Model Companies Question

In America, where all industry is privately owned, everything has to be hurried with a minimum of domestic labor cost in order to show a maximum profit.

Normally any pride of workmanship is squeezed out af a worker in this country with a pink slip the moment his/her company has a slow-down, or is dumped in the streets in order for his/her company to make more money by farming the labor out overseas (called "out-sourcing").

In other countries, traditionally company's are more loyal to their employees, and industries can be state owned with a main purpose to employ as many people as possible, and the time taken to make the best show is a matter of national pride.

Also there is the unfortunate factor of the smugness about a being a superpower, where we often feel we do not need to try as hard as the other guys, since we feel we are "Number One".

On the other hand, what is frequently is touted as a "higher quality kit", simply can mean more parts, such as photoetched hinges for control surfaces, many of which are meaningless by the time you get finished with the kit, and simply add to the fatigue of building the subject. Also, foreign kits frequently substitute resin parts and for injection-molded plastic, in some cases for some major compenents, which is not a higher quality product then a well-done all plastic kit, and also takes more work then dealing with plastic only.

Basically it boils down to labor and profit, as the typical tooling cost estimate is $1000 per molded item in the typical kit.

So that means we get to struggle to make $7 per hour at Wal-Mart to pay over $100 for an overpriced foreign-made kit with toxic resin and hard-to-handle photo-etched parts.

Neat, eh?

Tom T

TD4438 wrote:

Is it just me,or do American companies produce the poorest kits?It seems like everybody has us beat.If true,why is this so?

It's just you. 

First, there really aren't any American manufactruers.  There are American companies, but they mostly have moved production overseas.  However, Revell, Accurate Miniatures, and MRC,  all American companies, more or less, make some excellent kits.  You'll be hard pressed to find a better kit than most of Accurate Miniatures offerings. 

Second, I've seen some real junk come in from overseas.  While Trumpeter, Tamiya, Hasegawa etc generally have some pretty good kits , as has been posted previously they aren't always what they are cracked up to be.  Other mfrs. such as Italeri do some pretty mediocre stuff.  There are several manufacturers that produce limited run kits that while interesting, take a ton of work to make into something show-worthy.  Flip through the reviews in an issue of FSM and you'll see what I mean.

Be careful making broad generalizations.

TD4438 wrote:

Is it just me,or do American companies produce the poorest kits?It seems like everybody has us beat.If true,why is this so?

Name one American manufacturer.......

Now, look at the cottage AM industry in America and the quality of the accessories that ARE molded here. For the most part pretty good. But, expensive.

I think part of it is that the American company, Revelogram, still sees itself as selling toys, whereas some of the off shore comanies are marketing to enthusiasts who want to build an exacting replica of a prototype.

Also, the megaretailer of record demands price and box size limits and refuses to stock anything that doesn't fit. So the company is forced to use ancient molds that may have been cut 30 years ago (see the copyright on the 1/48 C-47.)

As to AFV, Academy and Dragon adding PE and other top end detail parts, that's just good marleting since many people are buying aftermarket detail sets anyway. The builder gets the extras and saves time and money to boot.

And the hundred dollar model is no more aimed at a minimum wage earner than is a Viper or a Porsche. And, quite frankly, it would be irresponsible for that person to be buying hundred dollar models.

For the record, cured resin is not toxic. The dust, as any dust, is an irritant and you should take the same precautions sanding resin as you would a piece of wood.