kkarlsen Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) Hello gentlemen, I don't know if this topic has been debated in here before, but I've been contemplating this for a while now: Why it is that there is a lot of WWI aircraft, that we do not have, but would be the obvious 'popular' choice for producers to bring to the marked... Avro 504 Number built 11303 SPAD S.XIII Number built 8472 (Hobbycraft - Not available) Curtiss Jenny JN-4 Number built 6813 De Havilland DH-4 Number built 6295 R.A.F. B.E.2c Number built 3500+ These are planes that immediately come to mind, but I'm pretty sure there are lots of other interesting subjects too... Instead we are getting kits of some 'fringe' or 'obscure' aircraft, that didn't have any real impact on aviation history? Is the answer really: 'because they are not german' or... 'too much rigging' ? Can anyone please give me a plausible answer to this 'enigma' (to me) Thanks: Kent Edited December 5, 2019 by kkarlsen scvrobeson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radub Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) They may be issued in the future. Just because we do not have them right now it does not mean that they are ignored. Why are some subjects "covered to death" while othjer subjects are "ignored"? The entire model industry is powered by the enthusiasm of the people involved in the manufacturing. But you can't take enthusiasm to the bank. You need cold hard cash. And the only way to make cash is to have some "cash cows" in your inventory. So, for every "obscure" kit you will have to have the "German" and the "popular". Just wait until the "cash cow" generates the necesary cash and then these kits will be made. And no, the "spendthrift benefactor" (Sir Peter, :-) etc) is not the "cash cow". They may sponsor the first kit, then the following kits have to be made from profit. Radu Edited December 4, 2019 by Radub Rick Griewski, Tnarg, Bob MDC and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pup7309 Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) I’d put money on Spads coming out in the future. DH4 most probably. The others- possible, depending. WNW to their credit have bought out a lot of 2 seaters so we will probably see less bombers and recon planes and more fighters but what comes next is anyone’s guess... Edited December 4, 2019 by Pup7309 kkarlsen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamF Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 I'm not really a big fan of WW1 aircraft but I'm surprised that the BE2C hasn't been done because as a teenager we had a TV series about the RFC and quite realsitic it was too called 'Wings' and the BE2C was quite a big player in the series and I think I'm right in saying that this series awakened a lot of people to the RFC and WW1. Graham coogrfan, kkarlsen, nmayhew and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pup7309 Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 5 minutes ago, GrahamF said: I'm not really a big fan of WW1 aircraft but I'm surprised that the BE2C hasn't been done because as a teenager we had a TV series about the RFC and quite realsitic it was too called 'Wings' and the BE2C was quite a big player in the series and I think I'm right in saying that this series awakened a lot of people to the RFC and WW1. Graham Yes, great series. It’s an ungainly bird but v important to the early air war. I’d say it’s a better than 50/50 of coming out. kkarlsen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pup7309 Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) WNW have their hands tied a bit at the moment trying to get out the Lanc and Handley Pages and all those Albatros’ to fund them. But they aren’t slowing down so expect plenty of new releases. Edited December 4, 2019 by Pup7309 kkarlsen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 That problem is the same for all eras, not only WW1. Choosing obscure topics may be linked to very diverse reasons: 1. What is obscure here may be mainstream there. 2. Try to decrease the probability of competing with a release from another company. 3. The CEO loved that plane when he was a child. Etc. Etc! Nonetheless, it is a hard fact topics are progressively covered. Ten years ago we had zero injected models of Vietnam War USAF Coin planes whereas with the future arrival of the A-26, close to all of them have been released! So, it is only a matter of time. To go back to WW1, WnW and CSM need topics for the next years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) I think it boils down to subject popularity. Anyone with a passing interest in aviation probably know what a zero, f-4, fokker d7, p-51, Bf-109, spitfire, F-15, f-16 etc is. Folks with more focused interest will know the Beaufighter, mosquito, oscar, p-39, albatross, f-5, F-8, mig-17 etc. People that are really in tuned with aviation will know the different versions (p-51d ,p-51b, p-51c etc) of the aforementioned aircraft. Lastly there are the people who rarely see the light of day that study the all the different production line nuances/ variants/variation of those planes will know every single plane out there that ever flew.. The last set of folks are the die hard's that dedicate there time honorably to the cause and are also the smallest number of people IMHO. I believe most folks in modeling forums fall in within the 3rd and a part of the forth category. As Radu said you need the popular subjects to hook the numbers of the mainstream the get the $$ to be able to cater to the die hard's. I don't recall ever seeing a model company last long doing really obscure stuff as there main focus unless they have a massive financial stockpile to draw from. I myself recall saying that a large scale Mig-29 should sell pretty well for various reasons. I did my part, I bought 6 of them and built 2 so far but sadly i may have been wrong as the trumpeter mig-29 doesn't seem to be selling very well overall as I don't see a lot of builds or hear talk about it after the initial release of it. Edited December 4, 2019 by The Dude D.B. Andrus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) The Avro 504K is a beautiful aeroplane, that one that most of all surprises me in having been ignored to date. There's at least a couple in museums in Australia, one in the AWM and another in Point Cooke that could be measured up by the WnWs team. Edited December 4, 2019 by mozart Alain Gadbois, D.B. Andrus, kkarlsen and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Williams Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 This question comes up quite often, and the simple answer is because a model company hadn’t decided that these kits are viable investments at this time. That’s it. Some company may have future plans for a kit, or they may not. People can guess all they would like, but the reality is that few people have enough direct knowledge of any companies business to say why company X won’t make a a kit of Y. Companies will make the kits they choose to make when they choose to make them, and there isn’t any real value it trying to figure out the reasons because there is likely no way to influence a decision to make a particular kit. Besides, saying a certain kit is “obvious” is just an opinion that may not actually be held by that many people. As far as being “popular”, the many model companies can tell tales of kits that they brought out because they thought they were “popular” and people said they wanted them, but turned out to be duds. People can lament about not having a kit of Y all they want, but unless you start your own model company to make it, there is no guarantee that you’ll ever get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony T Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) Rigging. If you love a subject enough you convince yourself how you can legitimately "reduce" it. Frankly, I Iove the look of these subjects but am not brave enough to deal with them. Tell me why I don't have some of the most beautiful jets designed: SAAB J.35F Draken or Sukhoi 15TM Flagon ? — of which, collectively, nearly two thousand were built. And these are metal jets, not stringbags. Tony Edited December 4, 2019 by Tony T the numbers game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pup7309 Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) Agree 504k is a v important aircraft but whether the manu wants to kit it or not depends on perceived popularity with modellers. I wonder how the new Gotha is selling? Just a thought... Edited December 4, 2019 by Pup7309 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wunwinglow Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Patience.... If things go normally, two different companies will release each of these kits simultaneously , and we will get the usual 'this is better, that is cheaper' nonsense!! LSP_K2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radub Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 1 minute ago, wunwinglow said: and we will get the usual 'this is better, that is cheaper' nonsense!! ... and someone will be guaranteed to say "that is precisely what I did not want!" :-) Radu Pup7309, wunwinglow and esarmstrong 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 9 hours ago, Pup7309 said: I’d put money on Spads coming out in the future. You and me both; and some nice Nieuports too. esarmstrong and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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