Vane
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How will laser cutters compliment our hobby tomorrow?
Vane replied to EspenT's topic in 3D-Printing and Laser-Cutting.
I think there are two major problems for the wooden ship kit industry to evolve: - Its a very small market and I am not so sure if there are so many new "modellers" getting in to it - Its very traditional relying on traditional material and alot of carve it yourself practices Look at the major manufactureers. They dont come up with any new kits and most of what they sell are 20-50 year old kits. 3d printing and lazer cutters have been around for years but the kits are still made from plywood/walnut milled in CNC machines and casted white metal. Vanguard models is the pioneer in reinventing the business with much success but its a very niche market. And are the old modellers willing to change? Can wooden ships actually be made of the "wrong materials" like resin and plastics? Chris Wattons "plastic guns" are way more detailed than the ones in metal but they dont have the same weight. Is it real then? Personally I love alolt of the new stuff to make modelling more detailed and also easier. Buuuuut..... not all new solutions. China is another problem. They dont care about copyright so if they get their hands on the data files we can expect them to start copying.... -
I wish some 3rd party could start doing 3D printed upgrades for shipmodels. Vanguard models has through new engineering excellent details in there lineup. But all these old school kits with white metal solutions are just horrible and dont do the models justice. Here is how i ended up with the Caldercraft kit. I decided to be abit creative in my paint scheme.
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What a surprise...! I know its not the real thing but I got to see the movie ship back in 2012 when I was visiting San Diego. I just looked at the old Caldercraft project of Surprise. Not sure why they never finished it. I remember being very excited about that release but seeing the photos now it looks very dated and undetailed. It will be really interesting to see what you will come up with. I am sure you will do her justice.
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Nice, it really looks like the child of Speedy and Snake 🙂 Interesting with the lower deck. Re-inventing the hobby once again! Now you have an impresive line-up of models. Any thoughts of adding a bomb or mortar vessel to your fleet?
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I am just curious... considering all the details of the lower deck, will it be visible or mostly covered up by the upper deck? Peep holes through the deck?
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Caldercraft hasnt done anything to their Nelson Navy series since the beginning of the 2000s so I dont think we can expect anything from them at all. They have a great line-up of kits but IMHO they are in desperate need of updates but they simply gave up on product development. Just take the plans and manual for the Diana kit as an example. Without seeing others builds on this site, I would be completely lost. The Harpy look indeed very interesting. Taking a first glance at the plans it indeed looks very much as Speedy... but it is much bigger in size. I really need to start the rigging of my Speedy but been caught up in plastic models for a long time now.
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Yes, but in this case the price range goes from just buying separate blocks to the MS edition. If I understand correctly, there are also various of blocks available to other ships and they dont have it on the same page. My point was simply that Flirt seem to be listed abit differently than the other kits that seem to follow a certain style.
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Sorry for being a Besserwisser, but I just noted an anomaly on your webpage when checking out the latest releases.... instead of "HMS Flirt - 1782" it has been listed as "Order 1:64 HMS Flirt". And it also has a odd price range since you could order block through it. Order 1:64 HMS Flirt – VANGUARD MODELS I know you are a perfectionist so I thought I would point it out 😛
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Interesting concept, she looks great! I think several of your old design deserve revisits. Just look how far you have taken this since the Diana days. When I compare my Snake to Speedy for example it looks so "bulky". Its nothing wrong with the old Snake but just imagine how it would look like/and build with your new design style and mtrl.
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Speaking of sales and perhaps this is company secrets... but just out of curiosity. You now start to have a very good lineup, what kits are doing well and is there any kit that has suprisingly low numbers for some reason? People have expressed lots of suggestions on what you should develop next but what is actually selling in practice?
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There she is! I am glad you went with her, its such a weird ship. And she actually looks better than I imagined. Kind of the opposite to Speedy which has the most beautiful and proportionate lines. Perhaps you should sell it as a pair under the name "the beauty and the beast"? I think it will sell just because it stands out to basically everything else on the market.
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The content of the kit is clearly explained at the website so that customer hasnt read what he is buying.... However, I think he just had gotten the wrong idea what Vanguard is all about. Shipmodelling has for decades been very traditional. Plywood, walnut and cast metal that many times looks quite bad. Even though a metal barrel might feel more genuine.. its not like you are going to fire them. As I understand, Vanguard is about re-inventing shipmodelling, using new materials and solutions in order to make models more accurate and also more easy to build where most companies just give you instructions how to carve out things from rectangular wooden blocks. I cant say I like all of your soilutions. But I definitely enjoy seeing the constant new designs. And when it is time to buy a new kit, I cant really see me going for something else than a Vanguard kit again.
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Sounds like you need to employ some help. Why wasting your talent at the production line when you can be designing new kits instead? All success are definitly well deserved. In a hobby where most companies rely on kits from the 90s you are reaching new levels every month!
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James needs to hurry up or you will finish first! 😛
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I think your wife will put the adder in the garage... or in your mancave! 😛
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The first kit people buy is usually something they find to "look good" on the shelf. However, the more they build the more they start to look for doing something different. From a general selling point of view, I think you will benefit from having a variarity of Royal Navy kits to offer your customers. And so far I think you have managed that quite well! And it is always exciting to see what comes next.
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I cant say its a beauty like the Speedy, but its good to have some more odd kits to build as well. I was always thinking you might do a Bomb vessel at some point, but this gun brig is definitely unique and it will be really interesting to see how it turns out when finished!
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Just a question on the upcoming rigging. Have the conversion to "razee" affected the rigging and masts in some way? Or can we expect everything to basically look the same as on HMS Agememnon?
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Is that HMS Bristol taking shape?
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Some progress on my Diana. 2nd planking almost done on both sides. Did some small mistakes but overall happy how it turned out. Gunports are not perfect. Difficult to get them right when everything needs to be scratchbuilt. Chris has definitely improved his solutions in the kit design since he did this like 30 years ago when everything is up to the builder. Cant wait to do another hull with MDF and build it like Lego 🙂 . I cut the upper deck in 3 parts. I think it will require too much tweeking to get it in place in one piece. I am not yet sure how if I am doing the quarterdeck with walls or open rails which looks more beautiful but requires some scratchbuilding. As I said before, progress is slow due to numerous of parallell projects. In summary: Hms Victory: rigging started Hms Snake: yards under construction Hms Speedy: rigging to begin Hmbv Granado: deck details and guns ...and various plastic kits in different stages.
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Diana is a 30 year old kit and you have to figure out alot yourself and also adjust and scratchbuild. One mistake I done several times is to measure the plans to figure out where to place various things. If its 52.5mm on the plans it should be that on your model too, right? No, the model is in 3D and very curved so a better method instead of measuring is to simply ask yourself what is the purpose and where should it be in relation to other things. Ships usually have many "lines" that should be in harmony.
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Thanks Ben. Yes I have already started and its abit boring doing the same thing over and over again. I think I will settle for the breech rope and not do all the gun tackle. I dont have any small hooks and I rather finish this build than making a perfect model that goes on forever. For my Diana I will aim higher.
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Breechropes and minor details left until the masts and rigging phase will begin. Feel great to have reached this far now. Since I am doing so many parallell projects, its always a question on what I should work on at the moment. I might go back to Speedy soon where its only the rigging left to do. I have forbidden myself to start anything new and its all about finalizing models now.
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We have stearing! In order to make things easier i use photoetch burnishing fluid from Mig on small metal parts like eyelets and nails etc. I can always touch up with some black paint on spots where the metal shines through.
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