Piotr Mikolajski

"Waiting in the queue."

Srsly... One client group larger than the other. This will certainly be a better money-making machine than the whole Fw 190D family.

Thread about Italeri 2023 Catalogue:

There is a thread about this project where you can see a completely different parts breakdown and where there is a link to the Czech Modelforum, where Alfred Riedel from Special Hobby makes it clear that this is a project they have been running for a few years and has nothing to do with ICM.

In my notes I have such kits announced in previous years, not listed in The Official 2023 List. Some only as a loose description, some with a catalogue number, some shown at various stages of design. The list does not include items announced more than 10 years ago, such as the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog or the Blohm & Voss Bv 141, both in 1/72: 1/32 32046 — Hawker Typhoon I Car Door — New Tool — announced since 2017 1/48 48160 — Martin Baltimore I/II — New Tool — announced since 2022 48221 — Potez 631 — New Tool Update — announced since 2022 48xxx — SIAI-Marchetti SF-260EA/EU/D Late Bulged Canopy Type 48xxx — SIAI-Marchetti SF-260TP 1/72 72164 — Douglas A-1F Skyraider — New Tool — announced since 2020 roku 72336 — de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.1/FAW.2 — ex-MPM — announced since 2017 72389 — FMA IA-58 Pucara — New Tool — announced since 2020 72401 — Mitsubishi Ki-21-I “Sally” — New Tool — announced since 2022 72436 — Curtiss CW-21 — New Tool — announced since 2022 72xxx — Dassault Mirage 5 Family 72xxx — Dassault Mirage F.1C — the last known variant announced 72xxx — DH Mosquito Family — about ten variants announced 72xxx — Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3a Swiss Air Force 72xxx — Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 Night Fighter 72xxx — Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4/B 72xxx — Messerschmitt Bf 109T Family 72xxx — SIAI-Marchetti SF-260TP As you can see, Special Hobby has quite a list of kits with which they can surprise modellers. Besides, like any company, they prepare some things in secret, and on top of that, many of their older and well known kits may appear as reissues or as boxes with new markings. I am pretty sure that our wallets are not safe.

87xxx is the range of numbers for 1/72 scale aircraft. Standard and easy kits are mixed together: 87264 - C-47A Skytrain 87267 - F8F-1 Bearcat 87270 - U-2A Dragon Lady

Yes, this is true. I even tried to check how much Anson costs and it was only in one of the big shops. Anyway, 'was' is too much to say - there was the price, the model was still unavailable.

Albacore is new tool, shown a few years ago. Hudson was announced as a part of their "large kits refreshing" program - old main parts with newly tooled detail ones. It all depends on the price, in many countries a Special Hobby model can be noticeably cheaper.

Given the magnitude of the Chinese New Year celebrations, they are entitled to a few days' hangover.

Of course he knew what he was talking about. He was talking about sales in his shop. And that's the problem - you're translating one shop's experience into all sales. In one of the larger Polish shops, reboxes from Hobby 2000 have been selling very poorly since the very beginning. Kits could be bought there long after they were officially sold out in other shops. If you drew conclusions based on what the shop owner says about these sales, you would write that Hobby 2000 had a poor business idea. In my local shop some highly rated kits sell poorly while elsewhere they sell great. The shop owner has been in the business for over 30 years and he knows his customers, so there are no surprises. But if someone don't understand the specifics of the customers and ask him about sales volumes, after receiving a "below average" answer, he will tell you that these highly rated kit sells poorly everywhere. Each time, the owners tell the truth - in their shops these models sell poorly, that's a fact. But does that mean that these models sell poorly at all? No. Only the producers know what their plans and sales expectations were and what sales really look like. No one else is in a position to assess this. And if the producers say they don't see an impact in either direction, I have no reason to question their opinion. A story from 20 years ago that I don't even know if it fits here, as there are at least two versions. According to some, the model never made it to the market at all, according to others, a small number went on sale, in Asian shops only. According to the former, sales were halted moments before the launch, according to the latter, the model was withdrawn from the market. What is known for sure: Trumpeter prepared an F4F-4 model in 1/32, which neither resembled the Wildcat nor lay in the plans. All the main parts plus a lot of detail were improved on the model, and after six months it went on sale. To whom modellers really owe the improvement of the model - I don't know. The longer I search for the answer, the more brave knights appear, and there is only one white horse. Brett Green has written a review before and after, so I'm providing links for those interested to take a look: http://kits.kitreview.com/f4f432previewbg_1.htm and http://kits.kitreview.com/f4f432reviewbg_2.htm I can counter with the story of the Bf 109G in 1/48 from Eduard (#8268) from 2014, which turned out to be oversized. Did negative reviews and numerous complaints on forums affect its sales? No. Despite these reviews Eduard sold this model in large quantities, possibly until the mould's service life was exhausted. Two years later correctly sized 1/48 Bf 109G premiered. I was writing about the impact on sales, especially in a negative context, not whether producers are paying attention. Do manufacturers take notice of reviews? Of course, they send models to reviewers after all. But this serves primarily to let people know that a model is coming on sale. We live in the digital age, the appearance of the company name, the scale and the name of the model on many pages is important - search engines can index it all and the kit is shown in the search results. I was asked once by one of the manufacturers to change the way I was writing catalogue numbers of his products, just for this reason. The only reviews that really can make a deep impact on manufacturers are those in which the reviewer really knows what he is talking about, in which he shows the factory documentation and supplements it with photos and documents, explaining any possible errors. Such reviews can have a real impact, but not on sales, only on corrections, if they can be made. Here I can recall the revised cockpit canopy of the Bf 109E from Eduard or the engine plate in the Panzer III from MiniArt. The problem is that such reviews are a real rarity. To produce such a review, you need a lot of knowledge and sources, and you need to put in a lot of effort. For free, because no one will pay for it, and on top of that, fans of the manufacturer concerned are prepared to eat the critic alive. Most people writing about kits, even if they know quite a bit about a subject, are not experts on it, or do not have the time for deep analysis. As a result, either they are honest and write nothing, or they want to show their "expertise" and write nonsense. Anyway, for years now we have had a noticeable trend on the forums (and now also in the social media groups / communities / whatever they call it) - if a reviewer describes a model in brief and does not write out a litany of errors (real or not), he is "dishonest", possibly outright "taking money from the manufacturer". The only "honest" reviews are those where the model is tarred and feathered, without, of course, proving the point. After all, "the expert" doesn't have to prove anything. And this very vocal minority - most often than not - does not have the slightest idea about how kits are designed, what documentation is available, what the technological requirements are in the industry and so on. Consequently, their long threads with complaints about the product and their unrealistic expectations are of no concern to anyone. I have seen threads dozens of pages long, where the discussants have become increasingly excited in their dislike of the kit and the manufacturer. To the point where they were contradicting quotes from the factory blueprints or the original manual because they "knew better". And well, such threads and such "reviews" are important for the "reviewer" and the narrow circle of those taking part in the discussion. No one else really cares. A few years ago I was witness of this dialogue in a model shop: C1: Can I see this kit? Seller: Here you are. C1: [Looking at parts] I think it's nice done, I like it. C2: But this kit is bad. C1: Really? Why? C2: Mr. X on forum Y said, this kit has full of errors. C1: Who the hell is Mr. X and forum Y? The very deep silence in the shop could be cut with a knife.

The manufacturer sells everywhere and knows perfectly well how his product sells. Nobody orders one kit in the thousands, usually orders from large customers are a few dozens to a few hundred pieces. If these few hundred pieces do not sell, there will be no further orders from that customer, because he will not fill his warehouse with a model that does not sell. Reviews are read by a minority of model builders, and on top of that, only a fraction are really guided by these reviews. This can even be seen in the discussions below the reviews. If the kit of the FUBAR Mk.2 is really shitty and people point out lack of quality and the obvious flaws and errors, there will still be a group of people who don't consider the flaws and errors to be flaws and errors, who don't mind the flaws and errors, who want to have the model, even if it's not buildable, but they still will buy it because someone released it after all. And even if they don't build it, no one will care. The primary audience for modelling companies is the ordinary customer, who does not contribute to communities or forums and of whose existence this section of committed modellers has no idea. And these are the customers who buy most of the kits in this world.

Talk to the manufacturers, preferably a few, you will be very surprised. Even the haters can't realistically influence the sales of a kit.

Every year I write exactly the same thing: production of kits is not charity. Someone has to pay for this "sense". From an economic perspective, the production of the PZL.43 from steel moulds makes no sense at all, nor does the Mewa, Czapla or Sum. If the models of the aircraft mentioned above guaranteed economic success, someone would have released them as injected a long time ago. The years are flying by, and somehow nobody is going for it. Perhaps there is a reason for this? For example, a calculator in every computer and phone?

Talking about shame has little sense. Kits not profitable for larger companies due to high tooling cost and low sales can be profitable for short run companies due to much lower tooling cost thanks to manufacturing moulds in different technology.

The real problem starts when you have no place to store the boxes

It will be a very good year for 1/72. The biggest problem for modellers will not be a lack of kits, but a lack of space to store them.

Plus almost all their 1/48 kits are roughly WWII era, only announced Mirage IV is an exemption from the rule. If I had to bet, I'd bet on something from the American XP series, or maybe a lightweight P-51. But TBH beauty of companies releasing short run kits is that they have a much wider choice of subjects, so this can be anything, including biplane Spitfire with laser guns.

The PZL.43 was never announced and nobody said this kit will be ever released. And no, this is not part of Karaś family from kit design point of view. You need different wings, different engine, different fuselage and so on.

I think you can wait for the next shipments of Zvezda to arrive in the US, I've seen announcements in some shops.

Well... https://www.1001hobbies.com/172-scale-aircraft-model-kits/429273-zvezda-z7321-c-130h-hercules.html https://www.1001hobbies.com/172-scale-aircraft-model-kits/477376-zvezda-z7324-c-130j-30-hercules.html Even Amazon has it, with significant discount: https://www.amazon.com/Zvezda-American-Heavy-Transport-C-130H/dp/B08H7F61VB/

Decals are not that expensive, so such savings would not make much difference to the final price. The problem is the wholesale price of the model, which is too high for models from moulds that have long since been paid off. Years ago Italeri sold Supermodel kits very cheaply for a while. Despite the fact that they were old, they sold very well, precisely because of the really low price. I checked the prices now - it's a mess really hard to understand. The C-130H is 5% more expensive than the much better new kit from Zvezda. Who is going to buy it? The Sea Harrier FRS.1 and AV-8A are 15% more expensive than the Harrier GR.3, yet it is exactly the same old ESCI mould.

From their announcement, it seems that - as with other older larger kits - the big parts (fuselage, wings, etc.) will be old, only the details will be new.

1 July 2022 https://www.facebook.com/ibgmodels/posts/pfbid02vjwzk94HRzdJKUc3yF66jzoh6uRj1rxvScuLoxjiDT8dWKHW7HZSB8CrbLfiT7APl There is no "attachment to that period". There are fully developed projects of three families of aircraft - Karaś, Łoś and PZL fighters. In modern model design, you don't prepare each year a separate sprue for a new box. In modern project, multiple variants are included and parts are divided into common for many/all boxes and individual for selected ones. It takes a couple of years to create such a design, but all the research gives a huge number of options, so you can sell kits for several years. It is also logical that a company has the subject analysed deeply and wants to exploit this fact - hence the boxes with little-known markings or limited edition boxes. Of course not. This one, like 90% of other pre-war aircraft, is a subject for short-run companies. Żubr is a completely unprofitable project. Made from steel moulds, it would cost about 300 PLN on a shelf in a shop in Poland, which is around 65-70 euros/USD. Nobody would buy it at that price. With the amount of money and effort put into a project of this size, it would make more economic sense to release a brand new kit of DC-3/C-47 with full interior.

This surprise was brand new family of tanks in 1/35, Panzer II Ausf.a/b.

Of course. The explanation that a lot of the stuff in this year's catalogue is either reissues or announcements from previous years is intended to destroy Italeri and dominate the model market.