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If I were Hobby Boss, I would focus on the Mig-31M and would make it a great kit. It is going to be very dufficult to compete against the AMK Mig-31 already released kits.

I hope it is a good kit though.

Juan

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first time i see the boxart of this upcoming august release (preorder at HobbyLinkJapan)... and if the kit have something to do with the boxart, the engraved panel lines are gonna be like canyons!rofl.gif(it's funny as it's the main complain about the widely acclaimed AMK MiG-31 kits... but i doubt that the HB kit will have same deep panel lines)
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  • 2 weeks later...

It would be nice to have a side by side comparison once it's released, but the price seems to be noticeably higher than the AMK kit on these Japanese stores. It might be competitive if reasonably priced.

Edited by ijozic
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If i say anything more i will probably be clubbed to death like a baby seal, so i will just leave it at this

While that particular comparison is certainly painful to look at, to be fair it's not the most prominent location on the model and I think it was assumed already when the HB kit was announced that there was little to no chance for the HB to compete with the AMK on the detail level, but could perhaps offer an acceptable level of detail for a lower price.

E.g., I'm planning to get the AMK MiG-31B/BS, but it costs almost $70 at a local store. The HB might be an alternative for e.g. $45 if the reviews show it's reasonably accurate. I'd expect it to be vastly overpriced at launch, but after a while with some luck it's possible to get some good deals on eBay and such. I just hope the MiG-31M gets released in near future, rather than getting shelved if this one doesn't sell.

Edited by ijozic
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While that particular comparison is certainly painful to look at, to be fair it's not the most prominent location on the model and I think it was assumed already when the HB kit was announced that there was little to no chance for the HB to compete with the AMK on the detail level, but could perhaps offer an acceptable level of detail for a lower price.

E.g., I'm planning to get the AMK MiG-31B/BS, but it costs almost $70 at a local store. The HB might be an alternative for e.g. $45 if the reviews show it's reasonably accurate. I'd expect it to be vastly overpriced at launch, but after a while with some luck it's possible to get some good deals on eBay and such. I just hope the MiG-31M gets released in near future, rather than getting shelved if this one doesn't sell.

But it is not going to be cheaper. If the prices listed at HLJ are any indication, the Hobbyboss offering will be 25% MORE that the AMK offering. I know HLJ prices for Hong Kong supplied kits are more than other suppliers, but I'm just looking at the % difference in price which *should* be relatively consistent.

HLJ

So just... nope.

Marc B.

Edited by Modelmkr
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even if i'll never end up buying that kit precisely , i'm glad HB bring their own tooling of that aircraft. (i might be interested in their MiG-31M if they do it)

it is really a great time for being Soviet/Russian aircraft model enthousiastsnewbanana.gif

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I just hope the MiG-31M gets released in near future, rather than getting shelved if this one doesn't sell.

AMK owns the market on the Mig-31. What kind of business sense is Hobby Boss using when they know that their product is sub-standard to the AMK Kit.

Chris

I have yet to see HB/Trump to back out from releasing something because earlier version didnt sell well or the market is "owned" by another company. They care about that roughly as much as they do about accuracy. :rolleyes:

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AMK owns the market on the Mig-31. What kind of business sense is Hobby Boss using when they know that their product is sub-standard to the AMK Kit.

Chris

I can answer that :). The AMK MiG-31 makes not one penny for Hobby Boss.

To be honest I don't think the model enthusiast is the market for Hobby Boss. We care about fit and accuracy, both with markings and shapes. Hobby Boss has a business to run. Sell zero or sell a couple thousand kits. Easy decision I would think.

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I have yet to see HB/Trump to back out from releasing something because earlier version didnt sell well or the market is "owned" by another company. They care about that roughly as much as they do about accuracy. :rolleyes:

Trumpy MiG-27 series in 1/32? They were announced with the MiG-23 series, but never materialized (though they are releasing them now in 1/48, though with some issues, but that's OT :) ).

Edited by ijozic
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They have many many unreleased subjects despite being done in resin prototype form. Buccaner in 1/32, Su-17/22 family comes to mind. Both are subjects they didnt release previously at all so they couldnt blame on competition or bad sales. They just didnt release them. I mean same thing can easily apply to 1/32 MiG-27, they just didnt release it, not necesserily tied to sales of MiG-23.

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They have many many unreleased subjects despite being done in resin prototype form. Buccaner in 1/32, Su-17/22 family comes to mind. Both are subjects they didnt release previously at all so they couldnt blame on competition or bad sales. They just didnt release them. I mean same thing can easily apply to 1/32 MiG-27, they just didnt release it, not necesserily tied to sales of MiG-23.

Were those other examples present in their catalogs? IIRC, Mr. Song worked on those before he left the company so perhaps this is why those were abandoned.

The three MiG-27 variants were in the catalog together with MiG-23's and AFAIK they've pretty much released most of the stuff announced in those. Granted, it's just a guess on my part, but no obvious reason for non-release other than projected sales comes to mind.

But, I'm seriously getting OT here.

Edited by ijozic
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Diverting back to the MiG-31 kit from the very interesting but at the same time completely meaningless off-topic discussion about catalogue promises.

Some sprue shoots of the new kit are on show here:

http://www.filscalem...ybossmig31.html

Based on these few comments:

The inside of the air intakes on AMK are nice but it is all so deep inside the intake as to have little or no effect on the overall kit. The only area where the corrugated surface could be of interest is the undercarriage bays.

The rubber tires is a definite NO NO for me on Hobby Boss!

But in comparison with AMK they seem to got the shape of the brake parachute housing right, just as the gun cover.

HB got the small bumps on the top tail section but in real life there are only three of them. There is only one on the side of the central spine, HB made two. It is still easier to sand one down then to start scratch building them all from zero as on AMK kit.

HB has the right cockpit floor cross section.

The RWR antennas on wing tip look to be in the right place, at least the after one. On AMK you need to change the position.

Nose gear mud guard looks to be good and has the ribs on its side unlike the plain AMK version.

Need to see the shape of the R-33 missile launch bays and the area behind them, but hope they made a better business of it.

Dear HB, why oh why put the long flat, horizontal antenna on the inner side of the vertical fin????????? At least on one side. Well you can simply sand it off. OK, AMK forgot to add the rivets on one side for the fin tip antenna. So it is HB v. AMK 1 : 1.

One would need to see more detail of the sprues! There are still some sprues missing.

Best regards

Gabor

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It's the same URL Laurent posted: http://www.filscalemodels.ph/testshots/2016testshots/hobbybossmig31/hobbybossmig31.html

Like: the panel lines.

No like: the split radome. Booo!

Interesting to note: are those early style, 'feathered' exhausts on the cockpit sprue, plus early style instrument panels? That suggests they've catered for the initial production airframes, which AMK haven't: http://www.filscalemodels.ph/testshots/2016testshots/hobbybossmig31/DSC_0210.JPG

Also interesting that they've done three different aft canopies for the different versions.

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