Model Airplane International - July 2016.pdf

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ALL THE INFORMATION YOU’LL EVER NEED
TO CREATE THE BEST AIRCRAFT MODELS
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GET THE BEST FROM
KITTYHAWK’S 1:48 AH-1Z
KIT BUILD
July 2016
£4.50 / Issue 132
IT’S
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WE VISIT SWORD &
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www.modelairplaneinternational.com
KIT
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Contents
VOLUME 11. ISSUE 132. JuLY 2016
REGULARS
P04
- EDITORIAL
P06
- NEWSLINE
P78
- EVENTS DIARY
P79
- CONTACTS DETAILS
P81
- NEXT ISSUE
P82
- FINAL THOUGHTS…
REVIEWS
P8 KIT PREVIEW
Tamiya 1:100 Embraer 175
Tel:
Fax:
01525 222573
01525 222574
Model Airplane International. Doolittle Mill, Doolittle Lane,
Totternhoe, Bedfordshire, LU6 1QX, England
VOL.11 ISS.132 JULY 2016
Editor:
Editorial:
P76 NEW RELEASES DECALS
Decorate your aircraft models with these new
sheets
Publisher:
Group Editor:
Administration Manager:
Office Manager:
Advertising Manager:
Spencer Pollard
spencer@adhpublishing.com
Alan Harman
Marcus Nicholls
Hannah McLaurie
Paula Gray
Sean Leslie
FEATURES
P10 IT’S SHOWTIME!
P14 FULLY LOADED!
We visit Sword & Lance from Darlington
The editor builds the brand new Eduard 1:72
Focke-Wulf Fw190A-8
Editorial Design:
Advertising Design:
Art:
Peter Hutchinson
Peter Hutchinson & Alex Hall
ADH Publishing, Doolittle Mill, Doolittle Lane,
Totternhoe, Bedfordshire, LU6 1QX.
Tel: 01525 222573 Fax: 01525 222574
E-mail:
sean@adhpublishing.com
Advertisement and circulation:
P42 EXTENDED KWIK BUILD
Sword 1:72 Jet Provost T. Mk.5
P24 FULCRUM
Distribution:
Jammie Haggo builds Great Wall Hobby’s MiG-
29SMT
Seymour Distribution, 2 East Poultry Avenue,
London, EC1A 9PT.
Tel: 020 7429 4000
P58 KIT PREVIEW
Tamiya 1:48 F-14A Tomcat
P34 REFERENCE FEATURE
P46 VIPER!
MAI takes a look at the impressive MiG-23 Flogger
Drewe Manton build the Kittyhawk AH-1Z in 1:48
P68 NEW RELEASES KITS
The latest kit releases assessed
Select Publisher Services, 3 East Avenue,
Bournemouth, BH3 7BW.
Tel: 01202 586848 E-mail:
tim@selectps.com
Newstrade:
Subscriptions:
P70 NEW RELEASES ACCESSORIES
The latest aftermarket releases assessed
P62 SHIZUOKA TOY FAIR
P72 NEW RELEASES BOOKS
Brett Green captures all of the highlights from this
year’s event
ADH Publishing, Doolittle Mill, Doolittle Lane, Totternhoe,
Bedfordshire, LU6 1QX. Tel: 01525 222573 Fax: 01525
222574 Rates: UK £44, Eire and Europe £56,
Worldwide Air £69.
Website:
www.modelairplaneinternational.com
Some of the latest aviation and modelling titles
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Model Airplane International is published monthly by ADH Publishing Ltd, Doolittle Mill, Doolittle Lane, Totternhoe, Bedfordshire, LU6 1QX. Entire Contents © 2016 ADH Publishing Ltd.
Reproduction in part or whole of any text, photograph or illustration without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. While due care is taken to ensure the content of Model
Airplane International is accurate, the publishers and printers cannot accept liability for errors and omissions. Advertisements are accepted for publication in Model Airplane International only
upon ADH Publishing’s standard terms of acceptance of advertising, copies of which are available from the advertising sales department of MAI.
Issue 132
- www.modelairplaneinternational.com
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EDITORIAL
IF ONLY THEY’D LISTEN TO US…
very time a new kit gets
announced, there is usually
either a wall of disapproval
or disappointment to whit
the chosen subject is either
the wrong subject, wrong scale or
E
there’s already a kit on market, why do “we” need another
one? The recent announcement of Tamiya’s new 1/48 F-14
Tomcat ticked all these boxes and then more – there’s no
shortage of 1/48 F-14s out there and Tamiya Tomcat wasn’t
bringing anything new to party with its closed slats and
flaps. Why are Tamiya doing a Tomcat?
“
If your favourite subject doesn’t appear in the next batch of kit
announcements, it not because kit companies are not listening
or are somehow missing some great market opportunity
”
4
MODEL AIRPLANE INTERNATIONAL -
July 2016
The simple answer is that a Hasegawa
1/48 F-14 makes no money for Tamiya. And
for that one can substitute any kit company
and subject matter into the mix. “But why
couldn’t they have done… (insert favourite
subject here)?” and it’s here that the notion
that enthusiasts know what would sell tends to
splinter off into different directions. Enthusiasts
know what they personally like to build, but
all too often those wants are conflated into a
window onto the modelling world when in fact
they’re just a mirror to the individual. All too
often people talk in the plural as if there had
been some election for a spokesperson for all
modellers, when in fact it’s entirely subjective.
To quote an old Genesis song, “I know what
I like....”
It’s often said that if you ask 10 enthusiasts
what they would like as kits, you’d get 10
different answers. The enthusiast sector is a
highly vocal and highly organised part of the
hobby – but it is a part, not the whole. It’s easy
to look at the myriad of new releases and think
it’s all enthusiast centric, and that kit major
companies are hovering around modelling
forums hanging on to every word anyone has
about what will sell and what won’t. I’m sure
some kit companies do keep an eye on those
places, but they’ll also be looking at the things
that sell in their ranges – and sometimes these
are things that fall outside of enthusiasts tastes
– and feedback from the trade as to which
products lines are moving and which ones
are not.
Occasionally there’s grumblings about why
kit catalogues don’t have the wider range of
subject matter they had decades ago, but
times have changed, the market has changed
and kit catalogues tend to be an accurate
reflection of what sells – if your favourite kit or
subject matter isn’t in one, chances are there’s
a logical reason for it. It’s not like everyone
sat around a board table like something in a
James Bond movie and just decided to drop
a kit of subject matter out of spite. Similarly
the notion that kit companies should elect
modellers to “choose” which of their kits should
be on sale on the basis of the “best” kits. You
cannot force a market to buy a kit if they don’t
want it, but equally it there’s little commercial
logic to withdrawing a kit that sells volume just
because three guys on a modelling forum think
it should be retired. Equally, it would take a
brave (or rich) person to open a model shop
and sell only the kits they think the modelling
public should be buying.
Alas, sometimes even the really nice kits
lose their market for a while, and yet decades-
old warhorses continue to solider on, despite
protestations that they’ll put off fledgling
modellers for life – because if they are, they’re
taking their time doing it. An inexperienced
modeller could easily be disillusioned by
a modern, complex kit as they could by
something basic from the 1960s. It’s a roulette
wheel of chance dependent on the aptitude of
the builder, and in this regard you even come
across enthusiasts arguing over a kit that
some find an “engineering disaster” that others
have little problem with.
The bottom line is that kit companies
are businesses, they are not a service to
modellers. And while that may sound harsh, it
is a commercial reality. Model kits are large,
expensive investments, and different kit
companies have different business models
(sic) as to who much and how fast tooling
has to pay for itself in order to be a success.
That’s why when you sometimes get the
“risk” subjects announced, you also get some
“bankers” as insurance.
The late great Maurice Landi of Matchbox
once said something to the effect that
sometimes they listened to the enthusiast too
much and ended up with “much requested”
subjects that didn’t resonate with the wider kit
buying public.
Which brings us to the issue of the
enthusiast end talking up a subject matter and
kit, only to go AWOL when it’s finally released.
“Well of course, I’d really love one, having
championed it as a kit for some time now, but
where would I put it?” There’s the tendency to
excitedly talk about ideas for releases that are
just that – ideas with little if any possibility of
ever being done, even if a handful of people
say “I’d buy one”. That’s great, if you could buy
100, that would be better!
As unpalatable as it may sometimes sound,
kit companies tend to know more about their
markets than modellers do. That’s not to
diminish the support and sales from modellers
– far from it! – but when it comes to the
commercial side of things, the view is often
clearer simply because every kit company
knows its product lines and its sales inside out.
“I know what I like…” But liking something
and thinking that everyone else will like it too
are often different things. If your favourite
subject doesn’t appear in the next batch of kit
announcements, it not because kit companies
are not listening or are somehow missing
some great market opportunity.
They’ll have done their research, they’ll
know what the trade has sold and is asking for.
And it’s their money that’s being risked on new
kits.
(Jonathan Mock)
Issue 132
- www.modelairplaneinternational.com
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