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Harrison90

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Since you plan to scan the real aircraft, that rules out a Whirlwind. Starting from the ground up, I'd pick a popular subject for your first few kits, that way (hopefully) you generate cashola for future projects that may not be as popular. No one ever went broke selling a Messerschmitt 109 or Focke Wulf 190.

 

A better MIG 17 in 1/32 (or 1/48) would be good, along with MIG 19. A 1/32 Yokosuka D4Y Judy would be a good addition to the market.

Good luck with your plans, and I know how hard it can and will be. If you are really interested in the Whirlwind, but I would not advise it as a first or even fifth project, you could approach the Whirlwind project who DO have very good 3D cad information, working from surviving parts and factory drawings. You can all see them on Facebook. It takes a lot to impress me, and these drawings do, at least what I have seen. Heck, they even got the fuselage correct with no fillet where it joins the wings, which every manufacturer to date (except for myself) has assumed was there because, well, everyone else had assumed it.

But for a first project, maybe a bomb, maybe some skis, or floats,, control surfaces (for the HK B-25 perhaps). Start small, and work your way up. I think a complete kit will take several years of your life.

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How about super detailing cockpits for common kits? Or the mirage survey going on in LSP discussions..how about a basic mirage III with all the modifications all the way up to Kfir/Cheetah V or Nesher/Dagger etc

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Having worked on a previous Mirage kit, I can tell you that the CAD work took more than two years, and even then we could not get things fixed as we wanted. Maybe if you are a wiz at CAD you could be quicker, but 3d printing is not the way to go for such a kit. It needs to be injection moulded, a guess maybe $50,000 for tooling (could be plus or minus 200%)

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I guess that most of the people visiting LSP are of the enthousiastic kind and will be interested in a lot of aircraft when they are represented in a good quality kit. A decade ago, few 1/32 kits were available and today it is booming. I would never have thought that I would be building a 1/32 scale Black Widow and today it's there. You think of kits in a sence of availablility I think. There is no Fouga Magister in 1/32 today, but if there was, would you buy it? Probably, if it is of good quality and at a good price.

 

Starting any business today takes courage and I admire that. And although you need a lot of passion to start a company in modelling, I think it is tricky to lead it by passion. Seeing what is available today, strategy, marketing, pricing, etc. is extremely important. Picking a theme for the first releases might be a good road to follow, so people can refer to your brand as a reference. What brand do you think of when it comes to USNavy jets of the 1950s and 60s? How about Russian jets in 1/32?

 

Anyway, the technique you are going to use to produce kits is completely new to me, I hope you will have a great success. And with regards to the subjects: yeah, that sounds good!

 

Nic

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I take it these would be resin kits?

Perhaps some idea of size limitations would help as there's some very ambitious ideas on potential models on here.

Why don't you 'print' one at a later date to give people some idea of what you can achieve, together with an estimated cost for the project?

How many kits are you looking to produce, or will it be wholly on demand from the customer?

Costs are everything these days and I hope that this will work out for you on a limited demand basis.

Just a few thoughts. Good luck to you both if you go ahead with this.

 

Size is only limited by the size of the printer. A basic printer is costing now just over $2000. Like I said in my first post this is still an idea and we are just seeing with this thread if it would be feasible for to actually start this project. I hope to keep you all in the loop and update you all every step of the way, with things like; company name, purchasing of equipment, first prototypes, etc. As we get closer to a product I will be releasing more information such as prices, etc. As for if they will be resin or not, they can be out of chocolate if you really wanted! These printers can print on just about any material. The number of kits produced all depends on you guys. If the demand is there they will be there and if financially we are able to make smaller production run kits special for only a few people we would do so.

 

Thanks for your thoughts and we hope to have good news about our company soon!

 

Cheers

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:post1:

 

 

How 'bout a P-59?

 

Hasn't been done in 1/32, was a novel product for the USAF being the first jet, and its about the size of a P-47, which would give it some size, but wouldn't end up being an overly large piece of resin. :)

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Greetings and welcome.

 

The Do-335 would be great.

Would like to see the other Russian fighters. (La-5, La-7, LaGG-1, LaGG-3, and the Yaks)

Plus many of the Japanese birds that are not seen in 1/32. (Mabel, Kate, Jill, Grace, Val, Judy(!), Seiran, etc.)

Ooo, and a Triebflugel.

 

Just off the top of my head.

 

:beer:

Cheers,

Dave

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Greetings and welcome.

 

The Do-335 would be great.

Would like to see the other Russian fighters. (La-5, La-7, LaGG-1, LaGG-3, and the Yaks)

Plus many of the Japanese birds that are not seen in 1/32. (Mabel, Kate, Jill, Grace, Val, Judy(!), Seiran, etc.)

Ooo, and a Triebflugel.

 

Just off the top of my head.

 

:beer:

Cheers,

Dave

+1 on what Hartmann352 said re Russian fighters -I'd *especially* like to see a 1/32 LA5 / LA5FN

 

And good luck whatever path you go!

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This is great to hear guys! If you can't tell from the existing replies you may want to narrow down possibilities to a few and possibly go for a vote as everyone here has their own favorite wants. Personally, a DO-335 or any other push-pull aircraft would be great, or anything WWII japanese that hasn't yet been done, or an A-37 Dragonfly etc

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Hello everyone.

 

Once again I thank you all for your support and enthusiasm, keep it coming!

 

I will however like to remind everyone, not to get to excited just yet. As my father and I have only really come up with this idea the other day, this is not going to be a quick company to grow, I however do not want to discourage any of you. We have already started our initial research and are looking forward to any sort of progress, even if it is only talking to people.

 

Also the kits you want to see may not be what we start with but once our feet are wet, trust me we will not disappoint. I hope to have more influence from the modeling community than ever before done by a company.

 

So lets all cross our fingers and hope that we can makes this dream a reality!

 

Thanks all for the help.

 

Cheers

Edited by Harrison90
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Please don't make the same mistakes that Wingscale made by getting too high hopes at first without

Having anything too prove, take your time and keep a low profile at first.

I hope you will succeed.

Good luck.

Cees

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We will try not to. That's why in my last post I mentioned to everyone to keep the support and interest coming but don't hold your breath just yet.

 

As a fellow modeller I to have found myself disappointed by certain kits and companies. My goal is to become a success!

 

Cheers mate!

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