Why does so many modells company produce so many axis product? For exampel I look at Hobby Link Japan Dragon Series 39-45 it was 70 box of figure and 58! of them were german and only 12 was allied figure.

Why is it so? The Axis was the bad guys of WWII right? I want to see more allied figure!!

To many eyes the 'bad guys' equipment was considerably better looking than US gear. German tanks are simply more attractive than Shermans. German helmets are way better looking than US pots as well. :-)

Cody

hmm, iam not sure about hwat you jsut said. i prefer alied vehicles better because they had a lot more stowage, to me ,that kinda shows the struggle they had to win the war. they had to improvise a lot more than the germans had to to win the war. and i agree, there is a lot of axis products available and not enought alied products... i never saw dml or tamiya make a canadien vehicle! and they barly make any british armor either, and not much russian. i guess thats because the germans faught procticly everyone, canadiens, british, and americans, the main allied countrys ( i might be wrong, i aint a jeenyus)

FRank

not in everyone's eyes, german soldiers were human too, I don't think they were all bad, its just that propaganda helped give them a bad image. besides it sells more than allied vehicles, for some reason.

I agree, I don't care who won the war, or if the sherman was reliable, or if the mass production strategy was succesfull, the only thing I care about is that German armor is better looking and was legendary.

Since my models are not going to "function" and fight each other, I dont mind if the Tiger was unreliable.

I like the Tiger and KT but only in it's armor sand color. Once they start putting on all that camouflage stuff it just looks like New York City subway grafitti to me. Same for allied tanks that do the Mickey Mouse camo.

Alan,

I'm with you - solid colors make for easier 'appreciation of the form'.

Cody

I think there are more Axis kits produced because there is a greater variety of equipment to choose from. Germany had so many different vehicles. just look at all the different Marders there were.

This variety means more sales to people who don't normally build multiples of anything. Also, Axis models do seem to sell better world wide. Probably for the previously mentioned reasons.

The one thing is, if enough people keep asking, sooner or later the model companies will hear you, and know that they have a demand for allied armor, and start producing more then they have been.

They have been doing better then before, but they could do even better. I wished they could do more then just one or two AFV's a year, people are standing and waiting for the next one to come out.

Axis armour, in particular German, since the Japanese armour was ugly and in jungle fitting/island fighting useless. Germany explored all facets of armour, tanks, antitank, mobile artillery...etc.. The allies, which made up, Britain, US, France, Canada, several other countries to name, played catch up in the design arena, and most countries relied heavily on US supplies and production, so there were a lot variants of the same design Shermiesrule could tell you better about all of them and the versions that were used. German armour is just more interesting to a lot of people due to it's innovative design.

:[]--
Dragonslain, you should care who won the war, you could be speaking German at this time instead of spanish, or be a part of a new world order that the majority of people would not want to be a part of. I suggest that you read some history books to better understand the importance of the allied victory in Europe and in the Pacific.

3442, the reason why so many people were PRACTICALLY fighting everyone is due to the fact that they either invaded or declared war on most of Europe or other countries that had a pact with each other. When one country was invaded the other came to help. The US stayed neutral until DEC. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese and then shortly after Germany decalred war on the US. This was due to the pact.

Think you meant 1941 when Pearl Harbor was hit

As for German variety, I don't really understand that logic. The Sherman was the most versatile tanks of the war. One single tank served almost every function for the US.

In it's original configuration it was about equal to the PzIV. To defeat PzIV the Sherman came out with a 76mm
When the Germans upgunned to 88mm Tigers the Sherman was upgunned to a 17pdr Firefly
Germans had their assault guns like the Stug series, the M7 Priest 105mm (based on the Sherman chassis) was introduced and then the Sherman was mounted with a 105mm.
Germans had monster armored tanks like the King Tiger and Jagdtigers the Sherman had the up-armored Jumbo.
Marder AT guns were equivilent to the M10/Achilles TD based on the Sherman chassis.
Panthers with wide open field tracks was matched by the Sherman modified to HVSS suspension.
BergPanthers and BergTiger served the same function as the M32 ARV.
German rocket halftracks were matched by the Sherman Calliope.
This doesn't even count all the Sherman funnies like DDs, bridging, flails, bulldozers, CDLs. It also doesn't count the different models of hulls, turrets, and engines like the M4, M4A1, M4A2, M4A3, M4A4, etc...

The only thing I can think of that the Germans attempted that did not have Sherman equivilent was AA but then the Luftwaffe was negligible in the later years of the war. The US military decided to mount AA on the M16 Halftrack, which was a highly successful weapon.

Seems to me if you want variety, nothing has more variety than the Sherman. For almost everything the Germans introduced there was a Sherman serving a similar function.

Notice the German variety of chassis used. There may be a great variety of Sherman variants, but they are all based on the same platform. Helped win the war, but could be considered boring to some people as far as modeling is concerned. Personally, I find all tanks fascinating, right down to those "ugly" little Japanese ones. I wish there was one of every one made. Probably won't happen, but we can modify the kits we have to get what we want. It's a good thing for anyone wanting to model the Sherman variants that the platform was so useful.

Addendum:
Panzer 1,2,3,4,5,6a,6b,Pz38,Pz35,Hybrid3-4(Nashorn),PzII D and Luchs (both unique suspensions),Marder 1,Porsche Tiger suspension (Elefant), = 14 different fully tracked platforms with different hulls and / or suspension.

Well the US didn't only have M4 Shermans. You can expand the platform list to include the M3/M5 Stuart, M3 Lee, M18 Hellcat, M24 Chaffee, M26 Pershing, LVT, and a wide range of halftracks.
According to Encyclopedia of German Tanks of WW2, take platforms include PzI, PzII, PzIII, 38t, PzIV, PzV, PzVI and Semi-tracked (halftracks).

I count 7 US platforms and 7 German platforms. There doesn't seem to be that much of a difference in the number of platforms. Yet Axis builders still claim more variety.

This topic had been discussed various times in the past, and to no real conclusion. It seems that German sells more, and it's the end of it, you just have to ride with it. Or became rich, and invest your own toolings and make some kits that you like.

um.....but spanish is not our real language anyway, so in the end our mother language would still be lost(Nahuatl where are you?).

and about the second thing....I think the USA is unofficially ruling Mexico!! :-)

but thats not what I meant, I know victory was important, but what I meant is that I don't model a German tank because it was behind Nazism, but because I like how it looks

this arguament just keeps popping up doesnt it!

dave is correct that german armour sells better, and this perpetuates more kits of german armour, in a vicious circle.

however im sorry to say the opinion that the germans had a better variety of equipment is misguided. if you german builders did a little more research you would be surprised.

shermiesrule has detailed most of the sherman variants and vehicles based on the sherman chassis, (which is a lot) but consider the other allies

britain made an incredible variety of AFVs, and conversions built on numerous hulls.

for example, the churchill, 9 marks of gun tank, all with very noticable differences, and half a dozen engineering/assault versions.

the cromwell/centaur. around a dozen gun tank versions, again with noticable differences. then you have an ARV, an APC and 2 tank destroyers based on the chassis.

they are just a few ezamples, we had the first airborne tank, and our commonwealth brothers made further versions of our designs(matilda frog etc)

just because these arent available in plastic doesnt mean they arent important!

cheers

joe

This must pop up every week!

Simple reason most of the kit manufacturers are based in the far east were there is a massive demand for german subjects. As I see it we are the 2nd market for the model co's it's the Asian market which dictates what kits they want not us so we get their requests.

Now if you look on other sites Trumpeter is running a wish list for kits going into 2005 and beyond so nows your chance to see if you can help get a kit you'd like to see in production go send them your wish list

as for me I build all types of armour ww2 german/allied/modern all nations so I'll always have an infinte supply of kits to build.....who cares which nation built the tank as long as you like the lines of it build it