No argument from me there. I've posted before on the subject that while armor and aircraft have jumped leaps and bounds, cars are largely stuck in
1960s promo car land. I know fiscally they can't turn the market on its ear overnight across the board - but for Pete's sake (whoever the hell Pete is), can't they test the waters and give us a knock 'em dead car kit of the same caliber as a Tamiya or DML Tiger tank?WmB
The next big thing will be kits that build themselves 10 minutes after you open the box. It's 2006 and everyone wants instant gratification.
Personally, I don't need the next big inovation. I build right out of the box with the help of a little putty, some paint, and a few added detailing tricks I am pretty happy with the results. I don't worry about missing rivet heads or slightly misformed or out of scale details. After all, it's supposed to be a hobby not an obsession. There are more great kits on the market right now than I can build in a lifetime.
CNC milling. There are already several cottage industries out there making custom designed and extremely accurate model parts to be sold as accessories. The future looks really good for CNC milling.
Rusty White
agreed. and i build kits just to practice a certain aspect of medeling. like a super painted or super decaled or super carefully built. i use cheap kits so when i'm ready for a big ticket item, i'll have my moves down.
You evidently haven't looked at any of the new-tool AMT or Revell-Monogram car kits, not to mention Trumpeter's '60 Pontiacs and '63 Chevy Novas.
Revell-Monogram tried that with their Pro Modeler car kits, and Accurate Miniature's McLarens were stunning state-of-the-art kits. They bombed...
...damn. Now they're gonna beat me to it...
Even better than that - 3D printing; directly from a CAD or 3D graphics package. I've already seen demos or machines that are more than suitable for doing figures.
Whenever you get a new model, scan the decal sheet and keep it on file on your computer, like in decal folders named 1/72, 1/35, 1/48 etc., so if you got a bad set, or lose the decals, you can print out new ones on decal paper. Much like making backup disks of programs. Of course, you would never share the scans with others. ;-)
I think back then most of the production costs were in the making of the masters to make the molds from. Petro was a whole lot cheaper then and we were riding high on plastics as being new part of our lives. Or maybe the guys and gals who designed those kits are long gone. Someone once told me that the space race produced a lot of 'designers' in the early 60's, most of those folks are retired. I don't know the whole answer, but it is going to be something that I am going to pursue. I have already started conversations with different aspects of our hobby...retailers, distributors and manufacturers...I hope to have a new website up and running soon which will provide a conduit for these communications. I will publish a note here on this forum once the site comes alive, I think you will find it interesting.
Interesting. I once had a chat with the plant manager over flying model planes. I mentioned that R/C meant spending big bucks for a flying machine that will eventually try to meld with Mother Earth. His opinion was that that was the fun of it. Yeah, I kind of thought he was weird after that.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
whose collection only flew off the shelves - and onto the floor, occasionally.
Aaahh, the casein glue. I have a Strombecker B-17 down stairs, the later release with partial plastic parts. I keep it for nostalgia's sake, along with a couple of the old Hawk 1/48 scale balsa "solid model" kits of W.W.I aircraft. I was lucky in the glue department, my Mother was a "Craft" type and early on introduced me to the wonderful benefits of duPont and Ambroid tube cement. I also had a hobbyshop down the street from my school where I could get Testor's "Dope" in genuine colors like Olive Drab and gray. I bought out his remaining supply of Dope in the
1950's when he closed up shop and still have a bunch of bottles down stairs.. And it's still good too, although the heavy pigments have settled like rock and you have to stir the hell out of it to use it.Bill Shuey
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