Opinions on new Czechmaster 1/72 Buccaneer (per Hannants site)

Coincidently I noticed this announcement on the Hannants site after posting a grovel/petition thread here about a fictitious injection molded release from a mainstream manufacturer. No price or details and I have never seen a kit from this manufacturer. I poked around and saw a review of a 1/72 Scimitar from Czechmaster. It looks pretty good but it is an in the box preview so speaks nothing of fit, quality etc. Does anyone here have any experience with these kits? It looks like it would be an expensive one, as any all resin kit would be, so I don't want to buy a couple of them and have it turn out to be a stinker. On the other hand, anything is an improvement over the Airfix/Matchbox/Frog vintage offerings unless it turns out to be a useless hunk of resin. Opinions?

Sticking my neck out here as a small part of the R&D team for this kit...

First off, yes it'll be expensive, as all resin kits are. This is due to the fact that the raw materials are v expensive and that this is a cottage industry and not a mainline producer. It takes sales of 200 items just to recover production costs!

There's been a lot of cooperation to research these aircraft, including photographing the Duxford, Hendon and Bruntingthorpe aircraft, with cameras being poked into all sorts of orifices (orifii?)

Any drawings from the AP's which have been deemed "useful" have been passed to the pattern-maker, including undercarriage, speed bakes, wingfolds, cockpit and the bomb bay...

As for CMR's previous efforts, just look at the reviews for the Wyvern, which took the Gold Medal for short-run kits at last year's Nurnburg Toy Fair.

Bottom line? It'll be as good as the pattern maker can get it. Just bear in mind that it is resin, it will take a modicum of modelling skill to assemble and it will no doubt cost a bit more than a Hasejimiya kit. If it proves popular, just wait for the major players to release an injection-moulded version within a couple of years! See what Trumpeter and Roden have coming on the back of the CMR Wyvern, the R&D for which played no small part in the Classc Airframes kit as well...

Contact me off-line if you want more info!

Regards,

Chris