Is the modelling (new models) stagnant..?

[Guest]

Had a look on Cybermodeler. They list new models for the next 12 months.

Aircraft 126

Armour 85

Trucks Motor-cycles 40

Naval 29

Space Scifi figures 25

This does not include all manufacturers only those who give Cybermodeler details or they find for themselves.

For instance Airfix is not on the list.

Nice site with lots of info including colours and reviews. http://www.cybermodeler.com/index.shtml

Laurie

[Guest]

I find it very difficult to get figures in poses that I really want especially civilians so I have to alter what I really want to do.

Another one is cars in 1/35 scale , I find it impossible to get a civilian care from the forties to do a more authentic street scene.

I'm absolutely agree with this Alan!!

Mmm...can you imagine more civilian figures and cars we can build excellent dios

[Guest]

Thank you very much for the info Laurie!

You are always helping :P

Thanks again

[Ian M]

I think a thing that must be taken into account is the main stream verses the niche.

The larger firms are there to make money and thus they produce models that the know will sell in large numbers.

The cost of tooling is seriously silly and the tools themselves are also rather large. I read that the tool for one sprue in the new Eduard 109 (1/48scale) is a monster lump of high grade steel that tips the scales at 35kg.

So the major players are going to want to get their not inconsiderable investment back by way of high sales.

There are some new players that are turning out some new kits that are first time in plastic. Merit and Mirror models, for example.

The problem is that the niche manufactures have a (comparative) small market.

From a personal viewpoint, I am amazed that there are so few civilian car kits of EVERY DAY cars, like ordinary people drive in and not just super cars and the like.

A quick word about figures. MasterBox (MB) Models. do a series of multi-pose figures that can be assembled in several different poses. So one figur can be built up in four or more different poses.

Ian M

[Guest]

From a personal viewpoint, I am amazed that there are so few civilian car kits of EVERY DAY cars, like ordinary people drive in and not just super cars and the like.

.

Ian M

It's true Ian. And remember more of them are at 1/24 scale...

Is like something I will never understand.... Why I need a fuel truck at 1/35 if all the planes are at 1/32!!! I can not do a diorama with that

[Alan 45]

I'm absolutely agree with this Alan!!Mmm...can you imagine more civilian figures and cars we can build excellent dios

Mate the possibilities are endless , a civilian car being stopped at a checkpoint , a bombed out street with a burnt out car at the roads side , a Stalingrad dio with troops hiding behind an abandoned car waiting to ambush a hannomag or just a simple high street with a dilivery van parked outside a shop with people walking down the road going about their business

[Guest]

Is like something I will never understand.... Why I need a fuel truck at 1/35 if all the planes are at 1/32!!! I can not do a diorama with that

THAT is so true. I think military vehicles and planes should be available in the same scales, for the sake of dios

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Guest]

Mmm...a high street, ohhh what a challenge

Sorry ops: I really love thr dioramas

[Alan 45]

Mmm...a high street, ohhh what a challenge Sorry ops: I really love thr dioramas

I just used it as an example I wouldn't do one either we'll unless a Martian war machine was about to scorch it with its heat ray

[Guest]

As an add on in the aircraft and armour lines.

In WW2 there were machines coming out of each country involved in the region for instance 1000 aircraft. Plenty of potential there. But now say in the last 20 years how many aircraft are there not many.

Same goes for tanks an armoured vehicles. Airfix for instance have produced most British types in the Afganistan War and that is not many.

The point being what is the potential for the manufacturers after removing all before say 1980. Especially as some would not be popular.

Laurie

[tr1ckey66]

Hi everyone

This is a good, hardy, perennial topic and I'd like to give the flip side...

I'm a returnee to the hobby and have been modelling as a past time for over 15 years. I have to say, in my experience, we are living in a golden age of plastic modelling. The variety of kits available now I would have given a kidney for 15 years ago - Sexton 1/35, a good M4 A4 Sherman, 1/32 Spitfire MkIX etc, etc... the list is endless!

The same is true now as it was 15 years ago to me. If it doesn't exist then you can always scratch build. And chances are you've got a better basis to start from now than you did back in the day.

The model industry is like any other, it needs to be commercially viable. That said the variety of kits that festoon the shelves now dwarf what was available back then, to a point where it's actually difficult to find vehicles that haven't been produced by major manufacturers.

Yes, I'm sure we all have a kit we'd love to see in plastic (1/32 Do17Z - Please!!! oh plastic gods on high!!!) but truth is they cost money to research, design and tool and they (the manufacturers) need to see a return on that massive investment.

I'm quite sure that it's only the imagination of the modeller that limits what can be achieved in a model (dio or otherwise) and that truism has never changed.

If you feel differently then you may have stumbled on a niche, undiscovered market and it's yours to profit from!!! Go for it - if there''s a market for your idea you might make a bob or two, then again you may just be reminded of why the industry is like it is.

This isn't a dig at anyone and I realise that the models I've mentioned can be considered as mainstream but the point is they weren't available 15 years ago. I suspect that if you got your wish and the item in question was produced by a major brand then more people would be modelling it, it wouldn't be so 'exclusive' and would lose it's appeal as something different to build. And then we'd be back to square one.

Like I said this isn't a dig at anyone it's just that I for one feel really happy in a hobby which seems to be thriving.

Cheers

P

[Gern]

I have to agree with Paul (tr1ckey66). There are more different models available now than there ever have been. Sure, we all have a 'wish list' of things that either haven't been made, or they're not in the scale you want, or are in resin, or vacform, or limited run and therefore more difficult to build - or just too d****d expensive!

Maybe your 'wish list' is bigger than most Polux? However, you've got modelling skills that many of us only dream of - I'm sure you'll turn out good builds from whatever you find that you like.

Gern

[Alan 45]

Thing is airfix have stopped making a few , you can't get a Septcat jaguar , Westland scout, UH 204 , or an F4 Phantom and they stopped doing the 1/400 scale KG5 although that's not a great loss I built all those in me youth and you can't get them now

[flyjoe180]

The Airfix Phantom is no loss

[Guest]

Interesting that we all seem to be so dependent on what the manufactuers give us. I think some of the most enjoyable models on here are those scratch built from household objects and materials.

How about we think a little bit more outside the box (sorry!) and use our imaginations and creative skills a bit more to produce scratch built items to support and supplement the manufacturers offerrings.

As for new model offerrings being stagnant I think again it is a case of what we make of them so maybe use your creativity in the setting to come up with something really different.

Finally why are we so wrapped up in the latest offerrings? What about the masses of old kits that are still out there and all the more available to us via the internet? You can still buy everything from a dinosaur to a model of Henry the VIII to a plastic kit of a beam engine to a first world war Old Bill Bus!! In between you have railway engines and rolling stock and matching period buildings, and that is all from Airfix!! Looking back through old models there is more variety out there than there has ever been and when you combine them with the current extreems of the 1/24th Typhoon and the wealth of Eastern European and Chineese kits I think we have never had so much choice.