Biggest reality : model kit proportion?

[MerlinJones]

I'm sure it's easier to think of the under-kitted, rather than over-kitted.

I'm thinking of all the thousands of squadron 'hacks' and trainers, the background boys of the RAF and Luftwaffe, USAAF and so on.
FROG covered some, (Magister, Oxford and Master) and Matchbox did a Norseman. Closest Airfix ever got was a Tiger Moth and Harvard and Revell did a Stearman. Heller had a reasonable crack at Luftwaffe hacks and trainers.

There might've been 1400 Me262's produced, but every kit company makes at least one marque and all development marques seem represented by some of other. The 262 is one of those 'looks ace' aircraft, but is clearly not the iconic piece of aviation tech and engineering we'd be led to believe.
The Arado Ar.234 is another, similar example.

Regards,
Bruce

[flakmonkey]

Focke-Wulf Ta-154 comes to mind. The Spitfire XII I would argue shouldn't be on the list; 100 were built.

[Chris]

Have to disagree on the 262.

The plane was revolutionary, it actually worked and had hitler not interferred it would have been a war changer.

Its also the first operational jet in history, and jets have largely replaced props in aviation.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Speaking 1/35 injection styrene armor only -- anything German is over represented, not just the base model, but every variant/ausfuhrung/early/mid/late with/with zimmerit towing something or not and so on .... I hear there is high demand in the Asian markets, but I cannot understand it elsewhere. And yet it is only recently that Bronco, MiniArt and a couple others, notably not Dragon, have started to fill in the Allied range with a Bofors, the Archer, Valentine, etc. We have lots of German trucks & prime movers but still the only Mack NO is resin. I can not only come up with numerous production vehicles, I can come up with more than enough low-production Allied pieces to fill pages, but not LHS shelves ....

[BWP]

OK, some clarifications and comments.

First, WW2 only, folks!

The Pfiel (Dornier 335) does not count - it was not (so far as I know) a production aircraft. I'm highly doubtful about the claim that it saw combat, but am willing to be corrected on that point.

The stock-standard 262 counts fine, IMO. It was a production aircraft, built in substantial numbers and was in constant service (within the capabilities of the Luftwaffe at the time). Some of the 262 variants might not count, but I don't know how many of them actually entered service as opposed to being just development prototypes. I know if the Germans even thought about maybe sketching out something on paper than Dragon and Trumpeter will make kits of it, but if they were prototypes only, they don't count. I'm also not sure how many 262-variants are available in kit form from different companies.

Sturmtiger is probably a good example, I don't think the Brummbars were that few in number though. I don't agree with the KV-II, the Russians built plenty of them; are there really that many different kits?

Brews, there are, as far I'm aware there are at least three Sturer Emil kits -- Trumpeter make two (different scales) and Dragon makes the other. However, I'm not convinced that the vehicle counts as a "production" type. Ditto for the umpteen other German "one-offs" that Dragon and Trumpeter believe the world needs multiple kits of. Ditto the Maus.

I wasn't aware of any kits of a Matilda Frog!

The AVRE is on the cusp. There are several kits (MB, Tamiya, AFV Club) and they weren't produced in enormous numbers, so by that criteria it qualifies. On the other hand it was, as you note, a very important vehicle.

I agree completely about the shocking state of British AC kits ... although recently Bronco and Miniart have been working to fill in some of the gaps in 1/35 scale, at least.

I had not realised the numbers of Ta-152 built were so few, so if there are a bunch of kits out there, then I agree it's a valid example. I wouldn't call it "just another Fw-190".

Spit V float-plane? How many Spit V float-plane kits are there? (Remember that we're talking multiple different kits ....)

The Landwasserschlepper is a very good example. New kits of them are still coming out!

The Me 163 is probably a good example, but I wasn't sure how many different kits are out there.

[BWP]

According to my Do 335, book, approximately ten A-1 production single seaters were completed.

OK, I'll take your word for it. That being the case, then the A-1 would count, but ... over-kitted? There's only the Dragon kit (and Revell reboxing) isn't there? Other marks are prototypes and don't count?

Correct, I should have said Matilda Hedgehog (the Frog would have been a better choice of variant for Airfix IMHO).

Well, there's only one kit of the Hedgehog that I know of, so wouldn't qualify, even if you wanted to count the Hedgehog as a production vehicle, which I'm not sure I would. And yes, a Frog would have made for a much more sensible kit subject (but would still need corrections ... but that's a different story).

If the Fw 190D is "an Fw 190" and you lump it in with the other 20,000, then the Ta 152 pretty much is, too, Bruce.

Nah, it's got a different name ... that's good enough for me. Were there any Spitfires that weren't called Spitfires?

[Saxon]

Not saying this is the 1 or anything but the Arado 234 would be in this category just over 200 built in real life but kitted by many manufacturers and a popular subject.

[bassman]

Under kitted is the Fokker G1. Of course not many Fokker G1's were built, most were destroyed on the ground without seeing action but it was a special aircraft in the early stages of WW2.
The only kits I know of are a 1/72 vacform set (long out of production) and the short run 1/72 MPM kit. (also out of production). Rumour has it that a 1/48 Fokker G1 is in preparation but that rumour is going round for years. A mainstream plastic kit of this aircraft is needed.
Henk

[BWP]

Ta 152s are Fw 190s. Simple.

My thread, and I say they're not (for the purposes of this thread). Simpler.

[DH-Drover]

Noone has mentioned the Manchester in the under kitted section. It was an important aircraft that was in quantity production and squadron service. You cannot lump it in with "the Lancasters" either. What about the Lancaster derivatives, the Lancastrian and the York. Not an injection kit in sight. I might add the Wirraway the Wackett Trainer the Beaufreighter and several Mks of the Beaufighter. These have been kitted by High Planes but are not readily available.

Dai

[Beowulf Shaeffer]

has anyone mentioned vickers warwick?............was reading up about them only the other night........800+ a/c made, cant think of a kit by anyone tho......800+ is not an insignificant number

[SJPONeill]

Noone has mentioned the Manchester in the under kitted section. It was an important aircraft that was in quantity production and squadron service. You cannot lump it in with "the Lancasters" either. What about the Lancaster derivatives, the Lancastrian and the York. Not an injection kit in sight.

Dai

I'd love a York, Halton and Lancastrian in 1/72 or 1/48...I'm surprised that Hasegawa at least didn't do a Lancastrian as part of its Lancaster series especially since it did do (from memory) a He-111Z which is much more obscure...I have the Contrail York conversion for which I will one day find a Lancaster kit to base on but it would be so nice to be able to build a nice one OOB...

[mattbacon]

And coming back on topic... I've often wondered HOW some of these, let's say, "more obscure" subjects acquired sufficient "cool-factor" to be thought worthwhile kitting. Something like the Fairey Delta may only have been made in small numbers, but it did at least have a huge amount of publicity around it at the time, so the awareness must have been pretty high. But as Paul mentioned, the Land WasserSchlepper-thingy is hardly notorious, probably even among armour modellers who favour the Wehrmacht. Who on Earth does the market research that indicates that these more obscure by-ways are worth pursuing?

And while we're on personal hobby horses, why are there no mainstream 1/24 (or even 1/32) kits of the Jaguar C-Type (one of the most successful sports racing cars Britain has ever produced), or the Aston Martin DBR1 (one of the best looking)...

bestest,
M.

[MerlinJones]

I think that it's easier to pick the seemingly under-kitted, as opposed to the over-kitted. The stuff that may fall into the latter category, at least within the field of aviation, does look 'cool' at least, (I'm thinking Me262's, Ar234's and Do335's).

There also seems to be a common theme amongst those over-kitted, in that they were the product of sometimes quite brilliant minds, working under intense pressures, to produce the best...so-called super-weapons, to win the un-winnable war. (From this, of course, we have the Luft '46 theme).

Pressure is a great motivator and, the greater the pressure, the greater the motivation and the greater the product.
On the Allied front, there appears to be less pressure to come up with the weird and wonderful and more to do with refining what already worked.

Only 20 Meteor F1's were built.
210 F3's

...But kits of these are common enough.

Regards,
Bruce

[AndrewR]

I think that it's easier to pick the seemingly under-kitted, as opposed to the over-kitted. The stuff that may fall into the latter category, at least within the field of aviation, does look 'cool' at least, (I'm thinking Me262's, Ar234's and Do335's).

There also seems to be a common theme amongst those over-kitted, in that they were the product of sometimes quite brilliant minds, working under intense pressures, to produce the best...so-called super-weapons, to win the un-winnable war. (From this, of course, we have the Luft '46 theme).

Pressure is a great motivator and, the greater the pressure, the greater the motivation and the greater the product.
On the Allied front, there appears to be less pressure to come up with the weird and wonderful and more to do with refining what already worked.

Only 20 Meteor F1's were built.
210 F3's

...But kits of these are common enough.

Regards,
Bruce

And of course many of the Allied innovations just aren't modelling subjects. Centimetric radar, code breaking, flexible and responsive artillery groups etc. Lots of brilliant minds there, but working on different stuff.

Injection mouldedTiger Moth in 1/72 please!