I've been thinking about getting back in building 1/35 armor after not doing it for years and have been a little shocked at the prices. I see prices of $30 to start for most decent models, and easily more. After paints, tools, etc., I'd be looking at a fair amount of change per model. I have to wonder why they are so high, since they are mass produced, simple plastic injected merchandise. Are initial costs that high? Is it possible these prices will come down any time soon? Why is there is no internet source offering a big price break like there is with books and other products? Any help from you experienced modellors will be appreciated.
I don't have any good ideas JBark, but I got out of building models years ago. The cost is incredible considering you make something that is so easy to break. I saw a tiny model kit of a Japanese I400 class sub at Hobby Lobby for over 70 bucks! Instead of building models, I do oil paintings now of what I like. It's much cheaper and much easier to preserve!
I'm with you, ULITHI; when I was a kid back in the '70's, I could get a halfway decent tank kit for $10.00 or $15.00 (Revell-ogram), but I just recently purchased a couple of 1/35th German armor kits for $60.00 EACH. However, I will say this: they are MUCH more detailed, and most armor kits these days (at least the ones I'm picking up) come with PE parts included. Some of my old Tamiya kits have molded-in suspension and NO interior (except for maybe the cannon breech); the two kits I just picked up last month (a DML "Ersatz M10" Panther, and the DML Sd.Kfz. 161/4 "Whirbelwind") come with complete, separate suspension (the "Ersatz M10" even has separate torsion bars), lots of choices as to hatches opened or closed, a complete cannon, lots of optional extra parts (seems like I almost have enough parts left over to make a whole 'nother tank!), and it's all very detailed, right down to the rivets and weld joints. And, of course, there is the included PE (which intimidates me a bit, since I don't get to work with PE very often). So, yes, armor models HAVE become a lot more expensive; however, they have also become a lot more detailed, and it'll probably take you about twice as long to build one (I know it has for me!). Whenever I go to my LHS these days, I usually plan on coming out of there at least $100.00 poorer.
They're not as mass produced as you might think anymore. The average model company might produce a run of 5,000 kits for worldwide consumption. Then put that mold away, and produce something else. And remember that plastic is a byproduct of petroleum. Like everything else in our life, things are more expensive. We modelers have demanded it in a way. When I first began to build kits, I could buy an Airfix 1/72 scale kit for 50ยข each at my local shop. There was almost no detail aside from the shape being fairly correct. Now, we have demanded much higher levels of quality from model manufacturers. Superior detail, exacting dimensions, etc. It costs money to do all that, and produce it. We, as modelers, got lazy. The sign of a good modeler was the ability to take a basic kit, and scratchbuild our own detail. Now we have demanded that it be already there for us. We demanded, they provided, we're paying for it.
I agree with a number of the statements that have been made by modellers on this thread. The 1/35th scale armour model kits I am buying today are significantly more expensive than the kits I was buying as a teenager in the 1970s, but they're also more accurate, finely detailed kits, often providing a range of options, not to mention "aftermarket" sets -photoetched brass detail sets, metal gun barrels- as part of the package. Having said that, I have found that it's increasingly easy to invest a lot of money in a hobby that I used to consider to be relatively inexpensive. For example, I recently purchased the Tamiya 1/35th scale Sturmtiger kit for about $40.00 -which I thought wasn't a bad price to pay. By the time I bought the set of resin and photoetched parts to complete the interior -$60.00-, plus a set of resin zimmerit pieces to detail the lower hull -$35.00- I was already out of pocket $135.00....And I've been looking at a couple of resin figures to go with the kit at approximately $15.00 each. If I include the cost of glues, paints, and -God forbid I consider a full diorama with base, trees, cobblestones, etc.- who knows what I'll end up investing in this single modelling project. At least I only have about thirty unbuilt kits in my collection. (I know some modellers who have hundreds of unbuilt kits stacked up in closets and on basement shelves.) Given their current build-rate of three or four kits per annum, some of these people will need SEVERAL LIFETIMES to complete the kits they have in reserve....And many of them are buying new kits all the time! I guess hope springs eternal.
