Piotr Mikolajski

Source: https://www.facebook.com/ibgmodels/posts/pfbid02aeAHn6cUTdjdrnn7t6PM2kyQp8AUyuUSPpxsRdhpsuDkGnxAfDsWsUX8VnzkZQCCl I've seen these kits (yes, there will be more than one), there is something to look at.

You can distort reality as much as you want, I don't blame you, but the available data does not lie. Here is Google Trends check of search phrase "plastic kit reviews", worldwide, in the last year. There are not enough data to show detailed stats. How such stats look like, you may see in case of Supermarine Spitfire. You may not like Google but this is the most popular search engine. Of course Google Trends isn't a perfect mirror of search activity but it shows data for popular terms, so search terms with low volume appear as "zero". And that silent majority of average Joes is not able to type enough queries worldwide for such generic term in the whole year to generate such stats. I'm afraid that referring to Tamiya in 2024 is mainly an indicator of how much modeller lives by brand sentiment and conditioned reflexes. Yes, Tamiya has a lovely history, a sizeable catalogue and releases a new model aircraft in one of the three popular scales once a year. And it doesn't matter. Tamiya has released only 12 new tool aircraft kits since 2014. Meng, which few people associate with aircraft kits, has released 8 of them in the same period. Fine Molds, which isn't known for its numerous novelties, has 10 of them. Eduard has 25, ICM 39, Trumpeter 44, Airfix 48, four times more. Tamiya is not a market leader, it is not a trendsetter, nor is it an innovative company. Their response to the Wildcat from Eduard was late and poor - all they could afford was a sprue with new FM-1 parts for an old kit. The same also applies to the 1/35 AFV kits market, where Tamiya also lost the duel with Chinese companies or MiniArt a long time ago. Of course, you can believe that Tamiya makes so much money from such rare novelties that it decided not to release boxes with other variants and markings because they do not need more money. But I'm afraid that the more likely explanations are also the ones closer to the truth. For some reason Border, Eduard, Fine Molds, MiniArt, RFM, Takom and many other manufacturers release multiple versions of aircraft and package them in multiple boxes. It seems to me that the reason is money, because no modeling company has too much of it. You can literally count the plays of every YouTube video. The number of views shows the reach and influence, because such content cannot influence those who have not watched it. If the video "How to paint LUFTWAFFE SNOW CAMO", published on May 11, 2023 on the Vallejo channel with 74,000 subscribers, has now 9,839 views, then there is probably something wrong with the claim about silent masses who read the content and we can't see them. Honest and justified criticism has nothing to do with hate or venom. Italeri models are expensive in Europe, and the company's publishing policy leaves much to be desired. Modellers have the right to freedom of expression, including criticism... which the company will not care about and which will not affect sales. And now that we're back to Italeri, I suggest ending the subthread of average Joes who don't get seen.

Hobby paint manufacturers approve!

Hard to say. As a rule ProfiPacks were released half year after the first Dual Combo / Limited Edition with particular version. This time they came back to Royal Class so it can be half year after DC, half year after LE, whatever they feel fancy.

Pre-sale should be launched in April, hard to say when these kits will be delivered. We have to wait for more details.

Source: Information for distributors June 2024

Indeed, I have Yak-3 and this kit is really nice. And, to be honest, there is not that much to correct or improve. I need just one in my collection, so this one is enough.

What's wrong? Reality? I'm not thrilled with it either, but we don't have another one. Sorry, but such actions prove absolutely nothing, except for one thing - video content is another marketing channel. Besides, there is no craze with this type of marketing either - AK Interactive produces paints for the majority of modellers, is a global brand and its YouTube channel is subscribed to by only 50,000 people. I see no reason to sugarcoat reality. It is what it is, most model builders don't visit model websites, don't read the model press, don't bother with reviews. And this is completely understandable, because this majority does not live this hobby, it is just a break from everyday life, not a way of life. In the same way, the majority of people who ride bikes do not look at cycling websites, they are not interested in galleries of new bikes, they do not read tyre tests. And it doesn't matter what the cycling industry does, for these people a bike is just a means of daily transport or entertainment, that's all.

Not all 1/48 kits from ICM will be released in 1/72 and it has nothing to do with Airfix production.

Especially in an 'instant' era when people want to see instant results.

Point is: the average Joe doesn't read forums, doesn't watch videos of kits on YouTube, doesn't look for reviews. What's more: a lot of people who read/seek this type of content are more interested in how the model looks (number of parts, complexity, markings) than whether it is dimensionally and historically correct. In the second half of the 1990s I worked in a local model shop, and to this day I still quite often stand behind the counter and listen to what the customers are saying. The percentage of those who read forums, review sites so on is negligible, it's maybe 5% of the total. Most are not aware of such sites at all and are not interested in them. On forums people can beat each other up about whether the shade of green or brown is correct, and the manufacturer can be cursed to the fifth generation if it gives the wrong shades in the instructions. In a shop, a customer asks about paints, is told it's green and brown, and replies 'I have some green and brown at home'. Or, when told that he should use grey or silver, he will use blue 'because all aircraft have blue undersides'. This is what the sales model looked like half a century ago and KH attempted to run the business as if each of its kits sold in the tens of thousands per year. Today, in order to sell significant number of kits, new boxes are produced with new markings and new detail for different variants. That's why Fw 190D released by Italeri in 1978 had just one variant and that's why Fw 190D from IBG Models, released 44 years later, counts 11 boxes and there will be more. The same is with Intruders from ICM, Spitfires from Eduard, F-4s from Fine Molds, Meteors from MPM/Special Hobby and so on.

Earlier comments have clarified that this statement is far from the truth. Just a few days ago a friend of mine said about one detail on the wing of the brand new kit (probably will be released in 2025). He spent half a day to design properly details of just one feature on the wing. Existing 3D model published online has this particular detail designed without looking at photos, in a simplified way that probably took the designer 5-10 minutes. We are talking here about just one detail. This is your over-interpretation, I was writing about something completely different - the unrealistic attitude of people who, to commercial companies, bound by finances, costs, competition present in the market, etc., set as a role model the amateur work of someone who is not bound by any contracts, does something for himself and can do something for a year or even five years and it makes no difference to anyone. It. Doesn't. Matter. You are trying to prove that an onion is no different from an apple because they are both rounded and both are white inside. The work of a professional designer in a company cannot be compared to that of an amateur doing something after hours for himself. If someone puts an equal sign between the two, they bend reality better than a black hole bends space-time. I showed this excerpt (along with the whole discussion, so as not to be taken out of context) to three professional designers, working for three different companies. None of the responses are suitable for public quotation, and some of the wording used in them was surprisingly fresh in its outlook. As we all know very well, Wingnut Wings is now the largest model company in the industry thanks to its production of high quality and high fidelity kits, while AZ copying other manufacturers has long since disappeared from the market and its models are only remembered by those who walked the earth when it was still wet after the Flood.

This vision has been circulating for several years now and sounds beautiful until it comes into contact with reality. People who design something as a hobby, after their work, have no pressure and no obligation to anyone. They design for themselves, as long as they want, with as much detail as they need. They design for 3D printing, usually for their own printer, so technological issues do not matter much to them either. A designer in-house costs money, so they have to finish the project within a certain timeframe, which means they are working under pressure. In addition, he designs for injection moulding, so he has to take technological constraints into account. One more thing is to balance the level of detail and complexity of the design with the ease of assembly. The ultimate verification of this myth is to check with popular 3D design sharing sites to see how many of such hobby projects meet high levels of quality. In the case of aircraft models / accessories, it turns out to be a tiny fraction, numbering in the hundreds rather than tens of thousands.

Nope. If you look at their production, you may clearly see sub-optimal resource management. Each new tooling in larger scales needs several quite large moulds which cost a lot of money. Here is list of NT in 1/48 with number of boxes released from that tooling: 2012 (4) - Mirage F.1 (2), F-35 (6), F-94 (1), Jaguar (3) 2013 (4) - Dauphin (3), SH-2 Seasprite (2), MiG-25 (3), JAS-39 Gripen (2) 2014 (3) - AH-1Z Viper (1), F9F Cougar (2), F-101 Voodoo (3) 2015 (2) - UH-1Y Venom (1), XF5U-1 (1) 2016 (2) - Super Etendard (1), F2H Banshee (1) 2017 (3) - UH-1D Huey (1), Su-17/Su-22 (5), Su-35 (2) 2018 (2) - Su-34 (1), Yak-130 (1) 2019 (2) - UH-1N Twin Huey (1), FJ-2 Fury (1) 2020 (1) - Su-27 (5) We may see a lot of niche subjects and a lot of projects with just single box from the whole tooling. Even worse, we may see such popular subjects like UH-1D released in just one box. Several dozens of operators worldwide, hundreds of interesting markings schemes and just one box. The same is with their 1/32 kits - 8 new toolings and just 15 boxes. You have to be really rich to afford such a waste of resources. The only difference is with 1/35 helicopters - just 2 new tooling but 10 boxes. Someone understood that this is the way and their UH-60 family was released in 7 boxes but with start in 2019 it was too late. Their kits could be the best in the world, on par with those from Wingnut, and with such management of the resources company will still struggle to survive.

Interesting, this photo was posted by Eduard on Instagram nearly two weeks ago, on 28th March.

Why wouldn't they sell it when they will also make good money from WWII French schemes? You can see from this thread that the D-28 and D-30 were issued in Basic and Advanced boxes, so in a while there will be a D-28 Advanced box too. All you have to do is wait. But if you must have a D-28 immediately, then buy a French one and aftermarket decals.

I'm talking about Zero not because this is famous aircraft but because in the last 40 years Hasegawa released three families of Zero with nearly 100 boxes and that was test area for Eduard. It was sure they will earn money but it was also test of the quite saturated market. The better the sales, the clearer the sign that people want newly tooled kits even in such a highly saturated market and their kit was sales hit. It means that the old Hasegawa models are no longer competition for the new Eduard models. And this means that even riskier subjects, like the Macchi family, can be released, because people will buy brand new kit instead of 30 years old Hasegawa.

And for what would Eduard like AZ/KP? For not honouring agreements? For unfair competition? The list of issues is well known and well documented.

They can't do anything with them because they don't own them. They only have the exclusive right to inject parts and that's what they will do - release kit once again, with new decals and resin parts.

English version: https://info.eduard.com/en/04-2024-1/1-72nd-scale-model-kit-l-410-turbolet-by-gavia-and-kp-

The situation is changing - the 'classics' are getting old and are increasingly outdated by modern standards, so companies are more and more thinking about replacing them with their own products. In the case of the Eduard, it turned out that new kits in 1/48, like the Zero, were selling well enough that there was no point in bothering with Hasegawa models from 25-30 years ago. The Folgore will be 30 years old next year and for Eduard this is an excellent choice, especially as a lot of parts are common between the C.202 and C.205, reducing the investment cost.

In the April 2024 issue of Eduard Info you'll find article about this KP kit, written by Michal Vláčilík and Petr Podvala (authors of the original Gavia kit), Pavel Vandělík (author and owner of the moulds of this kit) and Vladimír Šulc (Eduard has exclusive rights for injection from these moulds). I'll not translate whole article, English version of this issue of Eduard Info will be released today and you'll be able to read it. I translate the excerpt below to whet your appetite. In March this year, the kit L-410 Turbolet in 1/72nd scale appeared on the market, released under the KP brand. By comparing the parts of this kit with the parts of the Gavia kit of the same type and in the same scale, we concluded that the kit released under the KP brand is a direct copy of the Gavia kit released in 1997.

OMG, I remember this old kit and I'm really happy to see they will make it in 1/48, this is not my scale

https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?p=2637505#p2637505

For those who are less familiar with the industry, here is an hour of interview with Valeriia from ICM.