Moggy Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 Since a while back Pavla products are no longer available. I tried casting about after information but I've found none Pavla seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth. Does anybody know what's happened to Pavla? They did beautiful detailing stuff like ejector seats, entire cockpits, vacu canopies - all of them irreplaceable Is there a possibility of someone taking up the range? Cheers, Moggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Thompson Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 My understanding was that they sold their kit molds to AZ/KP (who have since reissued some of those kits under their own name with a bit of cleanup to the molds) but were keeping on with the vacuformed canopies and other accessories. That said, the pavlamodels.cz web site seems no longer to exist, and their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Pavlamodels.cz/ hasn't been updated since August 2020. So you might be forced to search out whatever you want at your favourite online hobby shops in the hope of finding some remaining stock somewhere, or the buy and sell forums here and elsewhere. John 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwikitbasher Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 I can only say that I understand Pavla has ceased trading. I have been asked not to divulge more than that by a third party.* As mentioned in the post above, AZ Model/Kovozavody Prostejov has, for a while now, been using Pavla masters to produce new limited-run epoxy molds of some aircraft kits, but with injected styrene parts replacing Pavla's use of vac-formed canopies and PE details. This began some time before Pavla's "disappearance" or the matter I can't discuss; which I believe is unrelated anyway. Based on my understanding, if you see a Pavla Canopy or resin detail set in stock somewhere, and you want it, then buy it whist you still can! I am unaware of anyone else taking on Pavla's vac-from and resin set tools and masters, but never say never. I would suggest before buying a "rare" limited-run Pavla aircraft kit you may see offered, check availability of the same subject by AZ Model/Kovozavody Prostejov, as it may well be cheaper. Moreover, you may prefer having no vac-formed or PE parts; although, for some, these would be a reason to opt for a Pavla original. * I offer the above as my opinion only and to reinforce John's advice above. I don't have special insight into the Czech Modelling industry, although I do have Czech friends who do. My comments here are simply to offer advice to those looking for hard-to-obtain Pavla kits and accessories; readers should not assume anything more than that. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moggy Posted January 15, 2023 Author Share Posted January 15, 2023 I knew about the kits... I have in my stash all the Pavla kits pertaining to my area of interest What I really miss is their resin accessories (very sharp detailing), their canopies... Pavla made improvement detail stuff to kits in real need of same. Most accessories today seem to be made for top kits with very little use for that (gilding the lily comes to mind). I really hope somebody picks up the accessory range 🥺 BTW @Kiwikitbasher - it all sounds very mysterious - it just whets my appetite for the story behind this... 🤐 Cheers, Moggy (searching for the B-47 improvement accessories) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Thompson Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 There was a Britmodeller thread a few months ago, You can thank Mr and Mrs Google for that. Not very useful though......... Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 On 1/16/2023 at 9:38 AM, Moggy said: it all sounds very mysterious I don't think it is any more mysterious than the lady who ran the company deciding to retire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 Damned inconvenient of her! I still don't have all the full resin cockpits I need for my P2V Neptunes. Don't these people realise we have models to build? Regards, Jason 1 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwikitbasher Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 (edited) 7 hours ago, Ed Russell said: I don't think it is any more mysterious than the lady who ran the company deciding to retire. @Moggy It's not mysterious. Edited January 17, 2023 by Kiwikitbasher Fix a typo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moggy Posted January 17, 2023 Author Share Posted January 17, 2023 Thank you @Branky for the info - a sad end for a fixture in the modelling world 😔 Moggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwikitbasher Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 (edited) Post deleted. Edited January 18, 2023 by Kiwikitbasher Delete post 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 It's of course unfortunate, but it's life. A lot of great modelling firms are gone - Frog and Matchbox are examples. Pavla was great in terms of manufacturing a lot of short run kits of more or less obscure types. Looks like that heritage is secured in the hands of AZ/KP. Pavla was also great for its time in producing resin replacements or vacformed canopies. But quite frankly I should admit that these days we're having lots of new resin manufacturers with much exceeding quality (reskit, barracuda, res-im) and older players that have better quality than Pavla (Eduard, Aires, newer sets from CMK). Vacformed canopies is something I personally hate and would use only if kit canopy is disastrous. But I can recognise that is something that is most irreplaceable in many cases. Still time for Pavla has gone and I think it was noticeable for a while that their business is in considerable decline. It is what it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 2 hours ago, Dennis_C said: But quite frankly I should admit that these days we're having lots of new resin manufacturers with much exceeding quality True, however they tend to mostly focus on the newest kits. For older moulds like the esci/Italeri stuff (Harriers for instance ) Pavla was one of the few that had goodies. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 31 minutes ago, alt-92 said: For older moulds like the esci/Italeri stuff (Harriers for instance ) Pavla was one of the few that had goodies. Heller was another, I had some cockpits sets for my Heller kits but by the time I realised they were on their way I had left it too late in many cases. You snooze, you loose. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filler Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 1 hour ago, alt-92 said: True, however they tend to mostly focus on the newest kits. For older moulds like the esci/Italeri stuff (Harriers for instance ) Pavla was one of the few that had goodies. Quite. I’ve got several Hasegawa Phantoms (as have very many of us) and Reskit etc don’t seem much interested in parts for them. And it seems ironic to me as they need the parts far more than Tamiya Phantoms do! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 7 hours ago, stevehnz said: Heller was another, I had some cockpits sets for my Heller kits but by the time I realised they were on their way I had left it too late in many cases. You snooze, you loose. Steve. Agree - older kits = older resin manufacturers. Especially if the kits are also out of production. Still I think CMK and Aires have produced quite a lot of resin casts for not so new kits but also agree for some kits no alternatives to Pavla exist. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 I agree with what others have said that Pavla sets covered an interesting niche, supplying details not only for older kits but also for kits that other manufacturers did not consider of interest. How many offered sets for say the Hobbyboss Lynx ? Pavla also had sets for more obscure subjects, I can get a cockpit for a Spitfire from many sources but they were the only ones to offer a 1/72 MB.339 cockpit. Said that I also agree that in terms of quality they were never the best on the market and I may add that some of their seats were suspiciously similar to previous offerings by other companies... but the inferior quality at least was generally matched to prices lower than the competition. Personally I will miss them a lot, I have used some of their sets before and still have several in the stash. Same for the vacform canopies, I know it's something that not many modellers use but personally I liked the idea of being able to purchase a new canopy from them in case I had problems with the parts in a kit. Hopefully somone will be able to take over the moulds and we'll see them reappear under a new name 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 Locked as not a rumor and staking on some thin ice with a couple of comments 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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