Aircraft that don't have a plastic 1/72 kit

[McColm]

It seems strange in this day and age that there are still gaps in the 1/72 plastic model aircraft market  but can be purchased in resin,  vacform or in 1/144 scale.
Some examples are:
Sud Sahara- this was a French cargo aircraft. There used to be a vacform kit  and there's a 1/144 kit .
The Avro Lincoln,  again there's a vacform kit  or a resin conversion.

[The Rat]

Here I go again for the MILLIONTH TIME! Hindustan Marut. Not only a beautiful aircraft, but the whiffing potential is nice.

If you mean 'mainstream manufacturers', rather than cottage industry limited run stuff, the the Supermarine Scimitar is another obvious one. Come on, Airfix, do it.

CF-100. The Hobbycraft one was passable, but now unavailable without diligent searches and paying collector prices. We need Airfix to step up on this one, too.

[kitnut617]

There's two 1/72 kits of the Marut, resin Alliance Models (old I know) and the Warrier Models mixed media kit (vacuform main parts, resin, white metal for detail parts)

XtraKit does the Scimitar in 1/72 (got one in the stash)

[The Rat]

There's two 1/72 kits of the Marut, resin Alliance Models (old I know) and the Warrier Models mixed media kit (vacuform main parts, resin, white metal for detail parts)

XtraKit does the Scimitar in 1/72 (got one in the stash)

Like I said, we need a mainstream company to do it. And I believe the Xtrakit Scimitar is now out of production.

[Hobbes]

It seems strange in this day and age that there are still gaps in the 1/72 plastic model aircraft market  but can be purchased in resin,  vacform or in 1/144 scale.

That's not strange at all, when you realize what it costs to produce a kit in those media.

Resin: a master is made by hand (scratchbuilding) in the same materials we use. From this, a series of moulds is made (again, an inexpensive process), and resin copies are cast in these moulds.
For a few thousand £ you can create a production run of a few dozen, then your moulds are worn out and you have to make new ones.
Investment: learning how to cast, moulding materials and resin. Maybe a vacuum tank. Well within the range of a hobbyist or small garage shop.

Vacuform: a negative master is made by hand, styrene sheet is pulled into this master on a vacuumforming machine.
For a few thousand £ you can create a decent production run, a few hundred maybe.
Investment: learning how to vacform, vacform machine (costs a few hundred). Well within the range of a hobbyist or small garage shop.

Injection moulding:
moulds have to be cut in steel using a milling machine, based on a master or CAD files. A single set of moulds costs in the region of £50,000-100,000 to make. Cheaper moulds (although still easily more than £10,000) can be made in softer materials, leading to a short-run injection kit.
Production requires an injection moulding machine. Again, expensive industrial equipment.
Production cost is a few £ per copy, but you need to produce thousands to amortize the cost of the tooling and end up with a reasonable sale price.

Conclusion: injection moulding can only be done if the market is large enough.

[McColm]

Thanks for the information,  I never knew that 
Surely the main manufacturers know that there are special interest groups all over the world seeking the weird and the wonderful.
The Shorts Sperrin would be another candidate,  the first 'what if 'which would result  in  the V Bombers .

[The Rat]

Conclusion: injection moulding can only be done if the market is large enough.

From what I see on various boards, there should be more than enough modelers in India to support the production of a Marut. And I can't see how the Scimitar wouldn't sell. Ditto for a Canuck, there are lots of people looking for the old Hobbycraft ones.

[PR19_Kit]

Surely the main manufacturers know that there are special interest groups all over the world seeking the weird and the wonderful.
The Shorts Sperrin would be another candidate,  the first 'what if 'which would result  in  the V Bombers .

They do know that, yes, but we don't count in their market. They need to sell MILLIONS of kits to repay the costs that Harro mentioned, and we'd only buy a few thousand.

[jcf]

The use of 3D printing to produce masters for resin kits in steadily increasing.

[zenrat]

Any Spitfires that don't have a mainstream injection moulded kit?

Lee?

[PR19_Kit]

Depends how you define 'mainstream' I guess, and are all scales included?

The Mk XII in 1/72 mainstream was pretty well un-done until the Xtrakit one came out, if you count Xtrakit as 'mainstream'.

[DogfighterZen]

Well, i'd have to say the F-16XL, which is OOP and can only be mad in 1/72 if you find the old Monogram... and most know how that goes. There's only the resin conversion set from the Japanese home made Lonestar resin parts.
The CF-105 Arrow would be another one in my list...
In helicopters, the Bell 206 Jet Ranger and the Gazelle could be a choice. There's a Jet ranger by Italeri OOP since 2011 but it's very hard to find one at a good price.

[The Wooksta!]

Any Spitfires that don't have a mainstream injection moulded kit?

Lee?

Quite a few of the PR types have only had limited run kits.  I don't count Special Hobby, Sword or AZ as mainstream - Airfix, Revell, Hasegawa and arguably Eduard, yes.

Offhand, we'd need from Airfix or Eduard:
PR.I
PR.IV
Vb - the alternatives from Revell and Italeri are bad. Tamiya is a good kit, but an inaccurate Spitfire.
HFVI
PR.X
PR.XI
mk XII
PR.XIII
mk XIV - Academy is a good kit, but has serious shape issues.
mk XVIII
F21
F24

We have NO mainstream Seafires in 72nd.  I don't count the botched Seafire IIc from Airfix as a kit as the Vc parts are utter excrement that aren't fit for the bin, although the hook part *may* give you a reasonable basis for a Seafire Ib, but it's still not a proper kit.
 

[The Rat]

A Bristol Brigand would be nice.

[Weaver]

Well, i'd have to say the F-16XL, which is OOP and can only be mad in 1/72 if you find the old Monogram... and most know how that goes. There's only the resin conversion set from the Japanese home made Lonestar resin parts.
The CF-105 Arrow would be another one in my list...
In helicopters, the Bell 206 Jet Ranger and the Gazelle could be a choice. There's a Jet ranger by Italeri OOP since 2011 but it's very hard to find one at a good price.

Airfix did the Gazelle in 1/72nd and AFAIK it's not hard to find: I've got a stack!

Revell had an OH-58D Kiowa in production in 2015. It would take a lot of work to make a civvie 206 out of it though.