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Modelling in 2020 : Pre-orders and Chinese crap?

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  • Member since
    March 2005
  • From: Lancaster, South Carolina
Posted by Devil Dawg on Wednesday, August 7, 2019 9:09 PM

It's all in how much time you want to invest in building a model. I, myself, love to build models that already come with lots of detail, as I don't have a lot of time for modeling, but I like lots of detail, so I tend to build Tamiya kits, or Hasegawa, some Eduard, etc, etc. But that's just me. I know others who like to buy the cheap, older kits (Monogram, Revell, etc), and scratch-build their own details to go in them. Whatever you want and like to build is out there for you to choose from; if you don't like what you're seeing, don't buy it. The stuff you want will be there for many, many years to come. I don't think the stuff that you mentioned in the first part of your post is going to take over any of the other stuff at all, and that stuff has been out there for decades. 

Gary Mason

 

Devil Dawg

On The Bench: Tamiya 1/32nd Mitsubishi A6M5 Model 52 Zeke For Japanese Group Build

Build one at a time? Hah! That'll be the day!!

  • Member since
    July 2019
Modelling in 2020 : Pre-orders and Chinese crap?
Posted by Robotism on Wednesday, August 7, 2019 7:06 PM

The last few days I've been browsing around trying to find some ways to increase the stash. I've noticed for a while but it really hit me today just how much of the industry has become "Pay us now, maybe you will get it tomorrow?" in the form of kickstarters. Now entire companies are set up to just rotated kickstart projects over and over. Once one ends another is began to add to the two already in motion. I see something I like the look of in the news and it's 2 years away from release, if they keep to schedule.

My other issue is I'm seeing a lot of low quality plastic. Plastic that's very difficult to cut or sand, holds detail badly and is floppier than spagetti. It's the worst possible option in every way except it is exceptionally cheap and that's all people care about. They're ordering entire crates of these things and like the kickstarters mentioned above they buy them a year or two in advance, when most the models won't even be wanted or ever used. They're becoming so successful I can see us moving more and more towards lower quality products at much cheaper costs and then you're left with nothing to really worth with as a model.

I've also noticed model companies expanding into what I would call trinkets. Thinks like funko pops where they take the same generic vinyl shape, put a decal to represent a characters face and then charge 10-15 bucks for it. They're not even action figures which required custom sculpts, they're just objects with different decals and maybe a pair of ears attached. These things are so popular they now dominate comic conventions, video game shops and the places we used to find more nerdy things.

I'm going to lean in the other direction with this complaint. Models are becoming too complex for the sake of complexity. Everyone is going to have their own idea of the perfect amount of detail, there's always room for single link tracks or rubber tracks. I've noticed we've got into a weird era where instead of single link tracks we're closer to having individual rivets you attach onto each track link. Models are starting to become over engineered where everything is so covered with detail you end up with no where to really guide the eye. When we had to hand build prototypes and make molds from them the act of creating the model limited this, you couldn't put individual screw heads sticking out of bolts. Thanks to 3D modeling and mold making you can do exactly that. You can zoom in and get that perfect screw thread just sticking out of the bolt. It's getting to the point where I look at a model and ask myself how much time I'm willing to put into painting it and those over detailed kits become less appealing. Parts being broken down into smaller and smaller sizes until what works perfectly fine as a single piece if now 5 pieces which makes alignment a nightmare. If I wanted to get really picky I could even complain how indents aren't what they used to be. The tools used make holes too perfect and too shallow which lead to a sense of fakeness where the same detail years previous would look imperfect but real because of it.

Maybe I'm just getting old and I want the kids to get off my lawn. But I thought these were things worth talking about. I look at the way the various model subgenres are going and I struggle to find any of them appealing. I know there's many gents here much older than myself who have seen large industry changes before. How do you think kickstarter, 3D modelling and cheap Chinese production is influencing the industry? What do you think 2020 will bring us?

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