O.K. First, in respect to Col. Kurtz and WWI. Yes, you did mention it and I appologize for not addressing it in my bit from yesterday. I happen to agree that WWI is under represented in the hobby, most kits seem to be multimedia affairs that cost an arm and a leg. I saw a model in 1/35 of one of those MK.IV tanks you spoke of initially not that long ago in a hobby shop. Even as the consignment item that it was, it commanded a price of over $300 Canadian. It was a combination of white metal and photoetched components, soldering would have been the only way to get that one together. (Welding classes weren't in my future plans)
The interwar period is also very much overlooked. Some of the most significant advances in technology in the 20th Century occured there. The interwar period saw the transition from biplanes to monoplanes. It also saw the birth of fuel injection systems in engines and notions such as "turbochargers" in engines. A very dynamic and exciting time in the development of motorized vehicles on the ground, in the air, and on the waves in both civilian and military circles.
A few years back, the hobby saw a noticeable crop of A-1 Skyraider kits in both 1/72 and 1/48 scales from various manufacturers. The A-1 would never rate as my all time favorite aircraft, but it was under done in kit form until that time. I really think AMT took the biggest chance in that lot (and the most commendable) when they released their 1/48 kit of a Royal Navy Skraider rigged up for electronic warfare operations in the Suez Crisis. Unfortunately I was unable to buy it as I was between jobs at the time (hope for a reissue on that one).
The "suits" don't know it all, in fact a lot of times they don't know much. Its like letting someone who isn't a regular user of public transit make up a city's bus routes and schedules, they don't have a clue a lot of the time and they quite often miss the mark entirely. A city's main traffic arteries may be the easiest and most reliable places to place busses, but they are by far not the only places in the city that need serviced.
WWII German subjects may be one of this hobby's easiest and most dependable genres to release new kits into, but its an over serviced and congested area of the hobby that could do well with a reduction in service so we can accomodate some other area of the modeling metropolis.
Just like any city, our hobby has an infrastructure to service and all areas must be attended to. What happens when an area of a city gets ignored or marginalized? It becomes a slum and certain stigmas (often very ignorant ones) get formed in the general populace about its residents. What happens when another area gets over serviced? It becomes used to the attention and becomes more demanding of its wants and desires being met, quite frequently at the expense of less served people in the city.
Yes, you WWII Germany builders certainly get the spoils a lot of the time both in the variety of full kits and aftermarket items, weather you build armour, aircraft, ships or figures, you're in this hobby's "Lap of luxury" and yet some of you still ask for more.
Meanwhile, those of us in the "lower class" general aviation neighborhoods still wait our turn for the modeling metropolis city council to attend to us. Must we move into your rut to get seen and heard?
As I said in my previous peice: Conservatism leads to stagnation, a degradation of things, a loss of the overall dynamic that keeps things alive and healthy. A stiring up of the status quo keeps thing going. There is no such thing as standing still, you're either progressing and moving forward or regressing into some safely predictable corner of your known realm.
If you've built enough BF-109s and Tiger tanks that you could build them with your eyes closed, whats the point? where is your progress? where is your dynamic? How often can you send yourself down the same old roads without getting so neurotic that you need a straitjacket?
Something to think about there.