Humbrol paint conversion chart in this month's AMW

[zenrat]

Either that's a typo or the UK Hasegawa distributors are playing silly buggers.
The new mould Kawanishi H8K2 Flying Boat Model 12 you refer to can be got from Hobby Link Japan for $AU 86.
At the current exchange rate that is 49 quid.
The city hobby shop I use as an average price indicator has it at $AU 119 (67 quid).
Even with postage and allowing for the import nazis someone in the UK should be able to get one in their hands for less than 100 quid (still a lot but not as ridiculous).

As for panel lines - its just a fad.  All the magazine builders do it so people building for contests think it has to be done.  "Everybody knows" that after they have been used for a while aircraft paint fades along panel lines (which fill up with thick black dirt).  Just like "everybody knows" almost all the paint fell off all WW2 Japanese planes the minute they got out of the factory.
Maybe we should start a campaign of letter writing.  Although I don't think any of the model magazines I look at print readers letters (dear Airfix Model World I always thought these letters were made up but then just the other day I found myself doing things to a kit I never would have done if I hadn't been led astray by those naughty Whiffers...).

[PR19_Kit]

Looks like it could be a typo as Big H list the kit at around £109, which could be typo'd into £199.

But even that is outrageous for something that size, the Italeri Sunderland cost around £35 as I recall, and it's the same size. As you say, the UK importers are taking us for a ride, and have been doing so for YEARS now. Well not me, I refuse to buy stuff from those greedy gits.

How long will it take for these 'pre-shading' people to wise up? All they have to do is look at a few pics of REAL aeroplanes! 

[zenrat]

WRT the panel lines, all that needs to happen is for judges at shows to look at the reference material they demand and start deducting points for inaccurate finishes.  If the builder can provide a photo showing honking great big black trenches across the plane then fine.  Otherwise points off.

[Dizzyfugu]

LOL, I must nod to both statemets (without knowing the articles) - "serious" model kit building has a number of problems, and both illustrate two of them well.

[Gondor]

Managed to find a copy of the March Airfix Model World today and had very little problem with the plastic bag it was contained in. I simply opened it where it had been sealed shut 

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Managed to find a copy of the March Airfix Model World today and had very little problem with the plastic bag it was contained in. I simply opened it where it had been sealed shut 

Gondor

I think they'd molecularly welded mine there, it was impassable. 

[jcf]

200!!! Jaysus, it's less than 68 bucks on HLJ. 
Even with shipping it'd be nowhere near £200.

https://hlj.com/product/HSGE45

Edit: ran the numbers for £, ~ 49 + 11 standard shipping.

Who the hell is the UK distributor. 

[PR19_Kit]

It looks like it's really £109, but even so that's exorbitant.

I can't remember the agent in the UK, but it's the same guys who do Fujimi as well. They've been shafting the UK modeller for DECADES now too.

[NARSES2]

Yup, Hasegawa prices in the UK are absolutely stupid, and yes it is the particular importer. I won't buy new tool Hasegawa stuff now because of that. If I really, really wanted something, and they don't really tool anything I fancy anymore, then I'd go to HLJ.

Me, Kit and a few others can probably remember when the importers were BMW Models in Wimbledon and the prices were sensible. You can still get same models with a new box and transfers at probably twenty times the price. Way, way above what both inflation and the Pound against the Yen value would suggest.