Our club used to do the workshop on basic building and painting but it got little interest so it was dropped but I do know they do them at Telford and Yeovil and they are busy, no matter how kids go on about being individual these days but somehow still follow what their mates are doing is going to take some doing , I really can't think of a way to let the kids know that building models is better than Xbox\ said:
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I think one of Tamiya's weak points is that they have sat back on their laurels and have fallen far behind.
Aside from the 1/32 Mossie its not like they have released many NEW models and have been re popping older ones and buying in from others.
That wonderful Hurricane and the Stukka the released being from Italeri....( which I find funny, as people said the tamiya ones where much better than the ones from Italeri!)
There are some very interesting new firms coming forward, and even some of the old boys are starting to prove their worth. Airfix with there 3D laser radar thingie ma gig,
A new tool Defiant in 1/48 on the way.... Yeah!
As for the trend for new firms making more modern subjects is probably down to the fact that, sadly WWII is slowly slipping from living memory and thus the interest is as well.
Ian M
Aside from the 1/32 Mossie its not like they have released many NEW models and have been re popping older ones and buying in from others.
That wonderful Hurricane and the Stukka the released being from Italeri....( which I find funny, as people said the tamiya ones where much better than the ones from Italeri!)
There are some very interesting new firms coming forward, and even some of the old boys are starting to prove their worth. Airfix with there 3D laser radar thingie ma gig,
A new tool Defiant in 1/48 on the way.... Yeah!
As for the trend for new firms making more modern subjects is probably down to the fact that, sadly WWII is slowly slipping from living memory and thus the interest is as well.
Ian M
I think the big manufactures need to be more proactive and encourage/tempt the "young uns" into the world of scale modelling. There are lots of things they could do in ways of encouragement and they should look at the war hammer way of doing things for some ideas.
All these xbox games the kids play 24/7 I'm sure the manufacturers could cherry pick vehicles and characters from them as I know my 15 year old lad would love a few figures from the games he plays.
I've tried numerous times to get both my boys into modelling and although they showed interest at the beginning they soon became bored of the plastic and glue.
So sorry to say it maybe a generational thing after all and us modellers are a dying breed.
I hope not.................
All these xbox games the kids play 24/7 I'm sure the manufacturers could cherry pick vehicles and characters from them as I know my 15 year old lad would love a few figures from the games he plays.
I've tried numerous times to get both my boys into modelling and although they showed interest at the beginning they soon became bored of the plastic and glue.
So sorry to say it maybe a generational thing after all and us modellers are a dying breed.
I hope not.................
I think airfix have got the right idea , they started with these Lego type kits that look like the model when the're finished and the're cheep and they do starter kits that give you all you need to build the model so there's a progress from toy to modelling
Revel have brought out snap kits but the're too dear
Revel have brought out snap kits but the're too dear
G
What an interesting thread.
I've often thought about the future of this hobby, albeit more about the future in my area.
Kits are getting better and better as technology progresses. This is obvious when you consider all of the new companies and also the higher quality kits that come from older ones as well. For example, a few years ago I thought of Revell's kits as 'lower quality', with bad details, bad fit, etc. But lately? I've built some kits that can easily rival anything else out there. Same with Airfix and their well received new kits. This is great for us as consumers of course since more competition means better kits, better prices and greater variety.
Though to me the age question is more interesting. It's true that there don't seem to be many young people trying this hobby out. I started out when I was 8 years old. My dad bought me a Revell kit of the U.S.S. United States and we started building it together, yet never finished it and the hobby didn't interest me at first. However, when I was 13, out of the blue I just picked up a 1/144 Apache helicopter and built it. This new hobby was great! Eventually I finished the U.S.S. United states from 5 years before and that was also great. 7 years later and I turn 20 in a few days. During that time I never stopped building, yet I don't know of a single friend of mine that would share this passion.
I'm not sure what caused this generational gap, but model building is just not 'cool' right now. I reckon it's because of a variety of reasons. Firstly WWII is now just something you learn in the history books and people don't think or talk about it as much, so with an industry as involved with it as model building is, there have to be some consequences. Online I see a lot more younger people building sports cars than warplanes.
Another issue is the companies themselves, that do nothing to market themselves. There's no advertising at all and everything I've learned has been from fellow modellers online. My first kits were all Revell since that's what's predominantly sold here. As I learned more I went on to Tamiya, Hasegawa, Eduard, Airfix, etc. But someone that doesn't even know about the hobby might understandably never even bat an eyelid at the blue Revell boxes in the toy section. And since there's this generational gap you very rarely hear about the hobby from friends.
Finally (and this might be specific to Slovenia) the community comes off as hostile to newcomers. I don't post my builds on local forums, in fact I rarely even visit them. Most builds are expertly done and posted by the experienced older members and they get their due praise. There aren't many of these builds however as the forums (all 2 of them) are small and any new members that share their work are criticized. Don't get me wrong it's all in good faith. Tips are given and help is offered, but since this is a fairly complex hobby it would take years to get closer to the level of the 'usual' members. So let's say a new member posts a build. The build gets criticized, but also encouraged. This new member takes some of the critique on board and tries better with the next build. But it's still the second build and there's more to criticize. By the third build it gets quite disheartening to get more and more critique. Each model takes investment in both work and money and to be in such a community can be hard so eventually the user stops posting. That is what the community in my country comes off as online and I'm sure it's similar elsewhere (not here though, I love this forum
).
With all that said, I see more and more very young kids enter their kits at local modelling events. The juniors section was almost as big as seniors this year and it's mostly due to modelling kit workshops in primary schools that are run by one man that wants to spread the hobby. The large amount of junior kits entered shows that there is interest and all that's needed is a way to introduce the hobby to these kids and help them out (like these workshops do).
Sorry about the relatively lengthy write-up and I know I sometimes have issues expressing my thoughts in english so excuse the questionable sentence formation!
I've often thought about the future of this hobby, albeit more about the future in my area.
Kits are getting better and better as technology progresses. This is obvious when you consider all of the new companies and also the higher quality kits that come from older ones as well. For example, a few years ago I thought of Revell's kits as 'lower quality', with bad details, bad fit, etc. But lately? I've built some kits that can easily rival anything else out there. Same with Airfix and their well received new kits. This is great for us as consumers of course since more competition means better kits, better prices and greater variety.
Though to me the age question is more interesting. It's true that there don't seem to be many young people trying this hobby out. I started out when I was 8 years old. My dad bought me a Revell kit of the U.S.S. United States and we started building it together, yet never finished it and the hobby didn't interest me at first. However, when I was 13, out of the blue I just picked up a 1/144 Apache helicopter and built it. This new hobby was great! Eventually I finished the U.S.S. United states from 5 years before and that was also great. 7 years later and I turn 20 in a few days. During that time I never stopped building, yet I don't know of a single friend of mine that would share this passion.
I'm not sure what caused this generational gap, but model building is just not 'cool' right now. I reckon it's because of a variety of reasons. Firstly WWII is now just something you learn in the history books and people don't think or talk about it as much, so with an industry as involved with it as model building is, there have to be some consequences. Online I see a lot more younger people building sports cars than warplanes.
Another issue is the companies themselves, that do nothing to market themselves. There's no advertising at all and everything I've learned has been from fellow modellers online. My first kits were all Revell since that's what's predominantly sold here. As I learned more I went on to Tamiya, Hasegawa, Eduard, Airfix, etc. But someone that doesn't even know about the hobby might understandably never even bat an eyelid at the blue Revell boxes in the toy section. And since there's this generational gap you very rarely hear about the hobby from friends.
Finally (and this might be specific to Slovenia) the community comes off as hostile to newcomers. I don't post my builds on local forums, in fact I rarely even visit them. Most builds are expertly done and posted by the experienced older members and they get their due praise. There aren't many of these builds however as the forums (all 2 of them) are small and any new members that share their work are criticized. Don't get me wrong it's all in good faith. Tips are given and help is offered, but since this is a fairly complex hobby it would take years to get closer to the level of the 'usual' members. So let's say a new member posts a build. The build gets criticized, but also encouraged. This new member takes some of the critique on board and tries better with the next build. But it's still the second build and there's more to criticize. By the third build it gets quite disheartening to get more and more critique. Each model takes investment in both work and money and to be in such a community can be hard so eventually the user stops posting. That is what the community in my country comes off as online and I'm sure it's similar elsewhere (not here though, I love this forum
).With all that said, I see more and more very young kids enter their kits at local modelling events. The juniors section was almost as big as seniors this year and it's mostly due to modelling kit workshops in primary schools that are run by one man that wants to spread the hobby. The large amount of junior kits entered shows that there is interest and all that's needed is a way to introduce the hobby to these kids and help them out (like these workshops do).
Sorry about the relatively lengthy write-up and I know I sometimes have issues expressing my thoughts in english so excuse the questionable sentence formation!
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