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Future of Kitty Hawk molds?


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Does anyone know if there will be some disposition of the molds for the now-defunct Kitty Hawk Models?

 

I was finally ready to start building my 1/48 stash for Navy stuff and desperately wanted a F9F-8 Cougar and never expected them to go OOB.  Not only is it a shame but opportunists on eBay are putting them up for $150 and more.  The "family model" is still available for a reasonable cost but I don't have the bucks to get either the F-101 ( I know, not Navy)for a kit-bash with the Monogram or for the Cougar.  

 

I guess it's to be expected but maybe...just maybe...someone will pick up the molds and press on with the nice kits they were producing.  

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Nobody will know but Kitty Hawk. So, anything that follows is merely wild speculation. My guess: someone will pick them up. The moulds have been cut. You can either use them and produce kits or have them be heavy, expensive lawn decorations (okay, they could also sell them for scrap value).

 

I think it would make a lot of sense for someone like Revell or Italeri to pick them up. The kits are decent enough. I mean, if Revell is comfortable enough with foisting repops of some rather old and nasty kits on modellers, anything from Kitty Hawk should be good to go. Looking through Kitty Hawk's portfolio on scalemates (LINK!), I don't see anything that would be totally unsellable by Revell as far as subjects are concerned. On the contrary, there are lots of kits that would be right up Revell's street. 1/48 Gripen, Jaguar, Mirage F.1, various Flankers and Fitters, 1/32 F-86D/K, Mirage 2000, F-5E/F....

Buy the lot and be set for years to come as far as new releases are concerned. The immediate costs would be pretty high (buying such an amounts of tools in one go), but in the long run there'd be less shelling out to buy repops from third parties. Buy a sizeable number of sprues from a 1/32 Airacobra from Special Hobby or invest in your own mould? Would be really interesting to know what Revell paid for Airacobra sprues from Special Hobby and what buying a second-hand mould from a defunct company costs.

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1 hour ago, ChernayaAkula said:

Would be really interesting to know what Revell paid for Airacobra sprues from Special Hobby and what buying a second-hand mould from a defunct company costs.

And there lies the rub, as it were.   I am hoping someone picks them up.  KH's last statement that I was aware of was that their cost-of-kit vs sales were off-kilter and they stated, arguably that "plastic modeling is a dying hobby".   That point has been discussed here for the past twenty years as well as elsewhere.  Us "oldsters" remember when plastic kits were a great way to spend a rainy weekend and indulge our fantasies of what we might become when reaching adulthood and some of us developed skills to make very nice replicas and so it continued to evolve but now seems more of a hobby for adult men (mostly) with the average age being somewhere above 30 or 35.  

 

Along now, is coming 3D printing...and I can see the "average" modeler either owning their own printer and paying for a new model by buying the CAD renderings.  Or, the new kit (See AeroModl) producing kits via 3D only instead of injection-molding which should cut down production costs considerably as the high-pressure, machine-cut molds become unnecessary.   Any changes in the parts, via the bitchingupastorm blogosphere would result in a "simple" change in the CAD renderings and subsequent kits being improved.   The argument then becomes, "Did you get V2.01 or V2.05?  V2.05 has better fuel tanks but V2.01 has better intakes so getting them both will be needed for what you want to do."   Plus, very specific aftermarket, which is already appearing.  

 

But back to the point...

 

If the molds are sold to Revell or NewUnknown Kitmaker Models, that's fine but just wondered if anyone was in-the-know about such things.  

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Shame they fell apart before releasing some of their recently announced 1/48 stuff like 1/48 Hind, Ka-50/52, Mi-28, Su-25, Su-57.. Most of those would sell like hotcakes, presumably. It would certainly make more business sense to go first with those rather than to release like half a dozen UH-60 1/35 variants ALL AT ONCE. Speaking of which, 1/48 UH-60 variants should have come first as well. 

Edited by ijozic
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/8/2021 at 5:00 AM, ijozic said:

Shame they fell apart before releasing some of their recently announced 1/48 stuff like 1/48 Hind, Ka-50/52, Mi-28, Su-25, Su-57.. Most of those would sell like hotcakes, presumably. It would certainly make more business sense to go first with those rather than to release like half a dozen UH-60 1/35 variants ALL AT ONCE. Speaking of which, 1/48 UH-60 variants should have come first as well. 

I know right?!
Was totally chomping at the bit for those! 

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Companies like Kitty hawk actually own so few assets these days, the tooling is one of those few assets they do own. I cant see the owners would either hold them in hope of using them themselves in the future (that option costs even when they are not being used) or sell them on as an asset.

 

All depends on why the company closed really. The company is Chinese. Given the climate in that country is what it is its hard to know the reason. Ive heard nothing since they closed and I doubt we ever will know why.

I cant imagine that is the last we have seen of their tooling... There is money to be made from them.

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4 minutes ago, quang said:

What do you care? You guys used to call them Shitty Hawk , didn’t you?🤣

 

To be fair, they quite literally earned that nick name. Great choice of subjects, but poor execution. They didn't listen to the SME's that they asked for help and didn't take advantage of the multiple offers of help with reference material from several people. 

 

However, while almost all of their kits were plagued with problems that ranged from fit to detail/accuracy, they were the only game in town for a number of much wanted aircraft. As an example, the UH-1N has a lot of flaws, but I have 12 of them because they're better than the Italeri offering. I've built one and it went together rather nicely. But, it was still littered with a multitude of problems. So yeah, the 'Shitty Hawk' name will more than likely stick with them forever.

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33 minutes ago, Dave Roof said:

 

To be fair, they quite literally earned that nick name. Great choice of subjects, but poor execution. They didn't listen to the SME's that they asked for help and didn't take advantage of the multiple offers of help with reference material from several people. 

 

However, while almost all of their kits were plagued with problems that ranged from fit to detail/accuracy, they were the only game in town for a number of much wanted aircraft. As an example, the UH-1N has a lot of flaws, but I have 12 of them because they're better than the Italeri offering. I've built one and it went together rather nicely. But, it was still littered with a multitude of problems. So yeah, the 'Shitty Hawk' name will more than likely stick with them forever.

I thought they were nice. Never had any problems I wasnt happy to sort out... But then Im not a plastic kit assembler, Im a model kit maker.

 

The pejorative reminds me of a disclaimer put out by a company called Forge World on all of their kits  "some more advanced modelling skills and tools may be required"

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1 hour ago, quang said:

So why the regrets?

 

25 minutes ago, Dave Roof said:

 

Who has regrets?

 

I doubt, in spite of what has happened, if anybody has any regrets about what they have said and the roll they have played in what has happened.

Most just dont, want and never will care until something like that happens to them.

 

Public opinion and prices by retailers will never be a regret...

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Just now, Jon Krol said:

 

That shuts up a lot of the naysayers, Lol. I love their Furys. Do they have issues? Yes some, but overall they are excellent kits with loads of detail you'd never find even in a Tamiya kit, and I love Tamiya kits. I have their Cougs and yes aside from some details they are the most accurate Cougs out. Even their much maligned Banshee, with Mike Rieth's correction set transforms the kit from a dog to buildable. I was really looking forward to their later Banshee, Tiger and Cutlass. Now, who will pick up the banner for 50's NavAir? I'll be dead before that happens now. At least they got my fav out with the Fury before I cross the great divide.    

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14 hours ago, quang said:

Haha not me! While you were busy bashing them, I built ‘em 🤣

 

 

 

 

One can be critical of the execution and still build the kits, as well as support their endeavor............

 

64902263_420481358554777_294412081778655

 

242392852_406805487507937_41846608249974

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3 hours ago, Dave Roof said:

 

 

One can be critical of the execution and still build the kits, as well as support their endeavor............

 

 

Nah not really.

 

The kits were good. The Jaguar was a challenge, those H-60sI havent got round to building yet but forwarned is fore armed.

 

Their problem was distribution and people bad mouthing them at ever opportunity. 

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