Naval History Forums

Nelson Ott wrote:

RF wrote:What are these under acknowledged ships? Surely producing the best known and infamous would offer the best commercial returns?

I think the pre-Dreadnought and Dreadnought era vessels are definetely "under-ackowledged ships". Can mainstream plastic manufacturers bring profitable kits of the Von Der Tann, Seydlitz and others ? Hasegawa has already produced a 1:350 kit of the Mikasa... Even in 1:350 those ships would not turn into excessively large models.

Regards,

Nelson

I agree with you completely, I think one of the major reasons why these ships are not being modeled much is because the United States and Japan were not that heavily involved with World War 1. These a countries produce a lot of the high quality models or are their biggest markets. BB lovers in these countries look to World War 2 as their time period in history to learn about these vessels. If the rumors of the Jutland movie are true. If it is ever made and is decently popular I think you'll see a big change in peoples view of battleships. That means a lot more Dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers being produced.

I want to see some zerstorers.

Kyler wrote:I agree with you completely, I think one of the major reasons why these ships are not being modeled much is because the United States and Japan were not that heavily involved with World War 1. These a countries produce a lot of the high quality models or are their biggest markets.

Not really, most modeling companies are in the far east, and they have historically focused on German and Japanese subjects. As the internet has brought inroads into the modeling communities for them, they have taken a larger and larger interest in prociding new and exciting subjects that the communities have been asking for. Dragon specifically has been running their "committed to the modeler" campaign for 4 years now. They promised to pu out one new subject the modelers have been asking for every month. Yes I work for them and so I have to support them, but really, when have you seen a model kit company that consistently produces what the modeler wants, not just what the owner of the company wants. Look at Tamiya. The used to dominate all areas of modeling, but Mr Tamiya has refused to adapt to the new age and they have lost a TON of market share to the Chinese companies. Well, I have ranted on long enough. I will finish by saying that you should keep an eye out for a lot of new DKM, RN, and USN WWII ships over the next few years, but you pre-WWII guys are in for a LOT of pleasant surprises, and soon.

http://www.dragon-models.com/Committed_ ... deler4.htm

Kyler wrote: I think one of the major reasons why these ships are not being modeled much is because the United States and Japan were not that heavily involved with World War 1. These countries produce a lot of the high quality models or are their biggest markets.

Thanks Kyler, that surely can be one of the reasons.

I heard that the launch of the Revell 1:350 Bismarck was a huge success in Germany (and in Europe in general), even reaching the UK Hannants shop top 10 list for some weeks, what is amazing for an expensive and complex kit like that (at least for junior modellers). So, if the mainstream manufacturers are tuned to those important markets, European BBs can surely be taken into consideration. Of course I'm not trying to compare the popularity of the Bismarck with lesser-known WWI vessels, but if Revell of Germany fired the national pride of its customers, Skagerrak BBs and BCs can also be good proposals. I'm sure the new Prinz Eugen, Scharhorst and Graf Spee kits are being observed in the market with much interest. Also in UK, I believe high quality kits of the HMS Iron Duke or Queen Mary, for example, can be good sellers too.

Kyler wrote: If the rumors of the Jutland movie are true. If it is ever made and is decently popular I think you'll see a big change in peoples view of battleships. That means a lot more Dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers being produced.

I agree with you, the movies can surely fire the popular acquaintance of war gear. See what happens to the USS Arizona, one of the most popular warships of all time that actually had a completely uneventful carrer, except for being sunk at Pearl Harbour. Surely the several films about PH, good or bad, contributed to that.

Regards to all,

Nelson

Found the pictures of the Dragon Scharnhorst quite amazing: stunning details!!! Even with open hand wheels for medium Flak!! The Bismarck 1/350 of Revell doe NOT have these remarkable accuracy of Dragon. How well sold this model might be. The price of the Revell model is quite acceptable, even low (even with added etch set). This partly explains its popularity.

So my wish is for a Bismark 1:200 in scale made by Dragon with all colour plates enclosed to make the various Bismarcks which existed (Baltic colours, Atlantic colours).

At this moment there excist No highly detailed Bismarck models to be obtained in the market except for those of Neptun (1:1250) all metal and finsished for say 200 Euro, the 1000 Euro very detailed Hachette model (1 : 192 based on a wooden hull!), a complete and very detailed finished Bismarck 1:192 made in the USA (nothing to be done!!!) for 10.000 Dollars and the German released model in scale of 1:100 (with stunning details), but very costly!!!(2500 Euro's?). The 1:144 Bismarck model is in many ways not so detailed and the 1:200 Aeronaut model(even with the finished turrets) misses also a lot of details for that scale. Both are not very costly, about the Hachette prize.

Good thing about this kit will be the price The Scharnhorst that I have now cost me 300.

Dragon has set a release date of July 10, 2010 for the new Scharnhorst kit and the MSRP is $129.95.