REVELL,S lack of interest

jtilley wrote:

I'll take the liberty of suggesting that, as a courtesy to the other members, every member of the Forum take a few minutes to look at the "FSM Forum Guidelines" thread ( /forums/1163944/ShowPost.aspx#1163944 ).  The references to ALL CAPS and multiple punctuation marks (such as "!!!!" and "????") are particularly worth noting. That thread does not address the difference between the comma and the apostrophe.  Maybe Tankerbuilder has some reason for using the same punctuation mark for both, but I have no idea what it is - and I must say that I find his posts difficult to read.  I am, however, sensitive to the old adage about people in glass houses throwing rocks.  In looking over my own posts I'm frequently embarrassed to see the awful mistakes of grammar, punctuation, etc. that I've made - and put on the web for all the world to see.  (When I catch them I edit them, but I have no way of knowing how many people have already read them.)

I've got to agree with you on the punctuation thing, Professor. While we aren't being graded on our English skills, a little brushing up on punctuation rules could be beneficial to some. At least it would help to clarify the meaning of some posts and make them more inviting to read. I don't recall ever being taught to put a space between the last word and a period or comma, and that there is a difference between a comma and an apostrophe. tankerbuilder, we like your posts, but it is a little hard to make sense of them at times.

Another thing, if you're interested in good kits, is you might consider helping the companies instead of just ranting at them. For example, I provide Dragon with some assistance in their WWII ship kit line. They are MUCH more open to a project when we can offer them research materials and expertise. 

So if you want a particular ship produced, you might start by trying to get the research done for them, such as good plans (I'm not talking side views here; the ones that Floating Drydock offers, for example, will do for a START) and photos of the details. It may be expensive in both time and materials, but if you offer that to them either for the cost of a couple of kits or even for free they may very well consider it.

I think that if you look at subjects that get kitted by more than one manufacturer,and in mre than one scale (Bismarck, Hood, Prince of Wales,Yamato, New Jersey, Enterprise, Hornet, Type VII U-boat, Queen Mary 2, Victory, Cutty Sark,)  that it's pretty clear that kit manufacturers do give modellers what most of them seem to want. 

The difficulty is that many people with a deeper interest in ship modelling (like ourselves) forget that werepresent only a small fraction of the total market for model kits, and that, to turn a profit, a new-mould mainstream injection-moulded kit has to sell in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands.

I'd really like a 1/350- or even 1/700 - kit of Ark Royal IV in her final refit, or,indeed, any Royal Navy post-war surface combatant in 1/350, but have been reconciled to the fact that,expensive resin aside, it's not going to happen.

And then Airfix promise a 1/350 Illustrious-maybe there is a God after all!

Cheers,

Chris.

I'll take the liberty of suggesting that, as a courtesy to the other members, every member of the Forum take a few minutes to look at the "FSM Forum Guidelines" thread ( /forums/1163944/ShowPost.aspx#1163944 ).  The references to ALL CAPS and multiple punctuation marks (such as "!!!!" and "????") are particularly worth noting.

That thread does not address the difference between the comma and the apostrophe.  Maybe Tankerbuilder has some reason for using the same punctuation mark for both, but I have no idea what it is - and I must say that I find his posts difficult to read.  I am, however, sensitive to the old adage about people in glass houses throwing rocks.  In looking over my own posts I'm frequently embarrassed to see the awful mistakes of grammar, punctuation, etc. that I've made - and put on the web for all the world to see.  (When I catch them I edit them, but I have no way of knowing how many people have already read them.)

The web is a wonderful thing; it facilitates communication between people who otherwise would never get in touch with each other, and who can offer all sorts of viewpoints and insights on innumerable subjects.  It also has created a new branch of the English language (and, I assume, plenty of other languages), which has its own definitions of decorum and manners.  It's easy, especially for Olde Phogies like me who are relatively new to the computer game, to post discourteous and even insulting language without having any idea that we're doing it.  The FSM management has done us a favor in the aforementioned thread by spelling out, in concise and clearly understandable form, what is and isn't appropriate.

tankerbuilder wrote:

LACK OF INTEREST

When ranting at people for poor quality it is advisable to ensure that one's grammar and punctuation is not a train wreck in itself. Otherwise the reader is going to have the same feelings to your posting as your title.

What are the problems you mention with the 1/144 Gepard-class? I built this kit a few months ago and found no problems with it - it matches up very well to photos of the real ships. There are a number of small missing details, which I added from scratch, but everything else looks OK to me. (No major fit/assembly problems, either)

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/misc/patrol/gepard-144-ep/ep-index.htm