Trumpeter will produce a new WW2 German Carrier in 1/350 scale announced

[73north]

Great news that Trumpeter commissioned Randall Wilson

( the artist that does most, if not all of their box art for their kit art )

to do a painting of the German Carrier WESER 

( SEYDLITZ Heavy Cruiser ) and he has confimed on facebook that it will be injected plastic in 1/350 scale .

The box artwork is visible on my post in ' Rumourmonger ' in the Forum tonight .

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Rolls eyes...

 

Why the world needs 3 1/350 injection moulded aircraft carrier kits for a nation which completed and operated a grand total of zero in its entire history, especially when so many real ships with real histories are un-kitted, really is beyond me. Nazi fascination is a very curious thing.

[Paul Bradley]

Couldn't agree with you more, Jamie. I thought Luft '46 was bad enough, but KM '46 as well now......

 

There are so many REAL British carriers that need kitting. 

Edited August 25, 2021 by Paul Bradley

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

It's more that Trumpeter somehow believes yet another never completed German vessel based on a cruiser hull will return more on their investment than e.g. an Illustrious class fleet carrier tooling set with 4 potential boxings with minimal alternative parts required would?

 

Worse than that - they're probably right

[Graham Boak]

Only 3 Illustrious with "minimal alternative parts", and I'm not so sure about the minimal.  Indomitable was the 4th, and with a different hull and deck, lifts and bridge.  

[Paul Bradley]

1 hour ago, Graham Boak said:

with a different hull and deck, lifts and bridge.  

But aside from that, she was identical...... 😋

 

Jamie has a point though, and there are also the light fleet carriers in all their numerous guises over 60+ years. 8 Colossus Class, 5 Majestics, 4 Centaurs (including Hermes!), lots of war service, and how many nations? Plenty of re-boxing potential there to get a return on investment. They've kitted obscure British monitors, after all. 

 

Yet we get a paper design.....

Edited August 25, 2021 by Paul Bradley

[Graham Boak]

There are a number of options for the Light Fleet carriers, including resin (L@Arsenal) and injected polystyrene (IHP and fairly recently out).  So far they are only the Colossus class, other ones could be considerably different.  Certainly not simple reboxings nor minimal changes.  If you consider resin there are more British carriers available.  Honestly, resin kits are not that difficult.

[Mike]

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised any more about people posting "oh, you didn’t wanna do that, you wanna do this" whenever a new kit is announced, but here it is. Just be pleased for the people that will enjoy the model, and leave it at that. And can we have less of the dismissive attitude to other genres too please? Luft’46 doesn’t deserve any more stick than building a ship, a plane, a sci-if kit, or a fantasy figure. Best policy is to keep your own counsel on what’s a worthy genre in your eyes.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, I guess this ship would be very suitable in the "What-if" category  ie  what if she was completed? I actually enjoy 'what if' builds. Regards, Jeff.

[Phil Gollin]

.

 

For the Illustrious / Victorious and Formidable :

 

With the changes to round downs and light AA armament there are at least 6, or 7, basic models with lots of camo variations.

 

.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Phil Gollin

[73north]

It might not be so ruinous - 😀

as it’s based on a Hipper Class ‘ Cruiser ‘ hull after all , and the aircraft parts and ship boat’s  , and the ‘ Graf Zeppelin like ‘ warship parts ‘ are already modelled and pre-moulded - plus the Funnel is probably the same size as the Prinz Eugen albeit a bit taller - so not a big re-design .

so it might be the same price as a Cruiser .

The only real new parts would be the Carrier superstructure and the Carrier Upper Hull mated ( or faired in with the ‘ Hipper Class ‘ Hull ) , which could be achieved simply with a Upper Hull with guide pins into a Hipper Cruiser Hull .

in short it’s doable .

I have the 1/350 Ship plans for it from AJ Press ( in Polish ) for the Hipper Class 

which has a lovely set of Weser plans included ( which I kept )

sadly AJ press went out of business .

Question - did Profile Morskie ever do a set of plans for the Seydlitz Carrier ?

 

as it seems if Morskie do plans , Trumpeter uses them regardless of Copyright .

( and follows the rigidly , despite flaws or mistakes ) 

 

[Chewbacca]

I must confess I'm totally with Jamie on this.  There seems to be a belief that if it was German or Japanese, no matter how obscure or whatif, then it must be kitted.  And for those that want them, great.  Where does it stop though?  But the key point is to me is not that they're planning to make this but that there are so many British ships that have been totally ignored by every manufacturer.  Do kit makers believe that no one buys RN subjects anymore?  

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

In 2017 Matt McDougall, American modeller with some talent and opinion did some checking using Scale Hobbyist website's filters and wrote a blog about his findings.

 

In aircraft, there were just over 1500 aircraft kits. 28% of them were German, followed by 25% American, this despite the American fleet being far more diverse in major types and significant subvariants. In fighters alone Germany had 3 well-fielded types. The Americans had 8.

 

In armour, of 1090 WWII 1/35 scale AFV kits, 56% of them were German. If you want to get into different chassis, hull and turret sub-types with that ammo box or this storage container there or not there or whatever then Germany had plenty, but not more than everyone else put together.

 

For whatever reason, seemingly most people fall over themselves to buy German stuff. There are loads of rationalisations offered for this by all sorts of people. To be crystal clear I don't for a minute believe everyone with a cabinet full of Panzer tanks or Bf109s or "Kriegsmarine '46" ships actually subscribes to the ideological narrative of their government and the population who voted them in, but for me personally, the WWII German dominance of the model marketplace this will always remain one of life's mysteries.

 

I'd venture that Star Wars or Star Trek subjects are far more significant in popular culture than never-completed military hardware. My granny could have recognised them from their silhouette on a T-shirt. That said, I've seen a Star Wars AT-ST with iron crosses on it in the modelling world. I can't imagine very many people had even heard of the abandoned effort that was Weser were it not for the World of Warships computer game and even fewer would recognise it if the saw it.

 

Despite my negativity, perhaps there is a strongly encouraging sign in all this. If computer games are inspiring people to make models of never-existed ships (and we shouldn't forget the successful Very Fire debut kits of the also-never-finished USS Montana class battleships) then evidently the hobby is very much alive and well, even if the IPMS club and forums are not what appeal to the younger generations. The /modelmaking SubReddit board is fairly healthy, and the models I'm seeing there are ones I haven't seen on any of the forums or Facebook groups I use. People are out there - they're just enjoying stuff in a different way.

Maybe I'll get my Illustrious class, Nelson and Revenge classes eventually.

[Paul Bradley]

5 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Maybe I'll get my Illustrious class, Nelson and Revenge classes eventually.

 

We can only hope that, from what @73north conjectures, Morskie do a set of plans........😉

 

[Paul Bradley]

6 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

 Do kit makers believe that no one buys RN subjects anymore?  

 

If they don't kit them, we'll never know. Catch 22......

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

2 hours ago, Paul Bradley said:

 

We can only hope that, from what @73north conjectures, Morskie do a set of plans........😉

 

 

Better still someone finds whatever Brave Pill it is that's needed to persuade Flyhawk to upscale. They are easily the crowned kings of 1/700 without equal, and you could buy in 1/350 from them with confidence that you're not going to find a bunch of stuff obviously wrong with it.

 

I may ask them another time if their KGV class in 1/350 will ever see light of day or if it's been shelved.

[73north]

I am in the same boat , I am literally desperate to replace my 1986 Tamiya Model with  a 1/350 Flyhawk example 

( and not have to go down the Pontos Super detail route where you have to scrape off the Tamiya kit plastic ) 

Anyone in the know - who knows if this HMS Prince of Wales 1/350 kit will see the light of day .

I would buy it hands down , no question .

Regards to Forum 

[Alan P]

On 8/30/2021 at 10:33 AM, Chewbacca said:

I must confess I'm totally with Jamie on this.  There seems to be a belief that if it was German or Japanese, no matter how obscure or whatif, then it must be kitted.  And for those that want them, great.  Where does it stop though?  But the key point is to me is not that they're planning to make this but that there are so many British ships that have been totally ignored by every manufacturer.  Do kit makers believe that no one buys RN subjects anymore?  

+1 for this sentiment. Commercial conservatism will unfortunately limit much diversity in mass market kits, as it does for film, TV, music and publishing already 😢

[Seahawk]

Perhaps the attraction for Trumpeter is that, if they steer clear of subjects that actually existed, there is no scope for people to call out the inaccuracies on their kits.

[Mike]

So a thread about a new Trumpeter kit of a carrier has 20 posts and almost all of them are people with no interest in it moaning about the fact that it wasn't something else that they'd like.  What a waste of effort, and damned annoying for everyone that IS interested in the subject.

 

These whining comments are getting out of hand, and I would remind those responsible that if they don't have anything constructive to say about a newly announced subject that they keep their gobs shut and move on.

 

I'm locking this one off as it's too late to save it, so if anyone with an interest in the original subject wants to create a new topic, go right ahead.  Anyone piling in with their negative vibes will be dealt with accordingly.