Andy,
Ok I follow all that and agree to a certain extent, except subject matter.
Again I post and repose devoid of AS involvment, lets say devils advocate ?.
What should AS be targeting then ?, if they hit the niche market then sales will be less and prices by virtue of lower returns higher....= more criticism, or should they aim for more popular items and then be hit again with criticisim for duplicating work ?, by my simple mathematics there going to get hit either way !.
If your going to get beat then you may as well get beat for doing something you like
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Subject matter is always hard to get right, there are calls for this and that, usually from individuals but some are as you say leading towards lunacy ( F-16 ) but some are interesting, when you start out you have no idea what interest anything will have, I still remember being stunned at the interest in the F-84, suppasing and tripling many other items I'd built, to me its a fringe interest aircraft, clearly it wasnt by a very wide margin but no one knew that when it was first released.
Slight diversion, regarding the Sabre...well JVs isnt here yet, it may well be better, be free but it isnt here yet, AS stole the march there good and proper, what sales they got they probably wouldnt have got if JVs was out there, same for the Intruder and Prowler, right now, here this moment, they are the only current modeled versions available.
Right now I cannot think of one British aircraft that isnt being done, been done that would fit AS bill and give a decent return, except maybe a new run of V bombers, well Victor and Vulcan, the Valiant always was a dead duck in the interest polls. There are hints of a Bucc and that would be nice but UKMIL have one in developement....now theres an upcoming conflict already if AS pursued the Bucc, you see how easy it is to become backed into a corner and not build anything ?
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Another point about models these days, there not advancing as fast as they used too, take Ricks Hawk, super model but what extra is it bringing to the table that hasnt been done before....now before there are howls of angst and hatred think about it long and hard, Ricks skills are well know, the model is excellent and will be better than the previous, models always are, but how much better, is it measurable, what exactly is better, more polys, smoother shape and form, probably not, the advances these days are in VCs and effects ( mainly given by the FSx game engine ), my point is not to drag Rick in but to try to show that models today are going to last a very very long time in quality and skill, the % edge and gain is getting thinner and thinner. Good models built now will remain good for a good time in the future, the same goes for DGs hunter, its a good model and is standing the test of time very well, as all good models should.
Go back four years and look at models then, poor by todays standards, go back five years and theres a big difference between five and four year old models, go back to the begining of last year, is there a big gap between then and now ?, you can bet there isnt.
This now begs the question what of the future, with models so good now and with long shelf lives, theres soon going to be a dearth of suitable subject matter, there is going to be more cries of duplication, I'd seriously suspect that no one is going to attempt a Hawk for a good few years, nor Sea Vixen, our own success is going to bite us eventually as we build ourselves into corners.
Best
Michael
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