Potential untapped market: Golden Age Aviation

[RBrown]

I am really curious as to why the pre war types, particularly USAAC and USN, have been so neglected in 1/32 scale injected molded kits . Granted WWI and WWII types will remain the most popular, but I suspect there is significant interest in this period also. In fact, from a revenue generating perspective, I would rather have one hundred percent of the Curtiss P-6 market than fifty percent of the Do 335 market.   Am I missing something?

[wunwinglow]

I would dearly love to see WingNut Wings expand their remit to cover the 1920's and 1930's. Curtiss', Douglas, Hawker, Gloster, Henschel, Polkarpov, Westland, Vickers, types both military and civil, mailplanes, experimental, record, airliners..oh my! HP42 anyone? Heck, just a Tiger Moth or a Boeing 40 would be a start !

 

Tim

[ssculptor]

I disagree emphatically with anyone who says WNW should produce 1920-1930's planes in 1/32.

Leave WNW alone!

We have the old Hasegawa kits of some of the aircraft of the 1920-30's era. They are still floating around on eBay and on the forums. Even Monograms F3F is still available.

We can get resin kits of a number of the biplanes of that era from Silver Wings.

I know, you want the incredible detail and injection molding of WNW but they are quite rightly specializing on WW1, which is a most neglected era of aviation in 1/32.

I say leave WNW alone to create their early beauties.

What we do need is a company as good as WNW making the biplanes of the 1920-30 era as injected molded kits.

Stephen

[Tony C]

I think that if WnW feel that they could make money on a specific 1920's/30's subject and it fitted into their company criteria, then they would release such topics!

 

Blackburn Blackburn or Avro Bison anyone?

[Barry]

It's just a fact that WnW will run out of WWI subject matter - and sooner rather than later at the rate they're going (although they could stay in business forever with a Camel and a Dr.I).  I'd *love* to see them branch out into golden age stuff.  Imagine a WnW P-6E?  As nice as the Silver Wings kit is, imagine it from WnW!!  

I could not agree more!

[RBrown]

I disagree emphatically with anyone who says WNW should produce 1920-1930's planes in 1/32.

Leave WNW alone!

We have the old Hasegawa kits of some of the aircraft of the 1920-30's era. They are still floating around on eBay and on the forums. Even Monograms F3F is still available.

We can get resin kits of a number of the biplanes of that era from Silver Wings.

I know, you want the incredible detail and injection molding of WNW but they are quite rightly specializing on WW1, which is a most neglected era of aviation in 1/32.

I say leave WNW alone to create their early beauties.

What we do need is a company as good as WNW making the biplanes of the 1920-30 era as injected molded kits.

Stephen

I don't know if WNW is a viable business model or the whim of an eccentric millionaire who has the resources to indulge his predilections.  If the former I wish them more success, if the latter then expanding beyond WWI would not be a bad thing, and perhaps make the entire venture more robust.    Keep in mind  it is the robust that are the most likely to survive and prosper.

 

WWI was neglected until the advent of WNW, but things have changed for the better.  However with sixty 1/32  kits released by WNW alone, and more on the way,  WWI seems like one of the most well represented eras.   

Edited April 30, 2015 by RBrown

[ziggyfoos]

WW1 subjects alone for WNW can keep them busy for a long, long time if they so chose to keep doing so. They release "only" a handful a year, and most come as early/late versions. I think they've released somewhere in the order of 50 total kits so far, but as mentioned most come in different boxing of same subject, but different version. They could keep busy with just SPADs and Nieuport variants for years. There's still a very large selection of WW1 kits they can do, at this rate they'll be busy for long time to come. (For instance, there are over 150 Windsock Datafile subjects covering WW1 aircraft, imagine how long it would take WNW to release that many different aircraft kits.)

 

I agree with Stephen. Personally I prefer WW1 and WW2 and I really hope WNW keeps their focus on WW1.

Edited April 30, 2015 by ziggyfoos

[Tnarg]

Silver Wings are a great company who have provided for the interwar years almost as much as WNW has done for WWI, and at significantly lower investment. Yes, they are rather expensive compared to a Revell Spitfire, for example, but so is a WNW Gotha or AEG or the other two seaters. Silver Wings have fine kits with nice detail. They are not perfect, but what is "perfect" anyway? I can't read the fine print on the cockpit instruments on any kit I have seen so far, and my eyes are too old to read that without a microscope, anyway. (It doesn't change the fact that I'd like it to be there).

 

Special Hobby has done some interesting kits as well. They may not be perfect, either, but I have an I-16 and P-36's in a variety of flavors. Who else did anything French from the late 30's?

 

I am just very pleased to have the chance to have all those kits with wings that are yellow and camouflaged as well as silver. My list of wants is still pretty long, but I would expect that WNW still has 100+ Datafiles to work through before they get anywhere close to filling out the WWI offerings. Thanks to the rest of those companies for their 30's subjects... even Trumpeter has a Ju-87A.

 

Tnarg

[ssculptor]

"...even Trumpeter has a Ju-87A."

Yes, and this is fine with me as I bought one as soon as it came out.

 

But there are easily a hundred of the WW1 aircraft to produce in 1/32 and I really prefer to leave WNW alone and un-pestered. After all, it is all I can do to afford to buy their latest kits.

Stephen

[MikeC]

...

What we do need is a company as good as WNW making the biplanes of the 1920-30 era as injected molded kits.

Stephen

OK, I for one would settle for that.

 

It's just a fact that WnW will run out of WWI subject matter - and sooner rather than later at the rate they're going (although they could stay in business forever with a Camel and a Dr.I).  I'd *love* to see them branch out into golden age stuff.  Imagine a WnW P-6E?  As nice as the Silver Wings kit is, imagine it from WnW!!  

Hmm, I'm not so sure they'll run out anytime soon, there were a lot of aircraft types around in WWI.

 

I don't know if WNW is a viable business model or the whim of an eccentric millionaire who has the resources to indulge his predilections. ...

 

I suspect both of the above.

 

 

As for WNW branching out into the 20s and 30s, there are the teasing entries on their website for the "in development" DH.9A (Post-war) and Bristol F.2B (Post-war), so it's not completely impossible to believe.  A Hawker Hart family would be wonderful, add a Gladiator and an entire set of Avia B.534s and that lot would keep me going for a long time.

Edited April 30, 2015 by MikeC

[vince14]

I don't know if WNW is a viable business model or the whim of an eccentric millionaire who has the resources to indulge his predilections.  

Wasn't there an interview with Richard Alexander a while back, where he (in essence) said that WNW was essentially funded by Peter Jackson, but the company still has to make a profit? I think the message is 'We don't need to sell countless 109's and 'stangs to stay in business, but each kit is priced to make a profit'.

 

And - much like Tamiya - it doesn't really matter what we want them to produce, as the subjects that are kitted are decided on by the owner, rather than a board which has to placate shareholders.

[scvrobeson]

Silver Wings makes multiple inter-war planes, Hasegawa made a few back in the 70s, same with Monogram and the F3F-3.  Special Hobby has done a couple of pre-war planes with the early Buffalo and P-36, and Williams Brothers has a few kits still around of inter-war racers and the P-35.  They are out there, but it is a market that could be much bigger.

 

 

 

Matt 

[Hubert Boillot]

Special Hobby has done some interesting kits as well. They may not be perfect, either, but I have an I-16 and P-36's in a variety of flavors. Who else did anything French from the late 30's?

 

Tnarg

 

Alleycat's Dewoitine D500/510 is a very good resin kit.

 

And let's not forget the Marsh Models racers and the Williams' ones as well.

 

This said, yes I want a lot more yellow wings and Golden Age aircraft kits ! Bring them on, I'll buy a lot of them, if not all.

 

Hubert

[thierry laurent]

Hi,

 

I'd like to consider your proposal as reasonable as I live RAF silver wings planes. The Demon and Fury are amongst my favorite planes.

 

However, as already mentioned, WnW may go on with the sole WW1 era for at least ten additional years! And I do not even consider the completely neglected topics such as Belgian or Italian warplanes!

 

Interwar period planes are just that: planes used BETWEEN major wars and as such they are never on the top list of topics of 90% of modellers. If you want to be convinced, just look at the number of WIP or RFI threads related to such planes. Saying they are a small minority is an understatement!

 

So indeed, for a manufacturer, it makes more sense to have 30% of 10.000 kits rather than 100% of 300 kits! This explains why such topics are only seriously considered by short run producers.

 

So, don't hold you breath...

[DeanKB]

It might come down to being sandwiched between two world wars. War's tend to sell model kits - sad but true.

 

The first world war made rapid progress in aviation, with models rarely lasting longer than a few months before obsolescence saw them replaced in an aviation arms war. This means there are many, many possible subjects available. Look at WNW - over 60 subjects released and with classics like the Camel, BE2 and Fokker Triplane not yet done, 2 seater Albatros, Halberstadt & Aviattic lines so far ignored, to say nothing of Italian & French subjects - almost totally ignored - then WNW could quite happily release new tool WWI kits for many years to come. They are probably not even close to half-way through their potential schedule.

 

Then WWII has many planes - legendary because they fought in the war. War sells. There are aces, back-stories, battles, opponents - stuff that makes them more interesting to most people. We could all list a few WWII aircraft we'd like to see kitted in 1/32 that have not yet been done.

 

The inter-war years don't have the "sexy" appeal of a war to add glamour to their aircraft. This may suggest why it's been relatively ignored.

 

Silver Wings are catering for the inter-war market very, very well in 1/32. They are resin & expensive, but are very good value and build up to pretty unique models. Basically, I'm not sure the market is there to support injected plastic kits, with the large volumes they need to sell in order to be profitable. It's a free market - I'm sure that one of the many manufacturers out there would have released inter-war material if they thought it would make them money.

 

I'm sure it'll happen in the future, after the WWI & WWII markets have been saturated. But that could take a long time!