Last year at this time, one of the hottest stories in the modeling world was Wingscale and the imminent release of their massive  1/32 B-25J Mitchell (and announcement of a ridiculous 1/32 B-17 Flying Fortress).

It seemed too good to be true, and then in March of last year, all of the sudden is was. Something happened, Wingscale fell apart, and everyone was quick to bust out the torches against the unnamed tooling company that screwed Martin out of his company and his kits.

Well, there’s a fantastic quote by Ambassador Kosh from Babylon 5 (which if you’ve never seen it…is essential geek viewing and a precursor of the serialized format so successfully utilized by Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Mad Men, Spartacus and basically any television show worth viewing):

Understanding is a three-edged sword. Your perspective, their perspective, and the truth.

Up until now, we’ve only really had Martin’s perspective. Heck – I wrote a post on it, and it’s since become one of my most-trafficked posts, second only to anything relating to Tamiya’s 1/32 Mustang.

Well, fast forward to the present. The unnamed tooling company – H-K Models – has recently announced the 1/32 B-25J, along with the B-17 and an Avro Lancaster.

This was met with scorn and derision, and I must confess I was dismissive myself. I like to reward passion, and not shady business practices.

But this afternoon, I came across an e-mail that H-K sent to Tom Cleaver over at Modeling Madness. Remember that three-edged sword? Go have a read…

My take? The e-mail seems pretty specific and damning. I don’t know if it’s the whole story any more than Martin’s rather vague account, but it definitely pushes the whole thing into a gray area where, at the very least, I no longer view H-K as the “bad guy” in the whole sad affair.

And that means that I will be pre-ordering one of their B-25s.