Acrylics vs Enamels sales?

[Aaronw]

With Testors apparently looking to kill off many of their Acrylic paints, I'm just wondering if anyone knows how the general enamels vs acrylics sales go. I know some of you are in the industry, so I thought someone might have some idea of the breakdown.

Based on the abundance of acrylic lines I would assume they now dominate the market. Model Master and Humbrel are the only two wide spread enamel brands I know of while Acrylics have Model Master Acryl, (+ Pollyscale, & Floquil), Vallejo, Tamiya, and Gunze. Most of the smaller specialty paints are available in both Acrylics and Enamel (Xtracolor, Misterkit, AKAN, SNJ/Talon etc) but the acrylics lines generally seem easier to get.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Aaronw

[kenlilly106]

I think the reasons Testors is killing off some of their acrylic lines are lack of marketing and a crowded market.

After Games Workshop and Citadel cornered the market on figure and miniature paints, Testors decided to jump in to the market with little fanfare, the maritime colors seemed to have a quiet life too. I hadn't heard of either line until they were discontinued.

Ken

[Jay Chladek]

BTW, the Testors Acrylic paints being killed off are the square bottle acrylics, NOT the Model Master Acrylics (at least not the normal MM Acryl line for aircraft). The marine colors died a long time ago and the fantasy colors (which are based on the old discontinued Polly S Fantasy line) aren't hot sellers either.

[Fishwelding]

I didn't conclude that Testors' decision reflected any market trend (or misguided read thereof) so much as a streamlining effort. If it seems misguided, I would ask to know how much money Testors makes selling paint for plastic models at all any more.

[Aaronw]

I know they are not killing the basic Acryl line, but without the Marine and Pollyscale lines the selection is much smaller than the Enamel line, so it seems like they are just throwing in the towel on the acrylics end. I could understand if they were dropping Acryl for Pollyscale which has a much larger selection.

Now its possible they will eliminate the overlap and reintroduce some of the missing colors, but I haven't heard anything to that effect.

Fish, if Testors isn't making money on paint I'm not sure what would keep them going. The rest of their products are primarily targeted towards entry level builders which the doom and gloom mob says is shrinking.

If acrylic paints are actually a small very competitive and static market, I could see the logic of pulling out, but it appears to me acrylic paints are a growing market and the eventual future (regulations seem to get tougher on enamels every year).

Edited October 23, 2010 by Aaronw

[Fishwelding]

Fish, if Testors isn't making money on paint I'm not sure what would keep them going. The rest of their products are primarily targeted towards entry level builders which the doom and gloom mob says is shrinking.

An effort to turn things around? Failed businesses can languish for years, if there's some thought that somehow management will hit upon a solution. This can be especially true if the company is in fact a division of a bigger enterprise. I have no idea how profitable Testors is or is not, and I don't presume to spread rumors. I note, however, in addition to your above-mentioned decisions on their part, a consistent price increase in their lines, seemingly over and above general inflation in other sectors.

Hey, look, I hope they make money. They're generally my major supplier for paints, and on the whole I've been satisfied with their products and customer service. But I guess I'm part of the "doom and gloom mob," as I think it's difficult not to acknowledge the steady loss of modeling population, both static modelers and railroaders (who generally are trending toward ready-to-run models) which is unlikely to turn around. I think the hobby is becoming a thoroughly adult, very niche hobby, due to high costs in part driven by higher precision products.

Honestly, and in a not-really-related comment, I was thinking again, yesterday, that it is remarkable to me that plastic companies haven't produced models of video game stuff. Perhaps they've tried, and it's licencing issues that stalled 'em. I realize it wouldn't result in a massive influx of new modelers, but anything is better than simply relying on producing increasingly-obscure Cold War gear for baby boomers, who will more and more be on fixed incomes, and then, well, dead. I've said before here that a good plastic kit, a la the Mobius variety, of Master Chief, or the suits from Fallout, or all the various stuff from Mass Effect, might reintroduce the hobby to a somewhat younger crowd. A few years back--and maybe still--those Gundam models made a stir among younger people that, while minor in popular culture, was still more than those of us building P-51s and FW-190s can muster.

[Dmanton300]

The rest of their products are primarily targeted towards entry level builders which the doom and gloom mob says is shrinking.

Yeah, but then again the gloom and doom mob have been saying that ever since I started reading modelling magazines at the age of 9! If I believed what they said then then I was the last of a dying breed. Guess what? I'm still here, and at any model show you still see plenty of kids clutching kits in their hands.

A huge percentage of those kids won't follow the hobby into adulthood, but there is a continuous stream of them. The ones that do carry it through to adulthood turn into. . well. . you and me!

Modelling is alive and well for both young and old, those who claim otherwise are just misreading the dynamic.

[Fishwelding]

Modelling is alive and well for both young and old, those who claim otherwise are just misreading the dynamic.

Speaking from the United States, I can't see that here. In my own lifetime, I've seen plastic models going from being somewhat available in drug stores (apothecaries, chemists), widely available in discount department stores, and having an entire isle of their own in toy stores, to now being available in a shrinking number of hobby shops, and a handful of chain craft stores (that seemingly are cutting back their supply, at that). Frankly, if it wasn't for the internet, many of us USians would have a hard time building what we do. The first models my father bought me were purchased at a chain drug store, and thereafter I regularly frequented both small and large toy stores to build a large collection of World War II models. Now, I still buy the same "Monogram" kits at 300% the cost of 1987, through the Revell label, the last of a historic array of plastic model companies based in the United States. Now that Lindberg kits have reappeared, I've picked a few of them up, too, so that they might stay around. But here, plastic kits and supplies are increasingly niche import products, not unlike expensive foreign cheeses.

Models won't go away; there will always be some who can and will afford higher priced kits, after all. But honestly, given the costs involved as well as social aspects of different hobbies, I cannot blame the average American teenager for finding other pursuits than spending money on kits.

Edited October 23, 2010 by Fishwelding