Are model kits too complex?

[seadude]

Saw this article on Facebook and thought I'd share for discussion.
https://thekitbox.wordpress.com/2017/07/06/how-much-is-too-much/

[KiwiZac]

I don't believe so. The Tamiya 1/32 Mosquito has tons of stuff in it and was a wonderful build experience for me. Ditto the Wingnut Wings Pup I'm working on at the moment. I have the Nichimo 1/20 Hughes 500 awaiting my attention that probably meets the "complex" tag given the electric motor and, from memory, lights.

[Dizzyfugu]

I share these thoughts and the discussion. I'll admit that I am a bit old school (using a simple kit and pimp it with scratch parts) in this case, but some way the model market is going crazy. I do not need a zillion of single, separate parts, and I hate PE parts (often leave them away). I also do not see the point in many price tags. Some 1:35 tank kits come at 50USD these days, and I also find the prices for, say, MENG kits rather unsound. I hope the market will recover, because I do not think that those expensive "high end" or short run kits bear a future for the hobby in itself.

[Librarian]

The introductory paragraph certainly sums up my recent feelings. Parts count is certainly becoming a marketing tool...proudly displayed in both adverts and on the boxes themselves. The number of fiddly bits when just putting a 1/48 radial engine together is horrible, and don't get me started on the multi-part cockpits. As a whif-er I leave most of these bits off now, especially when 90% becomes effectively invisible once all main parts are glued together.

[Hobbes]

For me, the assembly process is enjoyable in itself. So I generally like complex kits - they give me more to do before getting to the inevitable (and less enjoyable) PSR. 

[Knightflyer]

I haven't read the article at the moment (I'm at work!  ) but I know that at the moment I'm invariably reaching for simpler kits from my stash - the old Airfix EE Lightning Mk.1 being perhaps an recent extreme example.

However as I'm also working on (and adding to and hopefully improving) a GLENCOE 1/59 D.H. Venom and a 'modern' Trumpeter 1/48 Spiteful I'm guessing it's really down to a case of what you are comfortable with. I don't really get on with (more an issue with my skill level) lots of etched or resin 'fiddly bits'

When I'm in the right frame of mind I'd be prepared to tackle a more complicated / detailed kit but I'd err towards simple (like wot I is!  ) So perhaps it is literally all down to personal taste?

[Ifor]

It's the cost that staggers me. Even Airfix are now producing kits that are way out of being affordable by the majority on a regular basis. I understand that they have to recoup the costs of development but still. Youngsters today, have so much more to interest them, if the industry isn't careful it'll price itself out of a market apart from of a very small group of fanatics.

[TheChronicOne]

Yuuuup.... cost and un necessary parts divided into more parts for the sake of parts count. Next thing you know wheels will be series of 16 discs you have to glue together. 

[zenrat]

Has the writer of the article heard of e-bay?
Plenty of simple low parts count kits available there.  It's not compulsory to only build brand new recently released kits.
However, he's right as our recent discussion about the hidden interior parts of the Airfix Shacks shows.

[Dizzyfugu]

It's the cost that staggers me. Even Airfix are now producing kits that are way out of being affordable by the majority on a regular basis. I understand that they have to recoup the costs of development but still. Youngsters today, have so much more to interest them, if the industry isn't careful it'll price itself out of a market apart from of a very small group of fanatics.

...and those are literally about to die out, slowly. I have the feeling that model kit business goes the same way as model railroads (at least here in Germany) a decade or more ago: the race for ever minute detail and prints on the models, and prices exploding accordingly, with some very traditional businesses going belly up in the wake of this mess.

[NARSES2]

When I'm in the right frame of mind I'd be prepared to tackle a more complicated / detailed kit but I'd err towards simple (like wot I is!  ) So perhaps it is literally all down to personal taste?

I agree with you. I usually work on the basis that if a part is so small my fingers refuse to co-operate (or the tweezers) then life's to short.

The thing I don't like is when it appears a part that could have been moulded as a single piece is unnecessarily broken down into multiple parts  Also magazine reviews where the low number of parts is commented on as though it's a fault ?

[kerick]

Manufacturers should have something for kids to enjoy. Big, complex and expensive kits are ok for adults if that's what you like but 10 year olds will never sit through one. And kids are the future of this hobby, as well as everything else. There should be cheaper, simpler kits to allow them to develop skills and interest on. And yes, blow them up with firecrackers! Thank heavens there are older kits still available.

[NARSES2]

Airfix do, do a range designed for kids. No idea what they are like however

[Dizzyfugu]

The kits' toys are just that - but IMHO, such things are not effective in winning new souls for the hobby. The create sales, the retailers might stock them. But there's no real next step. I think that was the charm of the Matchbox kits, and what kept them on the market for so long. As simple or crude as they might have been - the colors would appeal to kits, beginners can make decent models of them, and many are a sound basis for more amibtious builds, too. At a good price point.

Someone mentioned the new Airfix kits and their steep prices - and I agree. As much as I'd like to build a Beaufighter or Blenheim, they are too expensive for my taste (and maybe for my ambitions, due to the way I build/implode things). And I am not certain if this strategy is the good in the long run, after the enthusiasts put the kits into their piles upon release?

[Librarian]

If development costs weren't a problem it would be nice if these 1/48 kits had two issues..a simple shake and bake edition and a promodeller edition.

I was putting a Xuntong together and every moveable part (entire throttle, levers etc) were separate parts. I ended up doing the basic tub, seat, control column and instrument panel then test-fitted the fuselage halves and yup...hardly anything could be seen. I chucked about forty pieces in the spares box and jumped a page and a half of instructions.

The gun mounts were a nightmare Multi-multi-multi part jigsaw puzzles.

I love putting these things together but do not enjoy too much fiddly detail.

Etch-fret make great toothpicks .