1/350 DKM Scharnhorst announced by Dragon

I told you guys we were working with them on more than just USN stuff!

The CAD that went into this was beautiful; Rob wasn't designing the CAD for just a model; at one point he even had wire mesh rendered out on the light AA guns. The barrels of the main guns have rifling (in the CAD). They had to cut some of the detail down of course, due to limits in plastic technology, but this is going to be another bang-up model for those who want the highest detail possible.

HALLELUYAH!!!  When is it due out?

Bill Morrison

warshipguy wrote:

HALLELUYAH!!!  When is it due out?

Later this year or early next year. Price is TBD, despite "silly" comments otherwise. 

warshipbuilder wrote:

Given the prices of their other ship kits,

The DKM Scharnhorst is #1040 of the Modern Sea Power Series. So far, no model in this series was priced above $50 yet.

I'm guessing this one will be over the $200 mark, in which case you can count me out.

Yes, the Scharnhorst will be the biggest ship in this series and not so modern (WW II), but $200? I had been really happy with the Dragon Smart Kit ship model for the high quality and moderate prices. I sure hope that they will not break the tradition.

warshipbuilder wrote:

If I can get the Scharnhorst kit for the £UK equivalent of $50US I'll show my arse in Macey's Department Store. No harm in hoping though.

The DKM Scharnhorst model is a bigger ship than any other models on the Modern Sea Power Series, but still smaller than the DKM Bismarck or the USS Missouri. So, expect to pay more than $50 equivalent, but likely to be much less than the $200 you expect. No need to make a scene at the department store.

If $200 is too much for you, how much is a fair market value to you?

Revell of Germany makes a very nice 1:350 Bismarck. It goes for about $80 in the US. I hope that Scharnhorst will be at the same price range. No everyone charges over $200 for their ship kits like Hasegawa.

You referred to "Dragon's other ship kits" and their prices in your first post. What did you refer to? What made you guessed that the Scharnhorst would be over $200?

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/dkm/bc/scharnhorst-350-pre/dragon-poster.html

ModelWarships wrote:

I have been informed by Dragon that the target price is under $120 US.

Hopefully, it will be a model at the Revell, Tamiya and Trumpeter 1:350 scale battleship price point with higher quality, detail and fidelity. It sounds very reasonable to me and should result in a street price under $100.

The model length should be 26-3/4 vs the Bismarck's 28-1/4.

I bet within 12 months, Revell or Trumpeter will also release one, and sorry but they too wil be silly money,

don't get me wrong it you want a model some people will pay the asking price, but i for one won't, i would go with out than be over charged, please don't go on about the cost of the moulds etc etc, these companies make hansome profits off the kits the produce, but way over charge, as do the wholesalers, theres no need for it, and the compaines would sell more kits,

I would love the 1/350 Prinz Eugen and the new Scharnhorst, as they are my two fav ships, but sorry they will have to do without me unless they sell at more realistic price, i was talking to a guy in a well know model chain store and asked how the big 1/32 scale plane kits were selling, i got " there no, its because they are too expensive," sorry in todays cilmatic world, people have more important things to buy, than spend it on plastic model kits, which has the knock on effect, the model compaines, then say, they aren't selling, pull the plug,

so unless they lower the price, and sell a lot more, they will shoot themselves in the foot,

sorry for going on, and someone will shoot me down in flames now, right!

keef666 wrote:

I bet within 12 months, Revell or Trumpeter will also release one, and sorry but they too wil be silly money, don't get me wrong it you want a model some people will pay the asking price, but i for one won't, i would go with out than be over charged, please don't go on about the cost of the moulds etc etc, these companies make hansome profits off the kits the produce, but way over charge, as do the wholesalers, theres no need for it, and the compaines would sell more kits, I would love the 1/350 Prinz Eugen and the new Scharnhorst, as they are my two fav ships, but sorry they will have to do without me unless they sell at more realistic price, i was talking to a guy in a well know model chain store and asked how the big 1/32 scale plane kits were selling, i got " there no, its because they are too expensive," sorry in todays cilmatic world, people have more important things to buy, than spend it on plastic model kits, which has the knock on effect, the model compaines, then say, they aren't selling, pull the plug, so unless they lower the price, and sell a lot more, they will shoot themselves in the foot, sorry for going on, and someone will shoot me down in flames now, right!

I, too, am very happy with the newer ship kits being released and will happily pay the price.  These kits are far more detailed, far more accurate, and are in far greater variety than when I was growing up in the 1960's.  I distinctly remember the weekly trip to the local drug store to buy my newest Pyro Table Top Navy ship model for either $0.39 or $0.50, or the Renwal fleet sets for $1.00.  It represented a much bigger step when I could afford the $2.00 Revell or Aurora ships, or the larger scale Renwal.  But, the detail and accuracy of these ships varied considerably.

Today, I do not consider it unreasonable to pay for a huge variety of ships in outstanding detail.  I believe that, for the most part, the manufacturers are performing an excellent service to us at reasonable profit.  I hope that they keep up their good work.

Now, if they would only start producing sailing ships!

Bill Morrison

Actually Revell appear to be one of the few manufacturers that don't ask "silly money" for their newer kits (Academy is another); their new 1/350 Bismarck is very good value (around the same RRP as the old Tamiya kit, though of course you can get the latter for much less if you look around) and though their Tirpitz, released this year, is a bit more, it's still significantly cheaper than any other new-tool 1/350 battleships released recently.

The price of around $120 mentioned for Dragon's new Scharnhorst certainly isn't cheap but, if the kit is to the same standard as Dragon's recent USN DD kits, it should be reasonably good value in comparison to what many other manufacturers are asking. I can't imagine the same kit from Trumpeter costing much less than this, and the latter's standards of accuracy and quality seem to be more variable than Dragon.

I'll certainly be very interested to see how the 1/350 Scharnhorst turns out, here's hoping Dragon follow it up with a Zerstorer or Torpedoboot in the same scale!

EPinniger wrote:

Actually Revell appear to be one of the few manufacturers that don't ask "silly money" for their newer kits (Academy is another); their new 1/350 Bismarck is very good value (around the same RRP as the old Tamiya kit, though of course you can get the latter for much less if you look around) and though their Tirpitz, released this year, is a bit more, it's still significantly cheaper than any other new-tool 1/350 battleships released recently. The price of around $120 mentioned for Dragon's new Scharnhorst certainly isn't cheap but, if the kit is to the same standard as Dragon's recent USN DD kits, it should be reasonably good value in comparison to what many other manufacturers are asking. I can't imagine the same kit from Trumpeter costing much less than this, and the latter's standards of accuracy and quality seem to be more variable than Dragon.

I can't agree more with every points you made here. Thanks.

Even their 1/72 scale submarines are reletively cheap considering what they are. (But it would have been nice if they had thrown a little photoetch in there)

subfixer wrote:

Even their 1/72 scale submarines are reletively cheap considering what they are. (But it would have been nice if they thrown a little photoetch in there)

The poster looks beautiful and if the quality is like that of the Buchanan, et al then I'd pay $120 for the Scharnhorst with PE and extras.

Dragon has a beautiful looking wood deck and PE for the Bismark, I wonder if that's in the works right now or they'll concede the kit to Revell.

My only complaint about the Dragon PE is that it's thick compared to GMM and Tom's. I've broken more x-acto #11 tips for the Buchannan than the entire Tamiya Enterprise with full GMM complement combined. I've taken to using PE scissors now which I normally don't have to use.

I wish I could pre-order the Scharnhorst :-)

Personally, I prefer thicker PE railings in 1/350 scale.  To me, a major problem with 1/350 PE railings is that most are much too thin and have virtually no scale depth.  I agree that Dragon's PE are thick; therefore, I wish that they would focus on railings and let the builder worry about which detail PE sets are best to supplement the kit.

Bill Morrison

Well it's out sometime in July.

That's the extent of the Good News.

The Bad News is that the latest pre-order price is $139.95.

There is of course postage/delivery to add to this, so we are getting nearer to the $200 price I predicted.

It was said elsewhere some time ago that Dragon were looking at a price of around $100 or below.

It now looks like this is well out of thee window.

Lord-Dogbert

The poster looks beautiful and if the quality is like that of the Buchanan, et al then I'd pay $120 for the Scharnhorst with PE and extras.

DIDO. If the Dragon battleship kit has the quality of their Gearing and Buchanan kit, I will also gladly pay the $120 price.

With Trumpeter and other Japanese kit maker pricing the battleships in the $200-300 range. And Tamiya doubled the price of their 25 years old kits with no new molds. The Dragon and Revell new battleships look like a steal. When can I have a new South Dakota Class battleship kit with new molding technique at the Dragon and Revell price?

You can have it when Revell or Academy puts one out.

When you consider the Aoshima Japanese Cruisers were going for about $120.00 thats not too bad for a qualiy battleship kit.

"When you consider the Aoshima Japanese Cruisers were going for about $120.00 thats not too bad for a qualiy battleship kit."

Maybe, but we in the UK by and large, are simply not interested in those particular subjects.

The IJN subjects you refer to are principally aimed at the Japanese Home Market where the demand for; and levels of disposable income for such purchases are much higher.

I would argue that the IJN subjects to which you refer, are simply not a valid comparison in this context..

Such subjects will undoubtedly sell in larger quantities to the Home Mkt,and possibly that of the USA than they would in Europe, whereas, the Scharnhorst kit should appeal more in the European market.

DragonUSA have seen fit to offer some out of date 1/700 kit to be included as a 'freebie' as a lure to buy the Scharnhorst kit, which to me smacks of desperation.

http://www.dragonusaonline.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=DRA1040

I'd have sooner seen the kit offered as a stand-alone subject at a $100 tag, rather than being seen as an opportunity to flog off some aged crap 1/700 kit in an incompatible scale just to shift a few more otherwise unsaleable boxes.

Well,your simply not going to get a well detailed DML,Hasegawa,Fujimi,or Aoshima battleship for $100.00,thats a fact.Maybe a Revell or Trumpy could come in that low.but $129.00 is an excellent price for the product,especially compared to Nagato or Mutsu.I'm sorry it's priced out of yours and others range,but it still is an excellent product at a  good price.

I have no doubt that Revell could produce a just as accurate and detailed kit for a lower price. Just look at their 1/72 U boat, 1/144 Fletcher, and 1/72 GATO. While I do love seeing the beautiful kits coming out of the Far East, to me and most other modelers around here apparently, they re overpriced. I see them sit on the shelves at the LHS for long periods and eventually get put on a sale shelf for a much lower, (but still expensive) price. And then they still hardly move. Yes the hardcore ship builders pick up a few, but I don't see how the market outside of Asia can support it.