Shoggz Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Ultimately, I wonder how far they will go. Will they do a Tamiya and just do one 'sub-family' i.e. Tamiya did the Merlin 6x engined variants.. Or will they do what Eduard did in 1:48 and do pretty much all the Merlin variants! From a selfish perspective, I'd love at least one of every mark (including the Vb and Vc) up to the VI.. I've got 9 Tamiyas in the stash (with conversion kits for the Mark VII and PR MX XI), so I'm covered for the longer nosed Merlin variants! BloorwestSiR, mozart and MikeC 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Shoggz said: I've got 9 Tamiyas in the stash (with conversion kits for the Mark VII and PR MX XI), so I'm covered for the longer nosed Merlin variants! 9!!! Blimey Rich! I thought my 2 Hawker Harts was being a bit self-indulgent! Edited January 10 by mozart BloorwestSiR, Rick Griewski, Paul in Napier and 6 others 6 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 30 minutes ago, Kagemusha said: ... I'm surprised they didn't include a Bader figure with that kit. I'm not! ...Special edition....? MikeC, Christa, Uncarina and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony T Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I do find the "sold out" baiting irritating, but wish Kotare well. As a lover of Cold War blowtorch subjects, I haven't yet bitten: neither the Tamiyas or Kotares. Have made do with the cheap and cheerful Revell IIa and IXc (which have their charms, especially the airframe looking as if it's waiting to have those hundreds of drilled holes properly riveted), but may go up a notch with the Japanese and Kiwi editions. I need someone to say the Revells aren't that bad with a few Barracuda and MDC bits, so I don't get swallowed up by the delights of Pacific Rim consumerism. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoggz Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 37 minutes ago, mozart said: 9!!! Blimey Rich! I thought my 2 Hawker Harts was being a bit self-indulgent! I know! And that's just 9 Spitfires. I've got 7 other kits too! Fanes, Uncarina, BloorwestSiR and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 (edited) Hell’s teeth Rich! Did someone say Bader figures? Edited January 10 by mozart Martinnfb, LSP_Ray, Shoggz and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Griewski Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 OK ok… make it a Vb Iain 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I really daren't look at, let alone photograph and share, my 'to-do' pile - so I'm not desperate to know what their next release will be - but I'll probably buy it anyway... As to the 'mystery kit being a Vb - they did say 'not a Spitfire' - although I do hope they'll do a Vb at some point in the future (actually - I think that's quite likely IMHO). An early Hurricane, or Defiant, would be happily received by my loft space, however. Iain MikeC, dennismcc, Shoggz and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 31 minutes ago, Iain said: I really daren't look at, let alone photograph and share, my 'to-do' pile - so I'm not desperate to know what their next release will be - but I'll probably buy it anyway... As to the 'mystery kit being a Vb - they did say 'not a Spitfire' - although I do hope they'll do a Vb at some point in the future (actually - I think that's quite likely IMHO). An early Hurricane, or Defiant, would be happily received by my loft space, however. Iain As well as the mystery kit, they have also said there's the possibility of an unannounced Spitfire variant this year/early next. phasephantomphixer, Iain, Shoggz and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonH Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I would be delighted if Kotare issued a Vb, but I think that is a long shot. It will need some important changes to the cockpit side walls and a new wing. I suspect they will issue as many A wing variants as they can before investing in significant tooling. I really hope I am wrong because I would preorder a Vb the moment it was announced. Out2gtcha, Shoggz and Iain 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanKB Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 5 hours ago, thierry laurent said: I believe part of the issue is the fact they subcontract the production of all the components. So I'm not convinced the production costs will go down and you still have minimum production numbers per run. Being sure the produced batch is fully sold is surely the best cost/benefit approach for a young company. So even if somewhat frustrating for the customer I think this makes full sense for the producer. A lot of the costs of a kit revolve around the initial research, gathering information, getting the moulds perfected, making the moulds, checking for quality, designing decals & box art, etc. The initial production run is sufficient to cover not only the direct costs, but also sweating the pre-production costs, covering the money spent before a single kit is manufactured. Subsequent production runs should be cheaper, because the marginal cost should be lower. Assume for an initial run of 1,000 kits, WNW is charged at $50 a kit for all the costs - moulds, printing, decals, instructions, etc, total cost $50k. But WNW spent money on research to perfect the kits details, and WNW generally had at least 2 years development time, so those costs have to be covered and I can easily imagine they'd exceed $50k, so the total cost is $100k. The moulds are now complete and sat in a box somewhere in NZ or China, and WNW could contract another run of 1,000 kits, but this time there is no additional development costs to sweat, so the marginal cost should be lower, even if actual production costs increased. Having said that, I'm sure WNW would have sold more kits if they could have, but in the end there were so many WNW kits - I think over 80? - that they were effectively cannibalising their own sales, as the WWI 1/32 niche wasn't big enough to support all those kits. So they may sell, for instance, Albatros B.II's, but at the expense of the other kits, as the prices were a little too high for people to just buy whatever they wanted, so the Albie B.II buyer no longer has funds to keep buying Camel or Pfalz kits. And the profits from brand new kits are lower, as the pre-production costs need to be covered, so WNW eventually found itself in a tailspin, unable to trade their way out. I think they realised they'd never be profitable, as the niche was just too small to generate the sales they needed. Apologies for hijacking the thread. europapete and Paul in Napier 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Not so simple as we have no clue about the number of releases required to become profitable! Moreover, even if profitability should increase with each production batch, this has nothing to do with the production costs themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christa Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Friends Kotare has now taken off, albeit with no Hurri. That makes some members Spit. But Richard has no cause to worry, Since I'm not sticking my neck out when I confidently predict Kotare's non Spit release will be a . . . Hit. NEXT! MikeC, williamj, mozart and 5 others 2 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Still hoping for a P-51B/C - not a Spitfire, but it does have a Merlin. MikeMaben, phasephantomphixer and Christa 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloorwestSiR Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 6 hours ago, Shoggz said: I know! And that's just 9 Spitfires. I've got 7 other kits too! That looks similar to my pile. I've built 9 Tamiya Spitfires so far, with #10 on the bench. Missing from the pic are 3 PCM XIVs and a pair of Kotare kits. phasephantomphixer, Phantom2, MikeC and 11 others 11 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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