Do They Listen

[collywobble]

Hi all

with problems with kits that manufacturers produce and sell to us, do they actually read what critics say about their kits or plod on making and selling kits that are so wrong in detail?

Or is it good for aftermarket companys that make bits to correct the errors?

Just wondering....

C

[The Good Sergeant]

I believe some of the members of IPMS Philippines pass on our feedback to the folks at Trumpeter. Not sure about the other manufacturers.

Edited February 8, 2010 by The Good Sergeant

[Mentalguru]

All you need is someone like Arthur Bentley working at Airfix- and helping them do the initial C.A.D. schematics

[Heraldcoupe]

Tamiya, Trumpeter and Revell at least have revised kits which have been subject to criticism, but it doesn't happen as often as we'd like. Examples I can think of include Tamiya's 1/48 Meteor F1 and Bf-109E, Trumpeter's 1/32 Wildcat and Revell's 1/32 Hunter. Each of these had substantial tooling revisions, to correct errors reported in the initial releases,

Cheers,

Bill.

[Jennings Heilig]

It's impossible to make blanket statements about any manufacturer. I'm 100% positive many of them read the forums, so they know what people are saying. But it's not as easy as "see what they say and fix it". There's way more to it than that. The majority of kit manufacturers contract out some or all of the process of kit design, tooling, and production. Those that don't do the design work in-house are at the mercy of whomever they hire to do the design work. And even if the design work is top notch, then they're at the mercy of whomever they hire to do the tooling. The Chinese have a wonderful habit of doing exactly what you tell them, and then "making improvements" that you didn't ask for or need. A good example is the Minicraft 1/144 727-200 of several years ago. The original CAD files were gorgeous. Very accurate. The tooling shop in China screwed it up so badly that the kit came out as a dog. Minicraft wasn't in a financial position to demand a complete re-do (which they should have got for free), so they had to go with what they got. Other manufacturers may or may not be in a position to demand and/or pay for additional costs incurred due to foul ups in the tooling process. Even if the design is gorgeous, a tooling shop that screws it up is going to cause the final result (the kit you buy) to be screwed up. If you have the resources to pour into things, you can get beautiful products. The Wingnut Wings kits are a good example. Trumpeter did the tooling on them. In fact, Trumpeter did the tooling on the initial releases twice. Once when they totally screwed things up beyond the point of repair, and again when WNW told them to do exactly and only what was in the design and NOTHING ELSE. But Peter Jackson has the resources to do that. Other companies don't. Not to pick on the Chinese (but if the shoe fits), because there are other places where tooling shops are just as bad. It's like anything else though, you get what you pay for. The Koreans can do some stupendous work, but they've priced themselves out of the market for most kit manufacturers. It's all a matter of money.

J