vince14

The likelihood of Tamiya releasing a Fokker Dr.I - in any scale, let alone 1/32 - is somewhat similar to my chances of being the first man to walk on Mars.

The likelihood of Tamiya releasing a Fokker Dr.I - in any scale, let alone 1/32 - is somewhat similar to my chances of being the first man to walk on Mars.

The likelihood of Tamiya releasing a Fokker Dr.I - in any scale, let alone 1/32 - is somewhat similar to my chances of being the first man to walk on Mars.

I think they were locked due to cognative bias - people don't want to believe the news, so by supressing the information and labelling it as 'rumour' or 'wild speculation' it makes it somehow not true. However, the simple fact is that WNW (in it's current guise) is dead. All the staff have been made redundant - that's been confirmed by three people who worked there who all lost their jobs on Wednesday.
 
Maybe PJ will resurrect WNW at some point, maybe he won't. Maybe the moulds will be sold off to another company who will carry on, maybe they won't. But WNW as we know it is dead.

There's also Dan Hagedorn's book 'Foreign Invaders';
 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Foreign-Invaders-Douglas-Military-Clandestine/dp/1857800133/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=foreign+invaders&qid=1563648838&s=books&sr=1-5

I'll have to live to be 135 years old, but the intention is to build them all..!

Indeed it was!
 
Also happy birthday to Tony!

I'll have to live to be 135 years old, but the intention is to build them all..!

I'll have to live to be 135 years old, but the intention is to build them all..!

I think they were locked due to cognative bias - people don't want to believe the news, so by supressing the information and labelling it as 'rumour' or 'wild speculation' it makes it somehow not true. However, the simple fact is that WNW (in it's current guise) is dead. All the staff have been made redundant - that's been confirmed by three people who worked there who all lost their jobs on Wednesday.
 
Maybe PJ will resurrect WNW at some point, maybe he won't. Maybe the moulds will be sold off to another company who will carry on, maybe they won't. But WNW as we know it is dead.

The 71 I have in the stash are for building, too.

The 71 I have in the stash are for building, too.

The 71 I have in the stash are for building, too.

Well I have 71 WNW kits in the stash, so I've got enough to last me I reckon. That is, unless someone wants to sell me a Gotha G.IV or SE.5a kit...

If you're a modeller you'll take a Roden kit, apply some modelling skills, make improvements as you see fit, and you'll end up with a good model (albeit one where you've probably had to ditch the decals for aftermarket replacements as the ones in their WWI kits are not good).
 
If you're a kit assembler you're better off paying the inflated Ebay prices for a WNW kit.

If you're a modeller you'll take a Roden kit, apply some modelling skills, make improvements as you see fit, and you'll end up with a good model (albeit one where you've probably had to ditch the decals for aftermarket replacements as the ones in their WWI kits are not good).
 
If you're a kit assembler you're better off paying the inflated Ebay prices for a WNW kit.

If - if - the moulds are sold, they're more likely to be bought by a Chinese investment firm than any of the model firms we know. Simply put, they'll be too expensive for anyone other than Tamiya or Trumpeter, and I can't see Tamiya being interested.
 
Having said that, we still have no idea what's going on internally other than all the staff have been made redundant and they've shut up shop. Only time will tell.

I think they were locked due to cognative bias - people don't want to believe the news, so by supressing the information and labelling it as 'rumour' or 'wild speculation' it makes it somehow not true. However, the simple fact is that WNW (in it's current guise) is dead. All the staff have been made redundant - that's been confirmed by three people who worked there who all lost their jobs on Wednesday.
 
Maybe PJ will resurrect WNW at some point, maybe he won't. Maybe the moulds will be sold off to another company who will carry on, maybe they won't. But WNW as we know it is dead.

Very sad day indeed. Hopefully all those affected can gain employment in the not too distant future.
 
I think the chances of Tamiya acquiring the moulds is zero - it's simply not their thing. They build their own models, WWI has never been an interest, and they seem less inclined to move further into 1/32. I could see someone like Eduard looking to acquire the tooling for some of the popular single-seaters - Camel, D.VII, Albatros etc. and also the Dr.I. Alternatively, some aspiring Chinese manufacturer might acquire the whole lot and start re-popping them a cut-rate prices. The likelihood, though, is that the tooling will be out of reach for most and the potential for a decent return on the investment on the other kits (apart from those already mentioned) would seem to be slim at best.
 
My guess is that - unless Peter Jackson has some sort of masterplan in mind - we'll never see the majority of WNW kits (especially the two-seaters and the multi-engined aircraft) kitted again. The Lancaster and HP 0/400 will never see the light of day.

Very sad day indeed. Hopefully all those affected can gain employment in the not too distant future.
 
I think the chances of Tamiya acquiring the moulds is zero - it's simply not their thing. They build their own models, WWI has never been an interest, and they seem less inclined to move further into 1/32. I could see someone like Eduard looking to acquire the tooling for some of the popular single-seaters - Camel, D.VII, Albatros etc. and also the Dr.I. Alternatively, some aspiring Chinese manufacturer might acquire the whole lot and start re-popping them a cut-rate prices. The likelihood, though, is that the tooling will be out of reach for most and the potential for a decent return on the investment on the other kits (apart from those already mentioned) would seem to be slim at best.
 
My guess is that - unless Peter Jackson has some sort of masterplan in mind - we'll never see the majority of WNW kits (especially the two-seaters and the multi-engined aircraft) kitted again. The Lancaster and HP 0/400 will never see the light of day.

I suspect this is the most likely scenario - WNW and TVAL will close in NZ, and then re-appear in 12-24 month's time from a new location.

I suspect this is the most likely scenario - WNW and TVAL will close in NZ, and then re-appear in 12-24 month's time from a new location.

And yet no mainstream manufacturers are willing to go there - If it was an untapped gold mine you'd think they'd be there in a flash. Moebius are probably the leaders in that field yet they sell less than 10,000 units per specific kit.
 
The problem that maufacturers face when using modelling forums as a guide to how desirable any specific subject might be is they're full of people claiming that such-and-such subject will fly off the shelves, but the reality is very different. The simple fact is that us hardcore modellers only make up a small percentage of people who actually buy models. Look at the Revell 1/48 Catalina. Everyone on the modelling forums said they wanted one, so Revell made one - and it was a commercial disaster, because it turned out that actually no-one wanted one.

Probably because they've done their market research and have come to the comclusion that they wouldn't actually sell gazillions of them.

I think you might be about two and a half years late with the offer...