Kotare Models – let the speculation begin!
Announced on FB earlier.
The Wingnut wings gang ride again! Get your piggy banks ready! And pray for that Lanc in 1/32! Or perhaps the ‘Spad’ we all really wanted WNW to deliver! (Yes, I know I’m speaking for myself).
The news as broken on the ‘WNW fans’ social media site:
“An exciting announcement that is very relevant to this page - Kotare Models has launched!
This is a brand new model company out of New Zealand featuring many of the former Wingnut Wings team including Richard Alexander, model designers Darren Mildenhall and Jason McAdam, and decal designer Malcolm Laird (also of Ventura Publications fame) and of course, Ronny Bar. No, Peter Jackson is not the owner.
I've no doubt the speculation as to the first subject(s) to be released will be everywhere, and it will be exciting to see where the priorities and goals of Kotare begin and lead. Congratulations to all on the company launch and good luck to you all!
https://www.facebook.com/kotaremodels
https://www.kotare-models.com/ “
(This from Mike Swinburne on the ‘WNW fans’ FB site)
So iModelers - ‘new model in preparation’.
What’s it going to be?
Very interesting development and exciting news! Thanks for sharing!
Those are some very promising news, my friend Paul: looks like the existing WnW molds have found a new home, also the WnW past "future" releases are reactivating...
Truth is that the existing molds were expected to find alternative homes one way or another (Meng etc.), but there was concern that planned WnW releases which stalled upon WnW collapse might stall for good...so these are great news!
Hey Spiros, great to hear from you!
Given that they had done the CAD work (and more) on the Handley Page model O variants and the Hansa-Brandenburg D.I Star Strutter (and of course the Lanc), and given that we now have the same Kit designers at Kotare, it makes you wonder if those kits might now see the light of day? The Dr1 came out pretty quickly via Meng (and has now grown into 1/24). So who knows?
Fingers crossed for something great!
And the beat goes on...thanks for the news, Paul. Lets wish them good success. Will most likely be the big buzz at the IPMS Nats this week.
Sadly, NZ is in lockdown again, so this new start-up may be facing some additional hurdles. Let's pray the lowndown is lifted soon, and NZ can get back to business.
Hoping for a Vildebeest!
An interwar torpedo bomber! My guess is you’ll wait a while - but it would be great to see one! My crystal ball says a WW1 fighter. Although, since we are having fun, a Wright Flyer wouldn’t surprise me!
Paul, @yellow10
Thank you for sharing this with us. It is great to hear that they have launched a new business, with the "core employees" from WNW working together again. I know that I will be looking forward to the possibility of having the company releasing something, be it new tool or not. The tooling / molds for the WNW kits have to be somewhere... and it is a shame they are not being put to good use now.
WNW was hands down the best plastic model kit company from the "Great War" era, and the 1/32 Lancaster was something special to say the least.
Look at all the buzz going on when the Fokker Triplane was released under the Meng label. I know that I ended up purchasing several of them.
I too am curious to see if a new tool SPAD will ever grace our work benches... I would end up purchasing a few of them as well... providing the cost was kept in a respectable range.
Thanks again !
Yes, Louis a SPAD would have a ton of appeal in terms of the market. Some Aces and great schemes.
It’d be brilliant for the Lanc to appear. I’m Just not sure the new company could bear the risk with that one straight away, even if it were legally possible to get it done. It’d be expensive to make and the price would reflect that (and HK models got theirs out first). That said, the molds etc do exist in some form already, which is what got the Dr1 over the line. The Lanc was somewhat a product of the stalled dambusters film project so may be more the ‘passion’ of Sir PJ than the new company. Who knows?
Given how Copper State have produced some beautiful kits and have more in the works, and how Roden have been looking to please the WW1 crowd, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Good news for the aftermarket guys too.
Maybe, at last, we will get a 1/32 Pfalz D-VII.
Brian Riedel
Great suggestion Brian!
Pfalz models have been good to WNW. If you could take a DVIII I think it shared a rotary engine in common with the Siemens-Schuckert IV. They could do both! We’d both be happy!
That would make me very happy too... I wish I had picked up a WNW Pfalz D-XII when I had the chance. I remember going to the "Wings and Wheels" museum, located in Kissimmee, FL, many years ago as a child with my Dad. At that time, they had a wonderful example of a real life WW1 Pfalz D-XII on display. Sadly the museum closed, and now I believe the plane is in a museum in Arizona.
It would really be wonderful to see one of these Pfalz kits in 1/32 scale available to us again. Time will tell.
Very true, Louis. The first WNW kit I bought at the time of release a was the Pfalz DXII. It’s a beautiful plane and the molds are somewhere. That’s another story to play out!
The heart and soul of any company are its people and it would appear that the folks at Kotare where the guy's who turned the nuts and bolts at WNWs. Perhaps a lateral shift for the group with the same standards and expertise as WNW's. However, they will have to develop new kits and the old WNW's stuff is Sir Peters i.e. the molds? Hopefully, Kotare can continue a new line of WWI stuff or maybe they can develop kits along the lines of the Lanc. Which was a disappointment, its appeared to be ready to be marketed and the things fell apart. From the photo's it appeared to be very promising . . .
Best of luck guys. I've enjoyed getting several kits all of them top notched from WNW and if they can produce kits along those lines it will be something to look forward too.
I’m guessing you are right about the molds, Stephen. It’s not impossible that they will resurface but I’m not sure the new company can access them. That will depend on the relationship between the WNW administrators and the ex-employees. And perhaps they want a clean break anyway. The Dr1 was probably atypical because it was close to ready and an agreement could be made with Meng, who had made the molds. How it came about would be a very interesting tale to listen to.
The issue of who owns the CAD drawings is another intriguing question. In the company bio’s Darren Mildenhall is recognised as being the designer of about a quarter of the WNW kits. I wonder if he actually possessed the software/files for the Star strutter or the HP O’s? It maybe all of that still belongs to whatever the legacy of Wingnuts is (although apart from
the sell off at the NZ airshow not a peep has come out of them).
The bio also says Darren M has been with Kotare since July 2020. If that’s not a typo let’s hope he has been busy and we don’t have to wait too long for something new! The quality in a WNW kit was fantastic, what great news that the team with the capacity to produce that quality is back in the saddle!
My guess is these guy's will continue to use Meng to cut the molds. Another lateral shift.
My 2 favorite WW1's were done a while ago,the FE2b and Salmson. But the Hanriot HD-1 is a beautiful little kite, and would be fairly easy to do (I know, easy for me to say). One of those boxy Breguet 2 seaters (14?) has been a bit of a surprise hole in the lineup, not to mention the SPAD 13 (Frank Luke decals, please.) Great to have you back.
Great suggestions, Bill, the HD1 is fantastic but I reckon they’ll play safer with a German or British plane if they don’t do a SPAD. The Bréguet would be bold. Would they do a 2-seater straight up? Ronny Bar did release a British 2-seater profiles book...
This speculation is great!
Siemens-Schuckhert DIII would be popular I think. Pretty like the HD-1 and not too difficult to make you’d think. Also operational, which I think makes a difference. Sopwith Salamander another long shot but interesting historically as an armoured ground attack plane - and close enough to the Snipe to be an easy one to produce (although less operational).
It depends on how much cash is in their drawers. They will be a start up and will have to produce a kit that is popular with modelers. They no longer have the deep pockets of Sir Peter. Maybe another WWI standard? It seems that every new modeling company has to do a standard like a new Mustang, Spitfire, Zero, Hellcat et cetera. The S.P.A.D. would fill a hole in the WNW line up or start one.
The criticisms of the Dr1 via Meng were that it was rushed out and so there was some warpage and some unfortunate placement of parts on the sprues that caused a little breakage. That said the 1/24th version - with a little more time on its side is receiving rave reviews. Both Meng and SPAD make sense.
With luck they've had their fill of obscure subjects no one buys or massive projects no one can finish and display without taking out a second mortgage for an extension to the house.
Since they did the Albatros B.II trainer, perhaps they'll grace us with the Avro 504 and the JN-4D.
A SPAD XIII would be nice, along with the two-seater.
A B.E.2 series would be great.
I sent my list to Santa Alexander, and got back a nice non-committal reply. 🙂
Agree on future choices,Tom - and past mistakes. I do have a Felixstowe - I look at it from time to time and consider it one for retirement! Likewise the AEG. Love the thought of building both , but not without challenges.
Nice wish list. BE2 especially as a key multi-role aircraft in WW1. Given that there is a very beautiful BE2 in the vintage aviator collection, it is a little surprising SPJ never got behind a model of it.
I reckon we’ll get a very buildable single seater, with eye-catching schemes. The SPAD seems to be the one we want, and fits the bill.
My wish was they'd go into 1/32 scale interwar period stuff. I still have some faint hope that someone will produce a series of 1/32 Hawk biplanes. As I said before I'd love to get my hands on an injected mold P-6E.
Hopefully they'll produce kits of French planes like the SPADXIII along with the others (Moraine N, Breguet 14 among them). That was a quite a silly rule from Peter Jackson.
However, I wish them all the best and hope they have good investors considering they don't have Lord of the Rings money anymore.
Good choices, Dan. There seemed an element of not wanting to tread on toes with WNW. Given the resin options from Silver wings and Lukgraph in Poland it might be the same for the P6-E and it’s ilk.
When WNW first appeared there were, relatively speaking, a fair few French planes on the market. Richard Alexander explain their choices in those terms. Copper State have nailed Nieuports and have a sensational 1/32 Caudron GIII pending. Roden too are about due to release their SPAD XIIIc in 1/32nd. Would they go head to head with that? . Kotare may have timed their return to run into another strong French representation. They tended at WNW only to have kits out at the same time as others if they have already started their process at the time other companies announced theirs.
If Kotare continues down the biplane track Id like to see Curtiss Jenny, Avro 504K, Longhorn, Bristol monoplane, Shorts torpedo bomber on floats...not that i will have the money nor time to build them.
Hi Stellan! A Bristol M.1c would be lots of fun! Small frame, limited and not-so-difficult rigging. This is a stunning call. Outstanding!
Given the Gotha/UWD and the perceived financial folly of such kits you may have to wait for the Short (184?). But If that’s possible I’d want Lohner L sub hunter! Not sure about your chances with the Farman pusher either - but it would be a great subject!
The Jenny is interesting in terms of its versatility. Not out of the question if they go for a North American subject! Maybe they will go for a 2-seater? If so the 504k would be popular too - with nightfighter options.
Great line-up, Stellan!
I think a 1/32 Fokker E.V/D.VIII would do well. Single-seat fighters sell.
Andrew, what a great idea! A little different with the wing arrangement; low rigging demand; great ‘operator’ choices. Some
Post-war interest too. This would be a winner! Something that I think would be popular enough and not so ‘mainstream’ that everyone has already built one!
Despite not being involved much in WWI, it was colorful in its service with the Germans and Poles (and Dutch and Americans). And it’s just such a pretty plane.