There has been clear/consistent progression and even clearer communication with modelers on their part as to when we (modelers) can expect it on store shelves. Look, I am not taking a shot at AMK. Tamiya is Tamiya and AMK is AMK. I get that. I like both manufacturers.   I am merely saying that at this very late stage, after 3+ years, after pages of "soon", "patience", ARC members debating/arguing, and now "Summer 2018"...a season some of us in the world are in right now...they must have an actual targeted date for release to the modeler. If so then commit to it. If they don't have a target release date yet then...

 

 

EDIT: Spelling.

Edited by Don
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/22/2018 at 7:54 PM, Sio said:

Brian,

 

You are giving us quite a pressure in making no mistake for that. :wave::wave:

 

Sio

 

Hello AMK...any news on the Tomcat please? Even though I now have the Tamiya -D, I still have budget for yours... 🙂 Looking fwd to it!

 

cheers

Uwe

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On July 19, 2018 at 12:22 PM, Andreas Beck said:

The first one to hit the 100 should get an invitation to Macao for the handover of the first production kit.

LG

be

Hahaha, the winner may be dead long before the kit comes out. This is why I never pre-order 👍🏻.

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Okay, I have a question about the timeline.

 

I've been reading a lot of angst about how long this kit has taken to go from announcement to finished product.

 

What would put this in perspective for me, is knowing how long a smaller company takes to produce a kit this detailed, from start to finish,,,,,,,,,without any announcement until close to the release date?

 

Tamiya, Hasegawa, or Fujimi kits wouldn't count,,,,but any other small company that puts this much effort and time in would. (so, those kits that come to us without locating pins and holes on the fuselage wouldn't count, either)

Edited by Rex
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Keep in mind that AMK can't devote resources to this kit.  They design, cut molds and make kits for other companies as their prime focus. The F-14 work is fit in whenever they have downtime between other tasks.  I don't think your comparison attempt is valid.

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On July 19, 2018 at 9:46 AM, anj4de said:

 

Hello AMK...any news on the Tomcat please? Even though I now have the Tamiya -D, I still have budget for yours... 🙂 Looking fwd to it!

 

cheers

Uwe

I hear crickets chirping 

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45 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

Keep in mind that AMK can't devote resources to this kit.  They design, cut molds and make kits for other companies as their prime focus. The F-14 work is fit in whenever they have downtime between other tasks.  I don't think your comparison attempt is valid.

And how people forget even a big company like Trumpeter took them a decade to finally release their Intruder....

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5 hours ago, Inquisitor said:

And how people forget even a big company like Trumpeter took them a decade to finally release their Intruder....

As far as I remember, all we got from Trumpeter was a leaflet with stuff like "Intruder coming soon" enclosed in other kits, for years, that is all.

 

No raving about how incredible their kit would be, no other advert with difficult to respect timelines, no pre-ordering or "fund-raising" rubbish, no social media "we listen to modelers and we love you" bs stuff.

 

From AMK, we had all this.

 

Now again it is going to be weeks since they provided photos about new sprues...

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6 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

Keep in mind that AMK can't devote resources to this kit.  They design, cut molds and make kits for other companies as their prime focus. The F-14 work is fit in whenever they have downtime between other tasks.  I don't think your comparison attempt is valid.

The comparison is perfectly valid IMHO : AMK wants to compete with Tamiya or Hasegawa or even exceed them in terms of molding quality, ease of assembly, part detailing, etc.

 

Why should modelers feel free to compare AMK and Tamiya's Tomcat but refrain from comparing development time or methods or PR stuff, because "AMK is a much smaller company with much less development resources" ? It is like saying "my Lamborghini Countach is so much more powerful, so much louder, so much faster, so much more colourful than your Porsche. It is however built like a s**t and took forever to be delivered but it is entirely forgiven because it is a Lambo".

 

AMK wants to be a big player and probably exceed the big brands, so I feel it is natural that everything be compared. Wether it suits AMK (price, detailing level, etc) or not (rubbish PR stuff, lengthy development time, etc).

Edited by UpperDeck
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2 minutes ago, UpperDeck said:

 

The comparison is perfectly valid IMHO : AMK wants to compete with Tamiya or Hasegawa or even exceed them in terms of molding quality, ease of assembly, part detailing, etc.

 

Why should modelers feel free to compare AMK and Tamiya's Tomcat but refrain from comparing development time or methods or PR stuff, because "AMK is a much smaller company with much less development resources" ? It is like saying "my Lamborghini Countach is so much more powerful, so much louder, so much faster, so much more colourful than your Porsche. It is however built like shoot and took forever to be delivered but it is entirely forgiven because it is a Lambo".

 

AMK wants to be a big player and probably exceed the big brands, so I feel it is natural that everything be compared. Wether it suits AMK (price, detailing level, etc) or not (rubbish PR stuff, lengthy development time, etc).

EXACTLY!!!! Well said

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hmm, I see now

 

so sorry if I seemed to be supporting them.

 

I just had realized that a company that asks for no input, doesn't show us anything in the development, or give any sort of expected kit shipment date, got a pass on the negative comments,,,,,,,,and one that does all of those things, while being busy doing work for other companies, gets that "posting angst" deal from modelers.

 

but, since that other company is doing 1/72, it hasn't been noticed that it is taking much longer than AMK is taking to release a 1/48 Tomcat, than that other company is taking  to release Intruders and Skyhawks.

 

Some have called it invalid,,,,,but, if it took Tamiya 4 or 5 (or even only 3) years to develop their 1/48 Tomcat model,,,,and it is taking AMK, with all the other things on the burner 3 years,,,,,,,,,there is no Valid reason to bag on AMK so much. (psst, that would mean that AMK did it faster,,,,,,,,,not slower than the full time company.)

 

I'd rather have the numbers, instead of being told that asking for them is somehow invalid,,,,,,,,on a model discussion forum, and being told that by someone else that also doesn't have the numbers.

 

so very sorry for trying to inject reason into an emotional bashing thread

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 To me the distinction between large and small producers when it come to the timing of releasing a particular kit sounds a little strange. Tamiya is a bigger company than AMK but Tamiya runs more projects in parallel (RC, armour kits, etc) so it's likely to me that the number of project contributors (research guys, designers, etc) and the time spent per project is roughly the same whether the producer is big or small.

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"roughly the same", after comparing all the variables, would work for me

 

I won't type out what it means,,,,but, I will just let the "too long bashers" think about what it might mean.

 

(it should be self evident to anyone with a job and a hobby, or more than one hobby)

Edited by Rex
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Maybe just leave to the modeling gods and build in the meantime? Seems reasonable to me. But I know, I know; torches, pitchforks, angry mobs!

 

Not that we can’t be upset, but it seems pretty minor. What is complaining going to achieve?  What is bashing and comparing going to achieve? Now that the AMK thread is being filled with various hateful opinions of AMK, it’s becoming a thread of whiners, and as a result people who support AMK’s F-14 endevour are being shamed and made to feel guilty.  

 

I’m sure I can speak for more than myself when I say I’m still looking forward to this kit. And while I wish it were here already, or coming sooner rather than later, it’s actually not that big of an inconvenience. At all. 

 

Particularly with regards to my hobby of building model airplanes, I tend to be more relaxed about modeling issues when life seems to be full of other frustrations. 

 

Alas, it’s more than slightly amusing when the whining continues over topics such as these. 

 

Please, can we continue to have patience for, and look forward to, the F-14?  If you don’t support the AMK project because “reasons”, let those of us who do, continue to.  

 

My my biggest rant on ARC, but only because life is SO much bigger than our plastic world. 

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