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I know I am late to the party with WNW but why no Spad Xlll


dashotgun

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Why ask us?

Ask the owner.

Personally I am very happy with his selections. I'm not gonna bug him at all.

 

Besides, there are 1/32 Spad XIII kits on the market. 

SPAD XIII NN HOBBYCRAFT HC-1687 
SPAD XIII INT OO HOBBYCRAFT  HC-1688
Yes you may have to search for them, or run a continuous search on eBay for them, but they are in existence.
 
I am in favor of WNW producing airplanes that have not yet hit the market. Like the DH-4, which was an extremely well used aeroplane in War 1. After the war they were used as airliners. There were air ambulance versions in the war and lots of other versions.
The USA also produced them during the war. Afterwards they were used as early air mail planes. 
The list goes on.
:punk:
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WNW is unlike any other model company, in that Peter Jackson has complete control over what is produced. Every other major model company (including Tamiya, where the boss still has the final say on whether to produce a kit or not) takes two things into account first when deciding what subjects to kit;

 

1: Profitability

2: Market Demand

 

If those conditions are not favourable, then the model is very unlikely to be produced - no-one wants thousands of boxes of unsold model kits clogging up a warehouse.

 

WNW, however, takes two very different things into account;

 

1: Does Peter Jackson want to build a model of it?

2: Is it currently being produced by any other model manufacturer?

 

If the respective answers are 'yes' and 'no' then it's on the list to be produced at some point, with profitability being a secondary concern and market demand apparently ignored completely. If the answers for either of those questions is the the other way around, though, then I wouldn't hold your breath. For the SPAD XIII we know what the answer to question two is, as no-one currently produces it in 1/32 - but we have no idea if Peter Jackson wants to build a model of it or not. 

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Peter doesn't seem to be into French WWI aircraft for some reason.

 

Or Italian aircraft.  Or...

 

Well, regarding French A/C, given the "rules" WNW apparently has about not doing kits of types already done in 1/32, there are not a ton of prominent single seaters not done. Already available French WW1 in 1/32:

N11 - Amodel(?) and Special Hobby

N16 - Amodel(?) and Special Hobby

N17 - Hobbycraft

N24 - Roden

N27 - Roden

N28 - Roden

Spad 7 - Roden

Spad 13 - Hobbycraft

 

The Hanriot HD1 was a French design too but I believe it was mostly produced by subcontractors in Belgium and Italy (could have that wrong but I do not recall seeing it in French markings)

 

WNW does do the Salmson 2A2 at least - what a surprise kit that was - one of my wanted admittedly due to its use by the US. If I were a betting man, I would say the odds are pretty strong WNW will do another certain French 2 seat bomber that was used by the USA and I think that Hanriot is likely (PJ has a full size one in his stash lol)

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Well, regarding French A/C, given the "rules" WNW apparently has about not doing kits of types already done in 1/32, there are not a ton of prominent single seaters not done. Already available French WW1 in 1/32:

 

...Snipped...

 

Then why are they producing nearly every kind of Sopwith Camel that they can think of when I can get them made by Revell, Academy and HobbyCraft but not the out of production SPAD XIII?

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Then why are they producing nearly every kind of Sopwith Camel that they can think of when I can get them made by Revell, Academy and HobbyCraft but not the out of production SPAD XIII?

 

because fans endlessly demanded they do the Camel - I believe that was what they said anyway. No doubt they are getting spammed endlessly by "fans" demanding SPAD XIII, Fokker DrI etc so maybe their original rules are no longer in play - maybe you will see a Nieuport or SPAD from them eventually

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because fans endlessly demanded they do the Camel - I believe that was what they said anyway. No doubt they are getting spammed endlessly by "fans" demanding SPAD XIII, Fokker DrI etc so maybe their original rules are no longer in play - maybe you will see a Nieuport or SPAD from them eventually

 

This is my theory; I don't think this rule is etched in stone or that it isn't subject to change without notice.

 

It's also worth pointing out that WNW's only business objective is to break even (while producing models Peter Jackson likes, I guess).

 

But what does that mean?  Does that mean every model kit they make has to pay for itself?  Does that mean over a 1 year period of time, revenues must equal costs or do better?  3 year period?  5 year period? 

 

You don't have to be a business genius to understand that a few wildly popular models can be cash cows for the company, even if they are of no interest to Peter Jackson, which in turn allows them to crank out the most obscure plane imaginable that he happens to love but would otherwise sell in small numbers. 

 

I suspect the Sopwith Camel will be their best seller so far, and that helps to pay for a lot of the others that are not good sellers at all.

 

I think it comes back to the fact that we have no idea what they will do next and that almost anything is possible, regardless of what has been kitted in 1/32 scale.

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Nope, it all comes back to the fact that the WNW Camel was announced not long after the Hobbycraft kit (the 'good' one, not the Academy/Italeri boxing) went out of production.

 

I'll say it again - don't think of WNW as being a normal company, where profitability is a major concern and a 'cash cow' is needed every now and then - if these things were true, we'd already have a WNW Dr.I, as well as a Spitfire and Bf-109 from them.

 

Instead, you need to think of it as the hobby of a very rich man. Peter Jackson has total control over what subjects WNW produces. 

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