Any News on Italeri 1/72 Blinder Kit?

i took a close look at the sample kit from my local hobby store. they still dont know when will be available but must be within this year.
the kit is absolute same as esci one....execpt decal.

Not sure about the shelves, but Hannant's has had it for a while & I think IHS/Sentai has too.

Great Models Webstore shows to have this kit in-stock.
Mike

It should be available. Maybe not yet in the States, but here in Italy I think it is. I asked a couple of weeks ago at my local hobby shop (some 10 km from Italeri factory) and the guy said that it was available on order (as he decided not to stock it for now).
Anyway it should be the old Esci moulding without any change (when they released the Backfire last year they changed only the decal sheet). This means that with both the Tu-22m Backfire and Tu-22 Blinder some "surgery" is needed to make an accurate replica.
Esci did 2 versions: the "standard bomber" Tu-22B, that can be used also to depict a Tu-22R (in fact export Tu-22Bs were converted Tu-22Rs) and the missile carrier Tu-22K (with a bigger radome and an underfuselage Kh-22 missile).
As the Italeri kit has decals also for an Irak Blinder it should be the Tu-22B/R mold.
Btw, with some small changes, the Tu-22B/R could be converted to a Tu-22P ECM aircraft. Some of these planes were used in Afganistan to protect Tu-22m Backfires and sported some interesting fire breathing dragon artwork...
My 0.02