1/32 P-51B, P-40B instead of P-51H?

[cbk57]

Hello All, I was thinking about the HPH discussion of doing a 1/32 P-51H.  I want to throw out a different thought.  Is it feasible that we start a go fund me campaign to do a P-51B?  One thought I have is get some experts from here or the P-51 special interest group to do the design, get a Japanese company like Ebbro or Fine Molds to do the molds and design a basic exterior for the B.  There are shops in the U.S. doing injection molding, we just need to contract them and supply the molds.  This would be correct fuselage, wings, tail, multi part canopy and control surfaces.  Leave the interior and prop to the after market or sell plastic to a major and let them do the interior of their choice.  Sell a basic kit to the modeling world as a simple white box, you source everything else.  Then I think we would tempt in other manufacturers to do some of their own work on it.  For example if we could get the airframe done, it would be a lot cheaper for Revell to tool a wheel bay, cockpit and landing gear.  

 

Maybe in the end the tooling and rights belong to LSP?  I think the upfront investors would have to give the rights to someone to manage it all and make a few bucks off it.  I think it would have to be sold as widely as possible to keep other parties from stealing the design and copying it so would have to sell cheaper than someone could steal it.  So any manufacturer could just buy our plastic as a starting point.

 

Conceptially this should be like a real plane, where we have this chopped up all over the place.  For example every A.M. vendor on this site could have a piece of this from decals, to cockpit and wheel bay, wheels etc.  I would not even consider tooling or researching wheels when Rory Sutherland of Baracuda Studios already has them all done.  The big manufacturers like stated above could tool their own parts to add to this and buy this as the basis for the kit.  

Edited August 8, 2018 by cbk57

[Dennis7423]

While I like your idea CBK, I doubt many folks will jump at the idea with HK "promising" a P-51B in the not so distant future. I would venture to guess most folks are waiting for that release with HK having relative good/great quality in their kits. I, for one, and waiting for the HK kit because resin kits scare the crap out of me.

 

- Dennis S.

  Thornton, CO USA

[cbk57]

Good to hear, you never know with these things.  I thought I had heard of work being done but who knows how far along it is or how serious.

19 minutes ago, Jennings Heilig said:

HK's P-51B/C is well underway.  I've seen the CAD.

 

[cbk57]

Same Idea as above, but substitute P-40B or other worthy plane that would have sufficient demand and manufacturers are persistently ignoring.  For me though the other one is the P-40B.

[ssculptor]

That is a great idea, but for the wrong plane.

I propose doing the same for the Japanese Val and the Kate.

Waddyathink, gentlemen of the society of the admirers of Japanese Aeroplanes of WW2?

 

P.S. How do you get spell check to work in this new format?

 

[cbk57]

2 hours ago, ssculptor said:

That is a great idea, but for the wrong plane.

I propose doing the same for the Japanese Val and the Kate.

Waddyathink, gentlemen of the society of the admirers of Japanese Aeroplanes of WW2?

 

P.S. How do you get spell check to work in this new format?

 

For me spell check is less the problem than auto correct.

 

 Maybe if this idea were taken seriously there should be a poll to establish what kit might be the most viable.  It has to hit the right mix of demand and at the same time not be in a known production pipeline.

 

If enough people want to follow my idea and pick a subject, if we do it by poll I will pledge at least $50.00 to the go fund me for the consensus choice.  This idea will take a lot of modelers to pledge anyway.

Edited August 8, 2018 by cbk57

[Gigant]

27 minutes ago, ssculptor said:

That is a great idea, but for the wrong plane.

I propose doing the same for the Japanese Val and the Kate.

Waddyathink, gentlemen of the society of the admirers of Japanese Aeroplanes of WW2?

 

 

For those I would if Hasegawa were to expand theirs to 1/32 and add a ROCAF Curtiss Hawk III option to their FB2C, plus an SBC-3 or-4.

 

I guess the new Japanese manufacturing costs keeps Hasegawa from "taking back" the classical 1/32 market, especially for the Second Sino-Japanese war period (1937-1945) as well as the U.S. WW2 PTO.

[GrahamF]

While a good concept guess how much it would cost to get one fuselage side mould made? More than the cost of your house maybe?!

[cbk57]

20 minutes ago, GrahamF said:

While a good concept guess how much it would cost to get one fuselage side mould made? More than the cost of your house maybe?!

Might take a lot of people, has to be a subject a lot of people want, then does it not?  Also one that major manufacturers are persistently ignoring.  Might need some buy in from one or more manufacturers.  Some houses cost more than others, I don’t know where mine fits in to this picture.  

[Out2gtcha]

HKM has really seemed to come into their own with their models in the last few years.  Ive got their Do-335, and built their B-25 and both are excellent fairly straight forward models (for their size) with great detail, making a  fairly easy/nice building model. 

 

I find their models sort of "Hasegawa-like" in that they are generally accurate with good detail, and good pricing, with not too much extra fluff to get in the way of a nice build.  Overall, I like their models, and their philosophy very much. 

 

I can wait for their B/C for sure. 

[ssculptor]

Well, we begin with an excellent modeler to build the prototlype.

Then we have it scanned in 3D and have the kit produlced by 3D printing.

Prnt up some plans and instructions.

Hae some decals produced.

Buy some simple boxes (no fancy graphics, in fact no graphics at all.)

Thus we have some elementary kits like in the old days of resin kits.

Lots of variables here. But if you do the job cheaply enough a $50 contribution will actually help.

If you want a finished, quality kit then a donation of 50 dollars will buy you the dirt on the bottom of your shoes. 

In other words a decent model kit will cost lots and lots of money but the range of possibilities is wide open. 

Lots of luck to us all.

 

[GrahamF]

5 hours ago, ssculptor said:

That is a great idea, but for the wrong plane.

I propose doing the same for the Japanese Val and the Kate.

Waddyathink, gentlemen of the society of the admirers of Japanese Aeroplanes of WW2?

 

P.S. How do you get spell check to work in this new format?

 

Couldn't you just convert a Zero kit for those two?!

Graham 

[MikeMaben]

7 hours ago, Jennings Heilig said:

HK's P-51B/C is well underway.  I've seen the CAD.

 

No offense but CAD doesn't necessarily translate to well underway.

Anything else ?

3D prints ?

 

 

 

[Michel borderline Beekveld]

I found that the most effective way to "make an offer the manufacturers can't refuse", is to meet with my Bulgarian associate. I'm sure there is a parking garage where i can setup a meeting to talk about contracts...

[AresShrike]

It sounded real good to me.

I'd have gone in for a "fund me" P-51B/C for sure, as long as it was going to turn out a great model.

The P-40B sure needs to be done too, in my humble opinion. (The P-51B/C more so, though, much more so)

 

I didn't know Hong Kong models "promised" a P-51B/C, that's fantastic news!!!!

 

(Stay away from those Bulgarian parking garages!! Sounds kinda' dangerous!)

Edited August 9, 2018 by AresShrike