The latest Hobby Japan and similar magazines (haven't see Model Art yet) contains a little info on forthcoming and current releases of ship models from major manufacturers. The following summary is from memory, so not complete in all details:
*Pitroad* 1/700 (Sep-Oct 2004)_Highmold_ (Resin)
a. Aoba (1941) ~.AN%11000
b. Kinugasa (1941) ~.AN%11000
_Skywave_
a. Nagatsuki (1943 I think) ~.AN%1600
b. Hiei (JMSDF) ~.AN%2000
*Dragon* 1/72 (Sep-Oct 2004)a. LCM(3) (with 12 figures) of the 29th infantry battalion (heihodan) used at Normandy. .AN%?
*Fujimi* 1/700 (Dec 2004)a. Myoko (no idea what time frame) .AN%?
_Comments_
I am particularly glad to see the new mold of the *Myoko* class coming out. I think this class looks much prettier than the following *Takao* class, regardless of ships' statistics (me, biased?). Since the
*Skywave* releases are much more expensive, these should sell well. All three manufacturers *Skywave*, *Hasegawa* and *Fujimi* will now have releases of this class.*Hiei* and *Nagatsuki* are follow-on releases, since the class has already been molded.
*Aoba* and *Kinugasa* follow the releases of the previous class ships *Kako* and *Furutaka* earlier in the year. Expensive to say the least, but then that's Japan. For what it's worth, the quality of the resin is very high, but the small parts will mostly need replacement anyway (included are the plastic detail and weapons sets from *Skywave*).Happy modeling!