Hobby Boss 1/32 B-24J - Initial Observations

[LSP_Ray]

Collings Foundation B-24 I think originally was Dragon and his Tail until they repainted it.

[Cees Broere]

Collings Foundation's Lib came from an RAF-dump in India, was used by the Indian Air Force and later bought by Doug Arnold in the UK and passed on to Collings. It was first painted as All American, then Dragon and it's tail and finally Witchcraft.

Cees

[Gerhard]

4 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

I'm looking forward to it! I'll be glad to get my hands on the kit and take a look at in detail.

Especially considering all of the other options for a 1/32nd IM B-24.

 

 

 

True, if you are not happy, you can just bin this one and pick any alternative from the 6 other options out there. 

[Pup7309]

On 12/6/2018 at 1:34 PM, Sanderman said:

 

Sigh.  I’ve been all around 2 different B24s first hand.  The airfoil is wrong.  I don’t need an “expert” to tell me.  I’ll just shut up now and wait for you to catch up.

 

Joe

Must have been a great experience!

Ive seen one close up. Apart from that the only other 2 B24s I’ve been around are the 1/72 Hasegawa and 1/48 Revell- monogram kits

Edited December 7, 2018 by Pup7309

[Pup7309]

I wonder how many they will do of the B24? 2000? Maybe a second production run with corrections?

Edited December 7, 2018 by Pup7309

[STWilliams]

49 minutes ago, Pup7309 said:

I wonder how many they will do of the B24? 2000? Maybe a second production run with corrections?

 A lot more than 2000. I'd wager in the 5 figures, perhaps, based on nothing but a wild guess over worldwide demand.

"Corrections" means new moulds, means more huge expense. I'd be very surprised if that happens, especially with 1. The way the after-market operates, and 2. The very low price. I'll take a low priced imperfect model over a near perfect expensive model every time. We can sometimes get hung up over accuracy as the be all and end all, when in fact enjoyment is the aim. I'd also guess the additional models they'd sell if they "corrected" the kit would not get anywhere near the additional cost. For most people, the box art is as important as accuracy!

Edited December 7, 2018 by STWilliams

[tomprobert]

Don't worry guys and gals - if the HB 1/32nd Lib doesn't float ya boat due to perceived inaccuracies, there's always the Combat Models vac. I spent the best part of a year building that "kit". Trust me, the HB release will be the better option, although the Combat Models version did have one-piece vacformed turret moldings...

 

Tom

[VMA131Marine]

11 hours ago, STWilliams said:

 A lot more than 2000. I'd wager in the 5 figures, perhaps, based on nothing but a wild guess over worldwide demand.

Worldwide demand??? We're talking model kits not iPhones!

If the market for 1/32 B-24's was in excess of 10,000 kits, some company would have done one before now. 2000 kits seems like a reasonable production run if Trumpeter can get near $100/kit (feasible with a street price of $200+). Figure $100k-$150k to develop the kit and that would still leave room for a decent profit margin. 

 

For reference, IPMS-USA (which you would figure is the biggest market) only has 5,000 members

IPMS-UK has 4,000 members. If you could sell this kit to 10% of each of those groups (a pipe dream) that's only 900 sales.

Edited December 7, 2018 by VMA131Marine

[LSP_Kevin]

1 hour ago, VMA131Marine said:

For reference, IPMS-USA (which you would figure is the biggest market) only has 5,000 members

IPMS-UK has 4,000 members. If you could sell this kit to 10% of each of those groups (a pipe dream) that's only 900 sales.

 

The reality is that the vast majority of modellers don't belong to clubs, and certainly not the IPMS. You might argue that those non-joiners are not serious modellers, or don't represent the market these large kits are aimed at. But I'd wager that the vast majority of LSP regulars are not IPMS members (myself included), and many form themselves around online communities such as this one, rather than formalised organisations. If HpH can sell out a 200-unit run of its 1/48 B-36 at AU$1,000 a pop, I don't see Trumpeter having any difficulty selling at least 10x that many (or more) B-24 kits.

 

Kev

[Rowen]

1 hour ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

The reality is that the vast majority of modellers don't belong to clubs, and certainly not the IPMS. You might argue that those non-joiners are not serious modellers, or don't represent the market these large kits are aimed at. But I'd wager that the vast majority of LSP regulars are not IPMS members (myself included), and many form themselves around online communities such as this one, rather than formalised organisations. If HpH can sell out a 200-unit run of its 1/48 B-36 at AU$1,000 a pop, I don't see Trumpeter having any difficulty selling at least 10x that many (or more) B-24 kits.

 

Kev

 

I'd totally agree with this! I'm not an IPMS member though I do always go to the local show every March. I know a number of modelers who don't even know what IPMS is (my wife does, though. LOL!).
 

A while back I read an interesting stat - that 90-95% of Tamiya kits remain in and are sold in Japan - yet I see Tamiya kits all over the place (and have most of my life). I'm not sure if this is true or not but if it's even remotely close, Tamiya must manufacture a LOT of kits every year.

 

-Ro

 

[CATCplSlade]

I'm not a member; I only belong to online stuff like this as the local club is a bit over an hour from me into crap city traffic. Plus they meet at the area HobbyTown USA which doesn't really sell much I don't already have. Their 1/32 section is pretty sparse. I just can't be bothered to join any organization if I am unable to commit to making meetings and events.

[Plasto]

How big is the domestic Chinese market for scale model kits? I don’t personally know. But I suspect it’s a reasonable market size. When I lived there, there were a few Chinese language model magazines in the book store.

 

So it’s concieveable that that market could suck up quite a few kits. I suppose naturally we think in a western centric way but the market is probably far larger more so for a product in its domestic market..

[Pup7309]

6 hours ago, Plasto said:

How big is the domestic Chinese market for scale model kits? I don’t personally know. But I suspect it’s a reasonable market size. When I lived there, there were a few Chinese language model magazines in the book store.

 

So it’s concieveable that that market could suck up quite a few kits. I suppose naturally we think in a western centric way but the market is probably far larger more so for a product in its domestic market..

Good point. Don’t know the answer to that. Maybe the manus could tell us...

[Gerhard]

11 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

The reality is that the vast majority of modellers don't belong to clubs, and certainly not the IPMS. You might argue that those non-joiners are not serious modellers, or don't represent the market these large kits are aimed at. But I'd wager that the vast majority of LSP regulars are not IPMS members (myself included), and many form themselves around online communities such as this one, rather than formalised organisations. If HpH can sell out a 200-unit run of its 1/48 B-36 at AU$1,000 a pop, I don't see Trumpeter having any difficulty selling at least 10x that many (or more) B-24 kits.

 

Kev

My point exactly, there are so many modelers lurking out there that we never know about. I made good friends with a guy at work that is a serious ship modeler. He didnt even know there were clubs or forums. So beware, they live amongst us. 

[John1]

On 12/7/2018 at 2:17 AM, Cees Broere said:

Collings Foundation's Lib came from an RAF-dump in India, was used by the Indian Air Force and later bought by Doug Arnold in the UK and passed on to Collings. It was first painted as All American, then Dragon and it's tail and finally Witchcraft.

Cees

Wonder why Collings has gone through so many schemes?  It's gotta be pretty darned expensive to keep repainting it.   On a related note - I did a walk-through of their Lib (in it's Dragon's tail days) when they flew into the Plymouth, MA airport and can't highly enough recommend it if you ever get a chance.  It's one thing to look at period pics or videos of these aircraft in action.  Being able to walk through it gives you a much better idea of what those kids went through.  To me at least, it was actually pretty sobering. 

 

Was also pretty cool to stand 50' away and hear / smell those 4 engines being started up.