Are model kits too complex?

[kitnut617]

When Airfix started their 1/76th armour back in the day I persuaded my mum to sew a couple of Sherman and Panther tracks together for me. She did a great job  Still got a Pz III I made from their Stug III and Panther (Airfix Mag article) that she sewed the tracks for me. See If I can find it.

I used to sew the tracks too, I could never get the rubber tracks to stay glued with anything back then (pre-superglue days)

[NARSES2]

When Airfix started their 1/76th armour back in the day I persuaded my mum to sew a couple of Sherman and Panther tracks together for me. She did a great job  Still got a Pz III I made from their Stug III and Panther (Airfix Mag article) that she sewed the tracks for me. See If I can find it.

I used to sew the tracks too, I could never get the rubber tracks to stay glued with anything back then (pre-superglue days)

Yup, these youngsters don't know just how good they've got it 

[ChernayaAkula]

Are model kits too complex?

As Betteridge's law of headlines tells us, "any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." This one's really no exception, I think.

A lot of the arguments laid out in the article are cherry picking, to my eyes. Yes, some kits are more complex. At the same time, though, some kits have gotten much simpler. Hobby Boss' 1/72 Easy-Build line aircraft are as simple as you can possibly get. And kits like some of Zvezda's recent 1/72 tanks or some recent Trumpeter 1/72 tanks come with a one piece hard plastic track, in Trumpeter's case as a pre-formed (sag and all) continuous part, with the back sides of the running gear as very few parts. And Airifx' recent 1/72 aircraft have even made assembling biplanes a breeze.

Don't wanna build Trumpeter's 1000+ parts T-80? Fine, build the old Dragon kit. Oh, but that's not as detailed, you say? Tough luck, then.
Why are tyres and hubs on tank road wheels separate parts? Because that way, you can paint 'em separately and assemble them after main painting the main colours and before weathering, saving you the time to mask them.

Simpler kits are still as prevalent. They're just not as visible as they once were, because the range of available kits has widened, with many more subjects in more scales available than previously were. You can still get a lot of the old kits (with even some real stinkers being unnecessarily re-popped- looking at you there, Revell's 1/72 P-51D). Also, fit plays a HUGE part. I'll take a modern, well-fitting 100 parts kit over a shitty-fitting, 25 piece putty hog from yesteryear any day of the week.
You can build old kits all day long. After all, no one can tell you how to enjoy your hobby. Where have I missed that "It's my fecking model" is no longer a thing? Somebody looking down on you for building an old, less detailed kit? What's the deal? That person's obviously an a**hole.

Regarding simpler kits being put together in an evening, nobody's stopping you to do that with a modern kit. Still very much possible. And it's probably more detailed than that old kit, but will the finish satisfy your current expectations?  Also, there's a fair bit of comparing apples to oranges going on here. You can't really compare a 1/72 Me 109G slapped together in an evening decades ago to the time it takes to assemble a 1/35 T-72 with individual track links now.

Yeah, Kitty Hawk's invisible Mirage F.1 engine is ridiculous and so are Dragon's Pz. IV sprocket bolts. But those two are just extremes. They're far from the norm. And, no, full interior isn't the norm these days with tanks. In fact, some manufacturers actually provide different boxings to cater to different needs. Meng's Bradley is available without a full interior. Miniart's T-54 interior can also be bought separately. And if you do have a tank with an interior, just don't assemble it. Very few, if any, interior parts are needed for stability. If building time is the only concern, just skip those steps.

As for parts count for parts count's sake, yeah nah, that's a load of bull. Just about any manufacturer states a parts count on their boxes, whether it's high or not. And making moulds costs tons of money. They're not gonna drive parts count up simply for inflating some little number on the box. Not happening.
Tires made up of 16 discs? Well, Great Wall Hobby's SWS has the tyres made up of 6 discs, resulting in the nicest hard plastic tires I've seen. Beautiful tread pattern. Much better than any shitty rubber tire could ever hope to look - and much simpler to deal with, too.

Are kits are getting more expensive? Not really. Well, the numbers on the sticker do go up, but relatively speaking, they're not much more expensive than before. Back in the day they only cost 5 moneyz. Now they cost 25 moneyz. Yes, and back then people only made 200 moneyz a month and now they make 1000 moneyz a month.
Sidenote about the much lambasted Hasegawa: their "white boxing" 1/72 F-104, for instance, still has the same sticker price it had when it came out 25 years ago. So, if anything, it's gotten cheaper!

[Joe C-P]

When Airfix started their 1/76th armour back in the day I persuaded my mum to sew a couple of Sherman and Panther tracks together for me. She did a great job  Still got a Pz III I made from their Stug III and Panther (Airfix Mag article) that she sewed the tracks for me. See If I can find it.

I used to sew the tracks too, I could never get the rubber tracks to stay glued with anything back then (pre-superglue days)

Yup, these youngsters don't know just how good they've got it 

Ha! I used to use a heated blade to melt the ends together. Stinky and likely unhealthy for my lungs, but it usually worked.

[NARSES2]

When Airfix started their 1/76th armour back in the day I persuaded my mum to sew a couple of Sherman and Panther tracks together for me. She did a great job  Still got a Pz III I made from their Stug III and Panther (Airfix Mag article) that she sewed the tracks for me. See If I can find it.

I used to sew the tracks too, I could never get the rubber tracks to stay glued with anything back then (pre-superglue days)

Yup, these youngsters don't know just how good they've got it 

Ha! I used to use a heated blade to melt the ends together. Stinky and likely unhealthy for my lungs, but it usually worked.

I moved to the heated blade method (old screwdriver) when I got a little bit older. As you say the smell was  which meant it had to be done when mum was out. She always knew though