Just to throw another angle in, it is entirely possible that the PANDA M109A7 molds (or tooling files) have been passed to more than one company. China is kinda the wild west of IP collection.
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Guys, the RFM kit is not a rebox of the Panda kit. They may share some design elements because they are kits of the same thing, but they are two different kits.
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Again, letâs just ask ourselves this: If Zimi were simply repopping Panda and Kitty Hawk kits, where are they? For example, there are no Zimi M109A7 kits to be found anywhere. Why is that? 
Seems like theyâd be in an awful hurry to get their kits out on the market, especially after RFM announced their own M109A7. Now, if yours was the obviously inferior old Panda kit with no changes, wouldnât you want to get it out before RFM came along with their âlight years aheadâ kit? Same with the Kitty Hawk kits that âwill just be repops.â Where are they?
Scalemates announced the new Zimi kit back in 2023 based on information given to them at the time. But they donât control the market, they just report news as quickly as they can, (much like some folks on this site) without verifying anything first.
Does RFM even need the molds to have copied the Panda kit? No. Academy copied Tamiya kits for years using a pantograph.
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Zimi seems like just a liquidator who bought or acquired the molds from two companies that went belly up (KH and Panda). There isnât any sign that they have the capability to make new molds. Plus, who knows how much production capacity they have (likely they farm out the actual production). Theyâve been busy releasing KH stuff, which is likely more in demand than the Panda M109A7. They may simply just have not gotten around to releasing the Panda kit yet. I have a feeling that their business model may be just popping out skits that they got for cheap, and theyâre not worried about getting their kit out before someone else releases their own new tool. Finally, who knows how long Zimi is going to be around?
I have their Quad 40mm Bofors kit. And the figure released under the name Toucan, which seems to be their own brand. Both are quite nice. There is no mention of any other company having done the Quad Bofors on Scalemates. Based on that, I would think they did it all on their own.
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A new tooled M109A7⌠Iâll believe it when I see it. 
Or just 3D print a Sasquatch like I did:
Holding off on buying the RFM kit.
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Any more thoughts on this one Wade ??
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Anthony, I culled ~30 kits from the stash so far this year for donations but the RFM M109A7 wasnât one of them. I still want to build the RFM kit after studying it which was more than I could say for the culled kits.
Thoughts on accuracy for the RFM kit?
It passed my duck test. It looks like a M109 in the box. The 3D muzzle brake looks impressive with the metal barrel in the box. Iâm interested enough to build a M109 but not interested enough in the M109 to sweat much in the way of details etc.
The molded tow cable is slightly annoying. Pulling a metal straight edge on the lower hull as @18bravo mentioned earlier, shows a slight warp about ~1 mm worth when checked tonight. Itâs visible to the eye in my opinion since I knew to look for it. I donât expect that to an issue. Iâve seen far worse from highly praised Dragon kits in the past.
I hope @JacquesD will offer a set of 3D printed tracks for the RFM Paladin. I have his 3D tracks for the Booker and Bradley, both are very nice. The kit track is buildable but will be drudge work at 5 parts per link IIRC.
Iâd planned to toss the kit on the work bench this spring but side tracked myself into a pile of allied WW2 Cromwell/Centaur/Firefly/M4A4 etc builds.
Of course the merit (or lack of it) of all model kits is in the build in my opinion.
HTH
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Thanks,I built the Tamiya/Italieri A-6 for a buddy whose son served in one in Poland,so I want to build a Paladin for myself,I ordered one from Bna
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I was thinking about getting it but I hesitated. I thought I better let the pros tackle it first and share the pros/cons of it 
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Iâm still waiting to see what Zimi does.
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