I must say this is incredibly disappointing and bewildering
Definitely a WTF! moment and they seem to be setting a rather worrying precedent here. What does this mean for the future of WWI kits from WNW? When I first saw the news I thought back to Richard Alexander's rather snarky quip when asked about doing a 1/32 Spad XIII and he retorted
"how about a Bf109E", now with this release that doesn't seem so far-fetched! And once again they are treading on another company's toes here
Heard that also but its likely that eight years timeframe includes time spent doing research for the planned movies as well. Ah well, hope it doesn't kill HK Model who is releasing their 1/32 kit soon - they don't have a billionaire backing them.
There are so many WW2 subjects already being done by other companies it is disappointing to see a company supposedly only focusing on WW1 move to doing WW2 as well....
Whether it is deliberate or not, it's not a good look. HK have been putting a lot of work into getting their Lanc just right from what I've been seeing on FB and the net. I'll bet they didn't think they would be blindsided on something like a 1/32 Lanc especially by WNW! I can only imagine that the air in the HK offices would be turning a very dark shade of purple right about now.
it has been in development for years so I would argue that WNW talk of not doing subjects that other companies are doing is total garbage.
I can't see where WNW are going here. Most of the WWII fighters are very well covered in 1/32 by pretty much every other company and now with HK starting to cover the bombers as well as Trumpeter's upcoming 1/32 Liberators, they would be going head to head with not only small upcoming companies like HK but also with the big boys (Tamiya and Hasegawa) and I think, no matter how nice their kits are, they would lose on cost. So is this a bit of a one-off aberration coming from the development of Sir PJ's stalled Dambusters movie, or a shift away from what has made them successful. As I said above it sets a precedent, if they do one WWII kit and it turns out to be a success, there is nothing to stop them shifting that way full time. Of course WNW can do anything they want, they are a business after all, still it is disappointing for us WWI aficionados. I can only second what Petrov said, more power to CSM.
Guess we will see how far down this particular rabbit hole they are preparing to go. As a very famous Jedi Master from a certain space opera movie once said
"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny...consume you it will!" 
Dave Rickard
Rockhampton QLD
