1⁄35Nuremberg Show News Report
Courtesy of IPMS Stockholm (ipmsstockholm.org)
The largest toy and hobby fair in the world is the annual Spielwarenmesse in
Nuremberg. This year's event took place between February 5-10th and gathered
2800 companies from over 50 countries. All categories of the toy industry were
represented, ranging from computer games to model trains, dolls, R/C, board
games and - importantly for us - scale models.
Tamiya
Tamiya is showing signs of activity again after the somewhat meager showing in
Tokyo last fall. The one news from this company that makes me particularly glad
is the revival of their 1/72 aircraft line. The announced new release in this
scale is the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, apparently a down-scaled version of
Tamiya's recent quarter-scale hit. This kit will be released already in March.
Tamiya has also shown 1/16th scale Leopard 2A6 with R/C gear. This, together
with Trumpeter's T-34 in the same scale, can be seen here at the RCPanzer.de
site.
http://www.rcpanzer.de/apportal/main.php?c=spielwarenmesse2004
Full list of Tamiya releases is available here:
http://www.tamiya.com/english/nurn2004/index.htm
Trumpeter
http://www.trumpeter-china.com/ch/menu/jj/02227/005.JPG
Trumpeter leads the 1/32 and 1/24 league with new items on show being the 1/32
Lockheed P-38 Lightning, 1/32 Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker B (this one's going to be
BIG) and a sure bestseller, the 1/24 Focke-Wulf Fw-190D. The P-38 is scheduled
for release already this month, more details here on the Trumpeter's site:
http://www.trumpeter-china.com/en/menu/plan/1-32/02227.htm
Other images are available here at Hannant's web site:
http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?FULL=NUREMBERG3
Trumpeter has also been showing their 1/16 T-34, which will make for a very
impressive model with full R/C gear, but is also planned in static version. Both
T-34/76 and T-34/85 versions are being planned for, the former representing a
1942 welded-turret version. The kit should be available before summer.
Images of the T-34 kit can be viewed in this gallery by Arco Wilkes:
http://gallery43349.fotopic.net/c113276_13.html
MPM
From the MPM stable there are also indications of the expansion of the 1/32
offering. Azur will be releasing the MS 406 and Curtiss H-75 in this scale, with
an additional Polikarpov I-16 to be issued under the MPM label. Azur is in fact
planning for much more cool French subjects, including Loire 130 in 1/48 and
1/72 Nieuport Delage 41-52-62, Dewoitine D-27, Dassault Flamand and Farman 222.
The latter will be the first French four-engined bomber to appear in injection-moulded
plastic.
Italeri
Italeri has shown the prototype kit of the massive 1/35 LCM landing craft - over
75 cm long when built. Pictures are available here:
http://gallery43349.fotopic.net/
In the aircraft division, the company has two new-tool kits for the year, these
being 1/72 P-47N Thunderbolt (delayed from 2003) and the 1/48 SAAB JAS39A Gripen,
a honey of a model for Swedish AF fans!
Minicraft
Airliner fans will be pleased with Minicraft 1/144 releases this year, the
Douglas DC-4/C-54 and Boeing 727-200. Sprue images of both models can be found
here at the F-dcal site:
http://www.fdcal.com/graphix/shows/Nurnberg/727/727.jpg?link
http://www.fdcal.com/graphix/shows/Nurnberg/DC4/DC-4_1.jpg?link
Heller
Heller's only all-new release this year will be the previously announced 1/72
Concorde in the Air France markings. The tooling will be shared with Airfix, so
you can expect British markings in the Airfix box!
Mirage
Mirage of Poland showed some prototype parts for the 1/48 PZL P.23 Karas - and
they still aim at the 48th B-17 series, which should start next year. Also, as a
complement to their 1/400 ship series, Mirage will release a concrete U-Boat pen
in this scale, modelled after a real wartime structure in La Pallice.
More Nuremberg images from Mirage are available here:
http://www.mirage-hobby.com.pl/norymberga.html
Hasegawa
Rumours had it that Hasegawa's next 1/72 "twin" after the B-25 Mitchell will be
Heinkel He-111. In Nuremberg, Hasegawa did not show any prototype components for
this kit, but yes, they had information that there was one coming. Otherwise,
the eagerly awaited 1/48 AV-8B will be coming out in Japan before July.
Classic Airframes
Classic Airframes is just about to release the line of Northrop F-5 Freedom
Fighter in 1/48th scale. The first kit, F-5A in USAF markings is scheduled for
arrival in April.
http://www.classicairframes.com/newproducts.htm
Eduard
http://www.eduard.cz/newsletter/images/i2004-02_06.jpg
New items from Eduard include a brand new-tool 1/72 Lavochkin La-7. This kit is
production-ready and should appear on the market anytime soon. Next in line from
this company is the long-awaited Mirage IIIC
Recent newsletter from Eduard:
http://www.eduard.cz/newsletter/i2004-02.php
Dragon
In Nuremberg, Dragon showed the new 1/35 SdKfz 251 Ausf. C and Tiger II with
Porsche Turret. More information about both kits can be found at Hobby Link
Japan:
http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/hljpage.cgi?dra6187
http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?dra6189
Academy
http://academy-europe.de/images/2004new/2226new.jpg
Academy showed a new-tool 1/48 CH-46E Bullfrog helicopter, see photos here:
http://gallery43349.fotopic.net/c113244.html
Andrea Miniatures
http://www.andrea-miniatures.com/images/andrea/foto1/LP-09A.jpg
A most impressive item from this company is the 1/32 (54mm) Roman Bireme, cast
in resin with more than 600 white metal parts, photo-etched decks and no less
than 43 realistic figures. The price has been set to 1600 Euros which makes it
by a margin the most expensive new kit listed in this report!
http://gallery43349.fotopic.net/c113249.html
Conclusion
The general conclusion is once again that the modelling hobby is in excellent
shape with many manufacturers showing vivid activity and many new kit releases
in almost any scale. The future looks bright.
The trend towards larger and more complex kits continues even this year. It is
significant that almost every listed manufacturer has now at least one "big kit"
in their catalogue. In this trend, Trumpeter is an unquestioned leader thanks to
their focused investment in 1/32 and 1/24 scales.
On the other hand, the thriving image of the hobby does not seem to be shared by
leading Japanese manufacturers like Tamiya and Hasegawa, who continue to show
relatively few new kit subjects. China, the Czech Republic and Germany are
setting the pace of progress now and it may become increasingly difficult for
Tamiya to catch up in quantity of new kit releases, albeit they still posess an
edge in quality and kit engineering.
Last but not least, I recommend you to browse the entire image gallery from
Spielwarenmesse provided by Arco Wilkes:
http://gallery43349.fotopic.net/c113276_13.html