Hasegawa Lancaster!!!

i wonder who's molds?

New according to the web-site

1/72 scale Lancaster And if the Hasegawa He-111 and B-25 are anything to go by, it'll be damned expensive. But probably very nice for it.
Jon.

I think we can safely assume they'll release a bunch of kits with different markings, but will they also offer different versions of the aircraft? I'm not a Lanc expert but from what I do recall there were variations that simply did away with turrets. I'd bet that's the most they'll do--provide plugs to replace turrets. Otherwise it will be left to the aftermarket to come up with conversion sets.
Still, considering the age of the Airfix kit and the quality of the Hasegawa B25s and HE111s this should be a heck of a model.

There will no doubt be a dambuster and a Grand Slam version.
As far as I remember, the BI had windows in the fuselage, while the BIII didn't. I wonder if they will go so far as to cater for this difference. It shouldn't be too difficult to have the windows flashed over, to be opened out as required.
The BII version had Hercules radial engines instead of Merlins. I doubt that there would be a sufficient market for this version. There is also the unarmed tranpsort version, the Lancastrian, but I imagine that would be down to aftermarket conversion sets. The Avro York would require a complete new fuselage, but I'm sure that's well beyond the bounds of probability!

i just ebayed a airfix early box for cheap for my machester conversion, but i may need to wait.

maybe they'll do wings and bits for a manchester. (yeah, and monkeys will fly out of my butt.)

Now there would be an interesting diorama subject!! :-)
Bill Shuey

i'm not doing it.

I must say that I am very disappointed with Hasegawa's policy. They released fabulous B-25s in H,J and PBJ version, then rushed ahead to He 111s without covering the rest of B-25 family before (early models with turret placed further back). The choice of Lancaster is at least doubtfull, as there is still excellent Airfix kit (one of their best kits) available in many variations (standard Mk.I/III, Dambuster and Special). It would certainly be better move if they did H.P.Halifax, which had greater range of versions and the kits present on the market are not as good. The other problem with Hasegawa is their production run. For example, they did great kits of different Bristol Beaufighter versions and only one boxing depicted Beaufighter with straight taiplane-NF.MK.I. However, this boxing is long OOP, although straight-tail versions were largely respresented among early Beau marks. Their technology is great, but their market research is very poor. What a shame!
Marko

Oh great, you just gave Az another bad idea.........

I think you're defining market research differently than they do. They're concerend with sales, not with filling the gaps in the market place. And as all of us who frequent this list know the two aren't the same. Granted, the existing Halifax products may be far inferior to the existing Lancaster products. But I'd wager they'll still sell far more Lancasters than they would Halifax kits. As for not offering more versions, I think they've decided to focus on offering different markings rather than different versions. Probably makes greater sense economically--much cheaper to commission new decals and box art than to have a different molding. I also think we forget the importance of the Japanese market to their business. That's why you'll find a kit of every Japanese two engine bomber ever made, but no B26 or A20, or A26.

The Avro York would also require modified wings.
The span of the Lancaster & York are exactly the same - so you can't just stick Lancaster wings onto a wider York fuselage - you need to remove a section from the wing root to preserve the span.
Ken

In message , Mark Levine writes Picture of the Boxart on display at Nuremburg toy fair can be seem here.
For those not interested in looking the details are : 1/72 Lancaster B Mk I/III Kit number E23 (00553 2) Release date 3rd Quarter of 2005
Boxart picture shows fuselage WITHOUT side windows Decals for PD O S "S" for Sugar the plane at RAF Hendon with the huge bomb tally and the Hermann Goering quote...
IMHO this will be vastly overpriced and the panel lines on the B-25 & He111 still look too prominent for this scale.....just my two pennies........

Let's hope the pattern maker isn't influenced by the box art. Those radiator intakes look far too square to me...

Didn't know that! Thanks Ken.

I must say that I am very disappointed with Hasegawa's policy. They released fabulous B-25s in H,J and PBJ version, then rushed ahead to He 111s without covering the rest of B-25 family before (early models with turret placed further back). The choice of Lancaster is at least doubtfull, as there is still excellent Airfix kit (one of their best kits) available in many variations (standard Mk.I/III, Dambuster and Special). It would certainly be better move if they did H.P.Halifax, which had greater range of versions and the kits present on the market are not as good. The other problem with Hasegawa is their production run. For example, they did great kits of different Bristol Beaufighter versions and only one boxing depicted Beaufighter with straight taiplane-NF.MK.I. However, this boxing is long OOP, although straight-tail versions were largely respresented among early Beau marks. Their technology is great, but their market research is very poor. What a shame!
Marko

in article snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com, Enzo Matrix at snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote on 2/19/05 1:49 PM:
I'm not sure that's true. According to Lancaster in Action (Squadron), Is and IIIs were built concurrently, with different engines. The IIIs used American Packard-built Merlins disignated Merlin 28, while Is got the British Merlins (whose short supply necessitated the move). The fuselage windows seem to have been phased out somewhere in the joint I/III production run, so either mark could be seen with or without them. In addition, quite a number of both Is and IIIs had the windows simply painted over.
I'll be more interested to see if Hasegawa offers options for some of the other details that changed over the Lanc's life, notably the propellers (pointed or paddle-bladed), the bomber's nose blister, and the flat or bulged cockpit canopy sides. The 1/48 Tamiya kit, for example, only offered small nose blister (early) and paddle-bladed props (late), a combination seldom if ever seen, I believe.
Pip Moss I used to feel cheap 'cause I had no signature.

Good point. As for any business, the marketing philosophy is based primarily upon generating profits, and not necessarily on satisfying a niche market. The ideal choice of subject for a major manufacturing company must obviously be one that will not only fill a gap in the market, but also be a popular enough subject to ensure plenty of ongoing sales in the years ahead. If these conditions cannot be met, then the subject would obviously be a limited-run and directed at a specific niche market (enter Pavla, Sword, MPM, Aeroclub, Czechmaster, etc).
The Lancaster is an excellent choice of subject for Hasegawa. There is currently no kit out there featuring the quality and detail provided by modern production techniques. The subject is a well-known aircraft, used in a wide range of environments and with a wide range of after-market goodies and markings already avaiable. The kit is assured to generate huge sales, even though it will undoubtedly come with a hefty price tag.
When Academy/Minicraft released their B-17, B-24, B-29 & PBY range back in the late 80's & early 90's, I was hoping they'd extend their attention to "heavies" to the other side of the Atlantic and cover the Lancaster, Halifax, Sunderland & Stirling, but alas, it was not to be. Personally, I'd be more than happy with the slightly lower level of detail given by this company as a trade-off for a more realistic price tag.
The price of the Hasegawa Lancaster will surely make a lot of modelers think twice (I'm not that sure that I'll be rushing out to buy one), but given the ridiculous price of the old Airfix kit, the economy of scale may be about right.
One last point: Whether we love or hate Hasegawa and their new Lancaster, the new kit will not only generate sales for the company, but will indirectly generate profits for the aftermarket "cottage" industry. Think of all those new decal sheets, conversion sets, correction sets, detail sets, etc, etc, that will come flooding out following the release. It will also give those bloody rivet-counters endless hours of mindless debate; I can already hear them warming up... "the port fuel filler cap is 2 scale centimetres to far aft..."; "...the navigator's seat is too high..."; etc...
Cheers, James.