discussion Behind the scenes at Academy

[Guest]

Interesting video that shows the entire production process at Academy, from designing models to building a finished one, presumably for publicity photographs:

 

[Gern]

Despite all the automated equipment, the whole process is quite labour intensive. No wonder kits cost so much!

 

[Guest]

That kind of surprised me, that there were so many people packing things. I had expected sprues to be bagged automatically, for example, instead of them simply being chucked down a chute to be collected by a worker (my father used to design production machines for what was then the biggest producer of lightbulb screw threads in the world, and I remember him remarking that “once you have hold of a part, you don’t let it go”).

Talking of chutes, I also liked the very high-tech, specifically engineered one constructed from a Pokémon box

 

[boatman]

HI Jakko thanks for showin this post on accademy behind the scences an it was very intrestin an i throughly enjoyed it an is there one on trummppeter of my 1/32 supertomcat bein built ?
ATB SIR
chrisb

 

[Guest]

What an interesting video, plenty of people employed just packing, hope they get to change stations. Liked the guy building the kit and the other guy painting. Lucky people doing that part.

 

[Guest]

Liked the guy building the kit and the other guy painting. Lucky people doing that part.

Another advantage they have is that it does’t have to be show-winning quality The model in the video is well-painted, certainly, but with no weathering, shading, artistic effects etc. at all, it will be a lot quicker to finish than what a lot of us manage.

 

[Jim R]

Thanks for that link Jakko. I was also surprised at how much was done "by hand". First time I've really understood how and why we get those annoying ejector pin marks :smiling:

 

[Jack L]

I was going to say I would have thought they would obscure the Tamiya logo from the glue and paints etc...but even more prudent might have been to remove the Tamiya and Tasca kits from view. :tears-of-joy:

 

[stona]

The only thing that stuck in my mind was......the bloody ejector pins at about 5'45"

 

[Guest]

even more prudent might have been to remove the Tamiya and Tasca kits from view. :tears-of-joy:

The Tasca one is even more interesting because they must have owned it for a fair amount of time — Tasca was rebooted as Asuka about ten years ago.

 

[Andy the Sheep]

Interesting. Thank you for posting.

 

[rtfoe]

I was going to say I would have thought they would obscure the Tamiya logo from the glue and paints etc...but even more prudent might have been to remove the Tamiya and Tasca kits from view. :tears-of-joy:

Perhaps they were for R&D purposes.

Cheers,
Wabble

 

[Guest]

Academy, R&D-ing Tamiya kits? Surely not

 

[rtfoe]

Remember there was a time when there was suspected cloning of certain brands in the past? Perhaps under license but now design their own original moulds.

Cheers,
Wabble

 

[vizenz]

Thanks for the video Jakko.
The German model building retailer MBK (Modellbau König) has its own models produced under the label "Das Werk".
They are mainly produced at Takom in China. A while ago, an employee was allowed to visit the factory and film some impressions. It's not as nice a commercial as Academy, but more amateur footage - but if you're interested, you should click through. There you can see the stark difference in production between China and Korea!

 

[Guest]

Remember there was a time when there was suspected cloning of certain brands in the past?

That’s what I was referring to, indeed

Perhaps under license but now design their own original moulds.

Though they also still keep many of the Tamiya clones in production …

It's not as nice a commercial as Academy, but more amateur footage

The Academy one is part of a series about companies in South Korea in general, I think. I’ve not looked into who’s actually behind the video, but probably some kind of chamber of commerce or something?

you can see the stark difference in production between China and Korea!

Interesting to see all those people working on the moulds right at the start. It does look a little bit more old-school than Academy’s set-up, definitely And I see what you mean, there’s simply someone by each injection-moulding machine to take the sprues out, instead of a robot and a conveyor belt. Academy appears to have streamlined things better, whereas Takom appears to be using more people in order to release a much greater number of kits.