WNW is ruining things

[swapilot]

I received a package today in the post from Albatros Productions.  In it was a copy of R L Rimell's Zeppelins at War 1914-1915.  So after thumbing through it one thing really stuck out in my mind.  No, it was not all of the oustanding photographs nor was it the well written historical text.  What stuck out in my mind was how great the Ronny Bar Profiles of Sopwith Tabloid #168 and Avro 504 #874 would look as WNW kits.  It really is funny, a few short years ago I would have given the profiles only quick look, now I drool over them and think how great they would look in Kiwi plastic.  No, WNW is not ruining things.  Well, maybe they are ruining my checkbook.  As for the book, OUTSTANDING is the only way to describe it.

[JeroenPeters]

Cool.... Any quick glances you can share with us? Just a peek

[James H]

There's no doubt that the German aircraft are going to be big sellers. You certainly can't slam business for tapping into that, BUT remember that the newest, shiniest release is actually a dual British and American venture (Felixstowe).

 

Releases so far have been a good spread of both RFC and German, with the Salmson thrown in of course.

 

For me, I'd like to see the Camel released before too long, and I'd kill for a SPAD (most versions). I know this has been said before, but no harm in reiterating it.

[Rowan Broadbent]

I was actually thinking earlier today, you know, Wingnut really is kind of ruining things.

 

Their kits are such definitive mic drops that it seems like nobody is willing to take them on. Well, except Roden I guess.

 

We've got an entire war. A war celebrating its 100th anniversary right now. On the armor side, Tamiya, Takom, Meng and Hobby Boss have gotten into the game. 

 

In the air? You've got Wingnut and a few limited resin releases. Where is Trumpeter? Where is Academy? Where is Tamiya? 

 

Guess my only beef is that this means fewer kits overall. Look at Great War armor - in a little more than a year we've gone from the pain of Emhar to state of the art tools of the Renault FT, St. Chamond, British Mk.IV (in male, female and tadpole!) and Schneider CA.

 

TL;DR - Wingnut good. Perhaps too good. I grow weary of endless German releases.

 

You seem to be saying that Wingnut wings are so good that nobody else is entering the market, because they can't compete with their quality   and that this is somehow a bad thing. That can't be what you meant, can it? Without WNW just how many 1/32nd scale kits would we have seen in the last five years? Maybe a half-dozen so-so Roden efforts and at best, that would be it.

 

Have you bought and built all the non-German Wingnut Wings kits released so far?

 

In any case, Special Hobby have just released a very nice 1/32nd Bristol M.1c (if enough buy it there might be others? Its not German either....) and now it seems that a Chinese set-up called Merit are going to release some 1/24th kits of an SE5a, a SPAD XIII and a Dr.I, so some aren't that "discouraged". Perhaps releasing in a different scale means Merit don't want to be measured against WNW - if so that doesn't bode too well for the kit's quality, does it?

[Rowan Broadbent]

One has to look really hard for a downside to Wingnut Wings. In my opinion, such as there is one, it's their dominance and what it means for subjects they don't cover.

 

Don't really know why anyone has to search for a downside, but each to their own.

 

For me, the easiest way to look at this is to recognise what WNW have single-handedly done for WWI aircraft modelling in general, but in 32nd scale in particular; many, many modellers who would never have considered building a WWI aircraft are now buying almost every kit that WNW turn out (and many are also building them!!). This is solely the result of the product's quality and the corollary is that nobody will want to enter the same market unless they can also come close to equalling that quality.

 

Now, if this market reaches a size which would make it profitable for a "normal" profit-driven kit producer to dip a toe in (and I don't think that time is too far off), they would, I hope, know that it is a market which is quality driven and therefore produce a suitably researched and moulded product - because if they don't, it just won't sell. Now that CAN'T be a bad thing, surely?