Scale Modelings Golden Age!

[JohnReid]

I believe this is it! While there will always be some form of modeling around like there always has been over the ages, modeling as we have come to know it is in its "Golden Years".
I was in my local hobby shop the other day speaking with one of the owners and he was telling me that is youngest regular customer is now 40 years old.This hobby shop is your traditional variety that sells models and supplies only.Everything from a few dollars to thousands for some of the railway stuff.It is packed to the ceiling with stuff both new and old and they are doing very well money wise.They have no complaints but they are also of the over forty generation and they wonder as I do,where are the kids?
I know this subject has been brought up before here and on other forums but this store is unique in that it just like the kind that you would find 50 years ago and they are doing very well for now but just about every time I go there someone has passed on to the "happy modeling ground".
Remember old baseball or hockey cards and original comic books ,things considered of no value at the time so everyone threw theirs out.I have a feeling that not too far down the road after grandpa's RR layout is broken up and thrown out or uncle Tim's model collection is no more ,the same thing will happen to models from this golden age.

[Rob_Owens]

Trading cards, postage stamps, gems, and vintage wines and such have an intrinsic value amongst collectors of such things, based on their rarity. There's no way to put a value on built model collections, because the hobby is about building one's own models, not collecting what others have built.

[JohnReid]

Originally Posted by Rob_Owens

Trading cards, postage stamps, gems, and vintage wines and such have an intrinsic value amongst collectors of such things, based on their rarity. There's no way to put a value on built model collections, because the hobby is about building one's own models, not collecting what others have built.

No,no it is the rarity that I am talking about not the value to collectors .Who knows what will be of value in the future .Maybe fine craftmanship and art in small scales will be considered rare and collectable because no one does it anymore!

[Kaiser Bill]

John... you bring up a very interesting point indeed. Where are the kids??

I have asked several different hobby shop owners this question in Arizona and Southern California over the past 16 years that I have been back in the hobby. To a man they all said basically the same thing. Video games, trying to be "gangsta" and in modeling there is no "instant gratification". These are their words not mine.

I think its sad that the fun we found as kids and now in the fall of our lives is not being enjoyed by today's younger generation. Yes there are still some youngsters that model. I see them at every show's "MAKE AND TAKE", but I believe the numbers of young people in the hobby are way down from what they were thirty or forty years ago. Half the kids on my block growing up had models hung from their bedroom ceiling or on top of their dressers.

Kaiser Bill

[albatros1234]

bill you beat me to the punch here, my response would have been nearly identical to yours. the younger generation is mostly interested in instant gratification.there will always be artists and herein lies the future of modeling. theres no action in building models and i think that todays youth is more likely to blow up a model with a firecracker then to build one. I am 41 and i loved to build models when I was a kid. a friend of mines father was into it so thats what got me started. I used to build mostly 1/72 armor and paint 1/72 figures. we then made up our own wargameing rules using d&d dice to calculate casualties. nowadays kids pop in a 1st person shooter video game to play wargames. I havent changed much as the video games i like are strategy type that allow the player to be a general and control masses of troops on a huge battlefield. i think the shoot em up stuff gets boring, but then i'm a nerd.its sad but true and i never thought i'd say" whats wrong with kids today" all we can do is try to teach them as young as possible the value of modeling. once they hit 12 or 13 its almost too late.this is only my opinion but i think it reflects what i see around me.

[StephenLawson]

John I believe you are correct. In the years after World War II there were Airfix, Aurora, FROG, Renwal & Revell model kit manufacturers. The first WWI aviation kit subject was FROG's 1/72 Avro 504K in butyl plastic. In 1960 Cross & Cockade USA was born. In 1968 Cross & Cockade Great Britain rose into publication. Then, our very own Leo Opdyke brought us WWI Aero. The early sixties saw a resurgence in WWI aviation interest and with it Hollywood gave us “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” and “The Blue Max.” In a little out of the way swamp near Pougkeepsie, New York a man named Cole Palen carved out an airfield where even today the cough and roar of rotary engines can be heard throughout the summer months.

I remember the dark days after 1966. Airfix, Aurora, MPC, FROG, Revell, with some minor exceptions, all seemed to aim their kit productions away from WWI aviation subjects of any scale . Fortunately the old Profile Publication issues were still in print. They covered many types of aviation subjects. Then it was the fledgling cottage industries that gave us vacuform kits, slush molding and resin castings that kept alive the interest in modeling subjects of First World War aviation. These were Veeday, Merlin (both run by Vagn Espensen), Pegasus/ Blue Max (Chris Gannon), Classic Plane (D. Schörsch), Formaplane of London, By-Planes (Pamela Veal), Rareplanes of Canada, AirFrame (John Tarvin), CramerCraft and countless others all gave us a steady stream of ‘historic plastic.' One of the premier companies at this time was of course Contrail, part of Gordon Sutcliffe Productions, Somerset, England. They were using female molds to draw the heated plastic into their recesses. This allowed for more detail to be represented on outside surfaces than was seen on vacuforms made with male molds. Now as we have entered the new century, vacuforms tend to be passe to most modelers. While they seem to have been replaced by the use of resin/ rubber vulcanizing or low pressure, short-run injection molding there are still several superb companies that manufacture high quality vacuform kits. Long live multimedia !!!

Then in late 1976 ‘the cottage industries' started moving steadily away from their beginnings with vacuforms to small short run injection molded kits. For various personal or financial reasons many companies closed their doors while others flourished. Fortunately we have a fairly comprehensive record of these events as chronicled by two historians that followed this same path of success. Brad K Hansen gave us WWI in plastic and the indefatigable Ray Rimell. Brad has not been heard from in many years. Ray has been the greatest force in the publication of informational data on modeling WWI aviation subjects. Avlon Hill gave us the “Richthofen's War” board game. Since the early 1980's anyone who has ever sought this type of info has had the great fortune to be able to turn to Albatros Pub. Ltd. and purchase Windsock magazines, Datafile monographs and other Special related issues. Ray had moved away from writing for Scale Models (Nexus Pub.) And opened his own shop. But in late 1986, Cross & Cockade USA fell silent. But in late 1988, Over the Front was the phoenix that rose from the ashes of the old C&C USA. When Soviet Russia fell in 1991 suddenly there was hope for all. A small Ukrainian company began pumping out some fine 1/72 scale kits. ToKo, led the way.

In the area of aftermarket productions we can not forget the decal companies that have provided so many great scheme markings. For many years Blue Rider and Krasel industries (Microscale and Superscale) gave us great profiles. Gone are Aeromaster and Eagle Strike as they were purchased by Squadron. A new company stroking for WWI aviation modelers is Microsculpt.

Finally in 1992 company from China, Dragon Models Limited gave us kit #5601, their Fokker Dr.I also in 1/48 scale. In the following years they gave us a Spad XIII, Fokker D. VII and a Fok. D.VIII all in 1/48 scale. Then they fell silent. Now simply called Dragon, they have closed their WWI aviation line and sell large scale multi-pose WWII figures and small scale WWII aviation and armour subjects. In the same year another small company (named after a an ancient knight from the region of what is now the modern Czech Republic) that opened up the way for hope to grow. With their main thrust being the production and sales of aftermarket photoetch metal parts, Eduard gave us kit #8001. It was their Siemens Schuckert D.III in 1/48 scale. To show you what I mean I am providing a partial list of 1/48 scale WWI aviation kits that Eduard has given from 1992 to 2004. That is at least 52 kits in 12 years.

We are in the “Golden Age of WWI aviation modeling.” In all my years of building their kits I have never found an Roden or Eduard kit in the bargain bin of any hobby shop. They keep their worth. But Eduard is growing and as such it is changing its direction. What it will leave behind is the contact with our era modelers. While we will continue to buy and build, modelers are looking to some new up and coming companies to fill the gaps that Eduard has left behind in it move away from WWI subjects. It is about survival. For a company to grow it has to touch other markets. The comparative new kid on the block is a company called Roden, based in the Ukraine. They began producing1/72 scale kits and only in the past two years have started cranking out high detail, modestly priced 1/48 scale subjects. While Eduard has promised that 2005 will be their year of the “Fokker” their recent subjects of the Sopwith aviation type are as detailed as a modeler could expect and it can be said that they lead in the multi media market. Roden is a strong contender in this area and what they have in store for 2005 will be astounding. A giant leap in modeling is promised. With the world economy striving for a free - trade community and the internet bringing all of us closer together I wonder, where we will go from here?

WWI aviation history is preserved in national record offices and private museums. One such repository is the Lafayette Foundation in Platteville CO. Lafayette Foundation

Research fiends, enthusiasts and devotees regularly visit its hangars to study their model displays, documents, uniforms and to watch full and 80% scale replica WWI fighters take to the sky. A warm greeting and a hot cup o' coffee is always on the stove every Friday and Saturday or by appointment.

The “internet super-highway” allows us to transport to various websites on a daily basis. Modeling sites have popped up like little towns that line the highways from here to there. Here's to the hope that we can become one of those fine recreational venues

Others provide links to the image based or informational sites. Even the top membership society journals of real history like Cross & Cockade Intl and Over the Front magazines have their own websites. One can find that large scale control line, free flight or radio control subjects have several companies with plans or complete kits for purchase all on the internet. For the individual looking for that old kit, uniform or photo there is e-bay. There are even personal computer flight simulation games with our favorite aviation subjects.

Today, general subject modeling magazines are beginning to turn their backs on publishing 1914-1918 aviation kit build ups. Will our arena of scale kit modeling eventually phase out due to lack of interest? Will kit prices continue to climb to where they can not be afforded? Will all of our modeling eventually be 3-D and done on a computer screen? Or will the future see a group of adults that come back to kit modeling as a way to revisit their youth? It may be that in that future time we come full circle and see cottage industries again purchasing old injection molding machines and pressing out long forgotten subjects. As for today, we the WWI aviation kit builders are having our day in the sun.

With manufacturers like Eduard, Mirage, Planet Models, Roden, Special Hobby, Techmod and Wingnut Wings the evidence is very clear.

[StephenLawson]

As to collecting;

Ever since the days of the "Kit Collectors Clearing House" modelers have collected, sold and traded "valuable" kits. For World War One in plastic's author Brad Hansen his collecting started years before his 1979 publication. With the advent of e-bay and their auctioning system people began selling all era kits for what could be gotten.

WWI kit collector's items still have an underground movement where modelers have their entire basements or extra bed rooms converted to shelves filled with unbuilt kits. Its the individual answer to the dwindling number of local hobby shops. Many of these fellows will invite fellow IPMS members to hold meetings or Christmas celebration meetings in their homes for the chance to be with like-minded modelers to share eats and treats. Often these fellows are buyers and sellers on e-bay. The holy grail to these fellows is often a complete run of kits from a specific manufacturer or manufacturer's series.

Kit Collector's Clearing house magazine OK. The KCC was run by a minister in Oklahoma. It might have gone of business. I hope this is of help.

"Kit Collectors Clearing House is alive and well here in Oklahoma. As a matter of fact, John Burns lives only a couple of miles from me. You ought to see this guys collection! He has built an entire room on his house to hold thousands of kits. He produces a collectors book that has the value of almost every model ever made. It's only $25.00 and it has lots of photos of the kits as well. . . . He also has a great newsletter for those interested in kit collecting. Rusty white 1998."

As of 3 years ago, KCC sent out its last catalog and news letter. I just talked to John by phone and he is totally retired. Alive and well but definately retired.

[Fokker Ace]

When today's forty-somethings were kids, the world was a different place. I don't believe kids have change; there's simply a great deal more stimulation and instant gratification availible today. Entertainment used to be riding your bike or swimming or palying tag. If it rained you got out Monopoly or glued a model together. Just think of the diversions there are now that only a decade ago didn't exist.

[Cajun]

Hehe makes me wonder if I'm the youngest on here.

I am 25 yrs old. I have been modeling since I was like 4 sitting next to my dad as he built my Comet Spad or watching him spin around as his Sterling Fok. DVII with a Fox .35 was gazing in circles....... I have been in plastics but have done R/C. Would love to build Dioramas.

I play them 1st person shooters to kill time but I also enjoy some good Age of Empires Strat now and then......


Trust me there are still some young ones out there into the plastic building. Just the other night a friend of mines son asked me how to apply decals on a 1/48 P-40 he had and this kid is only 10.

But as many know the world of Video Gaming as taken the joys away from this hobby but I do know that I take my time with it all as I enjoy it all.

Im no Stephan Lawson or John Reid or Brad Cancian but I cherish my models even tho they look the same now as if I were 6 yrs old building and painting lol.

And when I have a Son or Daughter I will do the same that my dad done with me..... SUnday morning will consist of laying on the couch watching The Blue Max and Battle of Britian. With a lil Revell DVII to get the knowledge going!


Hail The Aerodrome!

[albatros1234]

yeah cajun you might be the youngest around here I feel young at 41.I would guess the average age is 55 on the forum.

to respond to an above poster yes things are expanding and getting better for ww1 aircraft modelers all the time. the 100 yr anniversary is 4 yrs away. I'll bet that many companies will have special editions for 2014. as it was stated above things got good for us in the 90's with blue max , eduard and roden. although eduard is not really a limited run company anymore, they are on the level with the big boys tamigawa and such. their old kits are crap by todays standards but just a few years ago some of the subjects they put out were the only game in town. and there are collectors with rooms full of these old kits. if they're smart they'll get rid of them while they can still get something for them.the new companies have replaced the old stuff and outdid them. 5 years ago you could expect to pay 40-50 bucks for an old eduard kit. now they are $20 from ebay and collectors. soon there will be better examples of most of them. look at rodens SSW DIII. last year if you wanted one you had to deal with the old eduard stuff. once an aftermarket PE set is out for it the old eduard will be virtually worthless.just like they destroyed the value of the fokker dvi a couple years ago.the eduard kit was rough but it was that or vac kits.i picked up a ed fokk dvi for $15 last month and i'm gonna kitbash it with roden dvii wings chopped down from a kit that hit the floor when i moved.add some of doug baumanns lozenge and its much better than the eduard kit dreamed of being.all in all i'm a happy flyer.and i know everyone here is.