What Heller can but Airfix can't

[peebeep]

NMM plans service: http://www.rmg.co.uk/shop/ship-plan-prints-scanning

[RussellE]

yup, 1,000GBP is not much to invest from a corporate POV, the real cost comes when converting those drawings from lines to a fully surfaced 3d CAD model, and then breaking it down into individual parts, then taking those parts and designing an injection molding tool around them. This all happens before steel is even ordered, let alone cut, and the cost of this design process can run into the 10's of thousands of pounds/dollars... 😮

I've shared some pics of my trip to the NMM's KGV builder's model here:

http://modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=features&file=view&artid=4668

BTW the typo on the title picture is not mine 😛

Enjoy 😎

[Kenneth ONeill]

Guys, I picked on Howe because I happen to know where her builder's model is, and that GRM (qv) hold copies of the builder's drawings that they use to maintain the model (source being an old friend who was a modelmaker for Glasgow Museums). I've no doubt that the "London MM"* hold a set of plans as well.

*Sorry, I don't buy into calling things in one corner of the Country "national" unless they're unique, by which I mean that no other examples of them exist.

[William Morrison]

So if Heller are capturing the market there, why would Airfix risk so much in trying to compete?

 

Profitable or not, I would suggest that a businessman would look at that and think 'no point in us trying to release ships another manufacturer has already taken a risk on' and look at subjects other manufacturers haven't done, thereby capturing a market that way?

The answer is easy; don't release the same ships!  Release others that complement either the Heller or Airfix lines.  Also, please understand that many of Heller's sailing ships are fictional. They represent ships that never existed.  Airfix has been the only manufacturer to have never done this.  Airfix had the solid reputation of manufacturing the best sailing ships on the market, although Revell could have held this reputation had they not released some that did not represent the real thing.  Airfix should have built on this instead of simply rereleasing ships we had already purchased.  Instead, they gave up.  I would purchase more should they release more.

[Braille Dave]

The National Maritime Museum was opened in 1937- and was the only one of its kind in the world, let alone the UK, for a fair while. It also maintains the biggest maritime archive in the world. It also holds most, if not all of the general arrangement, building and modification drawings for rn and RFA ships of the last two centuries, and a good many before (where ever they were built).

 

My point is the archive and research is there, albeit that there are few preserved examples compared to the amount of military vehicles and aircraft. R/C modellers seem to come up with many weird and wonderful examples, and there is a thriving market and aftermarket for 1/100 and similar scales, as well as a thriving boat club scene (two national magazines, and a very influential national organisation)...

 

Maybe in that is the answer.... It could be that in the UK, most marine modellers build in the R/C scales- I've seen some wonderful, accurate to scale models that could also be swum on the water. Lets face it, 1:100 is an excellent scale to work in, giving as it does the ability to get some minute work in.

 

 

[Simon Norton1707820138]

I can see a couple of problems with Airfix going for 1:100 scale. First a battleship in that scale is 8 or 9 feet long. Second polysterene would lack the structural strength for a kit that big, which is why r/c modellers make the hulls out of fibreglass or wood. Third the cost would be enormous, there was a 1/144 Bismarck proposed by a German manufacturer a few years ago at a cost of $1000. I don't think it got beyond the prototype stage.

 

Something that should be remembered is that plans and dockyard models can differ considerably from the final appearance of the ship. Also refits etc can alter the appearance of a ship radically during it's service life. Look at HMS Warspite in WW1 and WW2, there's hardly a part of the ship which remains unaltered.

[peebeep]

I think Braille Dave is referring to classic sailing ships, not modern battleships.

[Ratch]

 I thought he was referring to all ships right through WW1 & 2

[Ratch]

1/100 is far too big to make a collection of. 1/350 is too big. Let's have 1/600!

[Braille Dave]

Err, no....you've all missed my point. I'm trying to point out why there may not be a market for small scale ships- because those with a nautical bent tend to build in 1:100, where they can achieve their desired level of detail and get to sail them too.

 

And BTW, many 1:100 warships are built in styrene- with accurate frames, longerons and planking (or skinning). The weight and stress calculations of a steel hull translate well into styrene at 1:100. It just means you don't start with a one piece hull- you build from the keel upwards, much as the real ships are made.

 

[Kenneth ONeill]

I'm well aware that "as commissioned plans" may not represent a ship as of ~25 years later; I have plans of HMS Warspite (Pennant 03) from as commisioned through to 1943 covering all the refits and major additions of ack-ack.

[William Morrison]

I remember that Heller was planning to manufacture a 1/100 Sovereign of the Seas to go with Le Soleil Royal and HMS Victory.  Then they went bankrupt.  I would love to see them resurrect this plan!

[Chuffing Billy]

Many of the sales issues stem from manufacturers not producing what the modellers want.  If Airfix were to produce a list and 'ask us' - radical idea I know - but at least then they could gauge possible/probable sales.  Just blindly going off and producing a new ship could be commercial suicide. Can I please put in a plug then for either 1/400 or preferably 1/200 Ark Royal lll, IV or V - or all three.  Please !

[capricekor]

For 1/350 warships, China's Trumpeter have it nailed down in my neck of the woods (South Korea) with a good range. Lot of carriers and assault ships with airwings.