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....there have been issues with doing business with UK retailers since Brexit, as you are no doubt aware, given the comments we receive regarding customs issues and delays. We are happy to announce that Hannant's is now importing our products with no issues (after some trials and errors), and we are looking forward to a mutually (very) beneficial relationship in the near future! Hopefully, this will make it easier on the end user as well
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Hello, everyone. Sorry for the disappointment of a seemingly stagnant period over the last several months. Rest assured, we have been very busy with new items and overcoming issues in order to offer increasingly better items. Bigger and better things are in store. Of the things that are closest to release dates (through the summer), we have been working on a landing gear/wheel well set for the Tamiya F-16s in 1:48th scale. These include both Lightweight and Heavyweight incarnations and greatly improve on the kit parts, which, as good as they are, are limited by aspects that the 3D printer gets around.
What you see in the above two shots is the set test shot in the kit fuselage and the assembly consists of two prints only, though the set itself will have significantly more and will include wheels. This is the Heavyweight gear version and as is the norm with our landing gear sets, stainless steel tubing is included, cut to length, and represents the exposed oleo pistons while also providing the necessary structural integrity of the gears, ensuring they hold the weight of the model permanently. The stainless steel oleo pistons look incredibly real, and need no masking for painting, as paint simply and easily scrapes off with the use of an x-acto knife blade. These sets will also be modified to fit the Kinetic kits, which are widely considered to be comparable to the Tamiya releases. The design of the Kinetic kits follow closely the concept of the Tamiya items, and it has been suggested that they should be interchangeable. The moderately experienced among you will probably be able to install these sets intended for the Tamiya kit into Kinetic's, but there are slight differences between them, because the Kinetic kits are not copies of the Tamiya F-16s. We do pay a lot of attention to the fit of our sets into the target kits, and these modifications, despite being minor, will be made in the 'For the Kinetic Family of Kits' releases. Not to mention that Kinetic is releasing two-seat versions which Tamiya, unfortunately, has so far avoided. We are also well on the way to releasing new 3D printed sets for the Tamiya F-14s. The main item in progress now is a new Wing Box set.
The photos above show the box itself and the separate main landing gear well. The inclusion of the well with the set is mandatory. The roof of the wheel well is flat on the Tamiya kit, and won't allow the wing box to sit above it, restricting the depth of the wing box, completely screwing up spatial geometry of the thing. So, our new wells have a small wedge along the inner edge hidden under the various plumbing and cabling details, allowing that semi-circular structure visible in the wing box to be accommodated. Honestly, the fit is perfect, and that's no simple sales pitch. We spent a lot of time and effort on this to ensure that it does not become a stumbling block for the modeller, causing a loss of inertia in the project. Hate it when that happens!!....
The wing box structure itself will be a single 3D print, as will the wheel wells be. The question is, since the main wells need to be included, do we include the nose well? That has yet to be decided, and if you have any thoughts on the matter, by all means, let us know1 There will be a separate wheel well set to satisfy those that want new wells but have no desire to expose the wing box. A landing gear set along the same lines as the F-16 concept covered earlier will also be produced and is being worked on now. Our earlier cast resin sets of the spine details and avionic bays will be converted to 3D sets too, and we plan on fully avoiding using photoetching on these. We are playing with some ideas on how to do that so that it is accepted, and we have some promising test results. That's it for now. Enjoy your modelling projects and let us know if you have any issues with any of our products or if you have any suggestions whatsoever. We'd love to hear from you. ...are now out. There are two sets that cover the landing gear. The first is a 'Full Set', KAZ48017TAM, and it covers the nose and main gear legs, retraction struts for the gears and the doors, along with some enhancements to the nose and main wells. A bonus of this set is that there are four main wheels, covering three different tread patterns, allowing for asymmetrical patterns to be mounted on the model. This was a common practice.
The retraction pistons are stainless steel cut-to-length tubes that also serve to strengthen the gear. All resin parts are 3D printed. The second set is a simplified variation of the above one, covering just the landing gear legs and two, single tread main wheels. The instruction pdfs can be viewed following the link from the product page in the e-store.   ...back in stock. Currently, all our F-4 sets are available in our e-shop. With our own printing abilities, we should be able to maintain a stock more easily. Thanks for all your support!
...is now available. It is designed to fit the Zoukei-Mura (SWS) family of excellent kits, and can be considered a 'full set', in the sense that it includes the wheel wells, wheels, hubs, landing gear struts, all associated retraction struts, doors and speedbrakes. All of the retraction and oleo pistons are again represented with stainless steel, cut to length, and are an extension of the idea that we pioneered with our cast resin 'HybridCAST' sets before we switched completely over to 3D printing.    This set is a milestone item for us, and took a little longer to develop than the later sets that were actually released first (the ones for the Tamiya Phantom). This set was the one that was in active development when the decision to switch over to 3D printing exclusively was made, and to make the switch immediately and completely. This brought with it some unforeseen issues that needed to be delt with, and much of the original production prints were unsatisfactory as provided by the third party printer. Some actually downright sucked, and in no way, shape or form would we ship these to customers. Some of you who order directly from us know that we even keep an eye on the shipping status of our items and when it looks like a snag appears somewhere, we contact you for receipt confirmation. No major issues have come up, but still...So, the decision was made to also become more self-sufficient in the actual production of the 3D prints, and that brought more issues. This set has finally been tweaked to the point where it is up to our standards and is now available. It was also a whole new element to the learning curve that we will be putting to extremely good use in the next sets that we release.
This set retails for $64.99 and due to the aforementioned third party printer issues, represents a loss to us, one that is difficult to swallow. Nevertheless, it has pushed us into a higher level of self sufficiency and hopefully, we'll turn it into an eventual plus. ...is now available from the webstore. It is a combination of the Wheel Well set, the Landing Gear set and includes additionals such as the speedbrakes and some gear doors not in the first two sets. The overall price is less than the first two sets combined, though that may go up in the near future, pending a closer assessment of the cost to produce it.
This set, KAZ48016TAM, will include a combination of the Wheel Well set (KAZ48010TAM), the Landing Gear Set (KAZ48012TAM) and will include some additionals not in either one of them. These include a complete collection of all the gear doors and also the speedbrakes with their retraction jacks, and the additional metal pistons to go with them.   The above pic shows some of the parts in the full set, including the speebrakes. But you have to paint the parts yourself...
All of our in-stock cast resin (including HybridCAST) sets are now 50% off to make room for our new 3D printed sets and its associtaed expanding line. These will never be offered again, nor will they be produced. Resin casting is dirty, annoying work! While supplies last.
 ....although, at the moment, in very limited numbers. This set may be used, with minor modification with our wheel well set, or in the Tamiya kit wells.
The reason for the limited availability stems from the difficulty in obtaining printing resin, and we have only thirty sets in stock. Hopefully, more will be on the way before the end of October. If you can order these, or any item off our site, then it IS in stock, and ships the next business day. The set includes the metal tubing that doubles as the oleo and retraction pistons, sort of like our resin cast HybridCAST sets, while providing necessary structural integrity. The tubes are cut to length, which means that the assembled retraction jacks end up being the correct length, no cutting is required. The set also offers retraction jacks for the nose and main gears with or without locking collars, a feature very common on aircraft on the ground and powered down. Please go to the product page in the E-Shop for the link to view the instructions for this set. |
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