Woo-hoo Go Trumpeter!

i doubt i would bother. but the reviews aren't in yet.

"Ron Smith" wrote

Oh Ron, you're too amped up over this.

The people buying a $150 Hood are the same people - like you - who have (or wish they could) buy a $500 resin Hood. These aren't people buying 1/720 Revell Arizonas on a whim at the Pearl Harbor gift shop. The people who would buy a Trumpeter Hood would likely also buy a Tamiya Hood if one came out in five years. If the market was so damn small, how could it support even $150 kits, let alone $350-$600 resin ones? The mere fact that there are a *number* of $100+ plastic ship kits out there (ten from Trumpeter alone on SMO) is prima facie evidence of a market large enough to to absorb them. .

Not apples and oranges but small apples to large apples. Price really has nothing to do with it. *ALL* modelers think kits are too expensive, all genres have expensive kits with limited appeal, and all genres have economic stratification (e.g. not every armor modeler can afford to buy every tank kit that comes out), hence the only difference between genres is really the magnitude. The fact that moderately expensive but poor Heller Leclerc or the so-so but cheap Italeri Leopard IIs (two subjects with _really_ limted appeal) came out did not seem to kill the market for more expensive but much better Tamiya versions (TWO versions in the case of the Leopard II!). Why didn't your theory work there? Why didn't the bad kit eat up all the market for the subject such that the better kit never came out?

Why? See the next line. . .

Well there ya go. If the Hood is on par with the Tiger - or even the Sherman - in popularity, the market most certainly ought to be able to support a second plastic kit, especially if it's better.

KL

Ron,

The bottom line as I see it is you just plain don't like Trumpeter. And that is fine. I am not sure I do either. I know I don't like the idea of all the dollars flowing the wrong direction, but why not just say it up front. All this ranting and raving about how terrible they are is not working very well it appears to me.

Yeah I agree that they could do better with several of their kits, but so far I have never seen the perfect kit and in about 65 years of modeling I have long ago come to the conclusion that I still needed to be a modeler, not a kit assembler, if I wanted my models to satisfy my standards.

The reality of the situation is that Trumpeter has created a market no one else was willing or able to fill, and has released more kits than probably the rest of the world combined in the last couple years. While I may not be too happy about the political ramifications of this whole thing, I freely admit that I have purchased four of their carriers, and yeah I know they are not spot on dead accurate in every little detail, but they are far better than what I had before they arrived on the market. And as far as fit is concerned, on the two I have going, the Nimitz and the Essex class, they fit is just fine thank you. I am still amazed that after starting at one point and working all the way around the hanger deck walls with something like

12-13 parts, the match up back at the beginning was almost spot on. Yes, I did have to do some work to make the hull bottom match the top on the Nimitz, but like I said, I consider myself a modeler . Yeah, there are things I would have them do differently of course, but as I said, I am a modeler, not an assembler, I expect to have to put some work into the things. I consider the research and learning an important part of my modeling, so I can take the errors in stride to some degree or perhaps just pass on the kit if it is too far off my standard.

One of the best things about this computer stuff is we have a forum where modelers from all over the world can exchange information and ideas. Too often posters seem to be more motivated by ego than knowledge.

Do you really feel that offending most of the folks here will further your cause?

Norm

What is the general opinion of the Heller 1/400 Hood?

Nice message.

I do have some of their aircraft kits, and while they are not perfect, they are available, not dreams. And stil way better than the ID-Models VAC, but the price is not all that much bigger.

Lighten up. It's a hobby.