As 2004, comes to a close, an interesting point for discussion - was 2004 one of these 'milestones' in modelling - or not?

In my opinion, due to the sheer volume of new releases and the new companies starting up, yes it has come close to a 'classic' year...

On the negative, the big producers continue to treat us as morons - endless re-releases. They have also got to the point of 'telling us' what we want and some are selling boxes rather than kits....

My personal 'Oscars' for the year (in no particular order) are:

Tristar

Formations For services to the Sherman and Stuart

Trumpeter - Imagination in new releases

Alpine Miniatures

Echelon Decals

This year's 'Razzies' :-) go to...

DML (for their ludicrous 'war' with AFV Club) and lack of imagination....

Academy For lack of provision with the M4a1 (i.e. not producing enough of them)

Tamiya For re-pops of re-pops of re-pops

The 'professional' modelling press for not having the sense to update - and still assuming that we are in the 1970s...

Verlinden 'nuff said....

The Tiger Tank For the 467 variants available in 1/35th, the 268 coming in 1/48th.....

E-Bay

Perhaps we could instigate a vote on major company of the Year best kit of the year etc....? Jim

Good year for me. Well into the special offerings available only in resin.
capnjock

I want to give out just two "thumbs up" (not wanting to focus on negatives) to a couple of companies out there.

First DML - Sure I love the fact that the majority of their new releases are of German subjects. But one has to notice the sheer volume of new releases this year as well as their attempt to please their customers by adding so many extras to their new kits. In addition they are constantly upgrading these kits in an attempt to make them more accurate. Sure one could argue they should do this the first time around, but on the flip side they don't have to do it at all.....

Second, Trumpeter - This year they released in my opinion the model of the year with the 1/16 T-34's. They have increased their quality ten-fold in a small amount of time, they have exciting new releases and they give you the most bang for the buck.

Stuke

My thumbs up go to Revell for their infamous 1/72 u-boat.
Nice and big model for a very moderate price, still easy enough for beginners and definetely challenging enough for some heavy drilling and scratchbuilding for advanced modellers.

Now if only this could be the beginning of a whole line up of 1/72 warships..!!!!!!

my vote goes for DML. They are churning out awesome kits with great details and extras with em! They have us modellers in mind....good job!

Have to agree. Trumpeter has to be one of the highlights ... for me anyway. I just hope they dont sit on their laurels now and keep this standard up.

Im pleased the fact DML have increased their offerings and have improved drastically. I think they got their "bottoms" kicked when they took short-cuts with their leopold and Karl mausers. At least they had the common sense to rectify this, and not make the mistake with their most recent releases.

Tristar have been busy, but stuck to almost safe subjects. A bit more variation, but keeping their quality, will make them a serious contender.

Formations have enjoyed the recent Sherman explosion. They came at the right time, had the products that were wanted, but more importantly listen to their customers. Wish more of the bigger companies would take notice!

Tamiya has to be the biggest dissapointment recently. Their name was almost sacred a year or two ago. Apart from the T55, most of their "best kit in town" tags are being ripped off on a constant basis.

Italeri are still floating somwhere in-between. Some nice releases and are willing to take a chance where others will not go, but fail to see there is a market for older kits that are much in demand. Surely this is financial suicicde.

I guess success lays with those that have improved and moved with the times. I would like to think that the companies that have listened to what their customers want, have benifited. Those that believe that their name is strong enough to carry them, need to think again.

I agree, overall, 2004 has been a good year. Hopefully some standards are being set that means the hobby will expand and improve.
Great thread Jim. Definately makes one think or re-evaluate.

2004 has been an outstanding year for me, on almost every level. Apart from models, I got back into truckdriving which has almost dubbeled my income and got us back onn our feet, we are just about to complete on buying our on house, our beautiful daugther was born and of course I discovered Aromorama....
The site has really restarted my modeling flame, and to be able to show my models to an appreciative and knowledgebale audience is great. It's also very rewarding to be able to pass your hints and tips on to others, and a great boost to have people acknowledge that your input has been a help to them. So yes, 2004 gets my vote, especially Armorama, and those who build/make the site.

Here's to an hopefully even beter 2005

Henk

Frank, I echo your comments -particularly about Tamiya and Italeri.In the case of the former, its almost as if we have to be grateful for a few crumbs from the table...

Italeri leaves me scratching my head - constantly! They do superb work (LCM 3) and then - nothing...Jim

I don't realy want to choose a brand or something like that. They all have their good and bad thing. So I'll talk about the thing I liked about modelling itself this year....

I discovered Academy also offers high quality kits like the Tiger, M3A1 and the M10. I always disliked Academy because I had only build their very cheap and bad Pzkfw IV, which made me thing it was a bad brand......by now I know that isn't true

I also made the step to airbrush. All I need to do know is buy the thing. I can't wait!

Seperate track links are my favorite since 2004. I always thought it was a terrible job to use them. Maybe because I'm a bit lazy sometimes :-) Anyway, the Academy Tiger changed this point of view!

PE and alu barrels......why haven't I used them before?? :-)

Tristars figures like the german panzergrenadiers were also a great new thing. Man I like those figures, good job tristar!

1:16 figures also made their entry in my room.

I think dragon was my favorite armor brand this year. Because of their seperate tracks, and sometimes they're cheaper, like the King Tiger tanks.

Same goes for figures, but that's probably because dragon has lots and lots of 1:35 figures. For me, Tristar had the best new releases.....

Oh and last but not least: the Armorama campaigns.....sure a lot of fun!!!!

Grt

I agree completly. there need to be more Panzer IVs in 1/35 out there!

cheers

philip

Well well

i d give good credits to :

Tristar for giving us really good quality plastic figures u can afford, but they need to extend the range in other subjects fast.

Andrea for bringing up not only magnificent new miniature figures but a lot of other dio completing stuff (Look at their new Vultures set !!! )

Trumpeter for having imagination, and producing good models in normal prices (even though their M1 made me hate modern tanks forever!!!)



On the other hand i am down by :

Tamiya for not being the leader any more . Its the company that entered me to the hobby , and is sad for me to see them rerelease the same and the same. I think they need a whole figures sets redoing with new subjects and also many new vehicles.

DML for not doing as much different from German subjects i d like them to do .

Overall i think that its a good year and i am very happy with the fact that many figure companies release unbelievably good figures , in white metal and resin, making your choice for the next one so difficult.


I hope 2005 is even better

Costas

my vote goes to first tristar, DML and Trumpeter for their outstanding release .. even DML has a few other issues that matters, i love the new panzer 1 series. Trumpeter has done it again..starting from a copycat company to what they are now!

and for Armorama to...what a great sites.

Trumpeter is just awesome !! They are boldly going into all areas of modeling making unusual subjects. The 350 scale warship series is taking off like gangbusters thanks to them. Their tanks are not the run of he mill tigers, panthers and shermans. Academy has also made positive inroads. I think their Stuarts, and tank destroyer stuff is top notch, Tamiya is getting pushed off slowly into the back waters and is too arrogant to realize it. Kinda like the American car industry. They got caught with their pants down in the early 70's and due to arrogance didn't even realize it until the mid 80's

Now it wasn't long ago people were wanting a scale so they could combine their models together. They wanted to combine their airplanes with their armor, and Tamiya was the only one that seemed to listen, they said they were going to close down the 1/35, and go with the 1/48, but I guess now everybody forgot they asked for this.

But it seems they aren't going to shut down the 1/35, with just coming out with that latest French tank in 1/35 scale.

Now I'm not one for helping Tamiya, cause I think they are way over priced, but all I'm doing is stating the facts as I remember them. I remember myself asking for a scale to combine, but now that we are going to get one, it seems we really didn't want one in the first place.

Maybe because we never thought they would cancel out their 1/35 line to do it. Even myself I don't want the 1/48, if it makes them close the 1/35 line.

I guess I'm greedy, I want them both, so we have a choice. Now I think Tamiya is getting a bad rap, for doing just what a lot of people wanted, but forgot they asked.

Kerry

As a returner to the hobby who has bought some Verlinden stuff on ebay and thought it looked OK... what's the problem with Verlinden (price notwithstanding)?

I missed most of this year working 60+ hours a week, but 05 will be different I hope. I think it was a good year from my limited involvment. It was nice that the different companies put out some new subjects and not just new versions of panthers and tigers. I am glad to see that companies like Trumpeter are stepping up in every way, especailly thier quality. The way things are going in a couple years Tamiya will be making bad copies of their stuff. The big let down for me was Tamiya's ODS Abrams and Bradleys. I had visions of the quality they have put into their new releases ( T-55 and the Pershing come to mind) and then found out they were just throwing in some backpacks and IFF panels in with the old stuff. That is just a cheap gimik that I thought was way below them.

I agree. Tamiya has figure sets with usefull poses etc, but the figures are terrible. Also, if they release new armor, they shouldn't make all of them € 50 kits.....

Pilgrim, that was not entirely a 'tongue-in-cheek' comment. As someone who is going through hundreds of new releases a month, one inevitably begins to compare the releases of 'similar' companies. The other aspect of this, are the signs from many other companies of a continued 'evolution' in their products. In simple terms, they are getting better, more innovative and while no-one will say they are cheap, in many cases they do represent excellent value for money.

That (IMHO) does not include Verlinden. Their products are (in many cases) shoddily researched, badly executed and it appears to my eyes, to be a company which constanly recycles rather than innovates. The exception to this (IMHO) decline, has to be their recent large scale OIF Figures which are superb. The sublime animation of companies such as Alpine, Warriors or Alphaimage Workshop (in 1/35th) leave Verlinden floundering... A good example of this are Verlinden's 'Arab' figures which owe more to Warner Bros Animation than serious research....Jim

Postscript - The year has just got considerably 'brighter' with the announcements from Bronco and Trumpeter

2004 Was a good year with respect to Luft 46 subjects...

Thumbs up to...
Planet
Anigrand Craftwork
Unicraft
A&V
RS
Special Hobby

Thumbs down to...
Revell
for not continuing with their very good range of Luft 46 subjects....booooo. All gone

Cheers
Peter
:-)

this has been a great year for trumpeter (i won't explain, been covered). i myself have made some outstanding improvments in modelling, so now the kit really looks as good as it should! i also stepped up to a paasche VL double action airbrush (great deal). as i said in the hobby lobby post, i am getting some of those 70's and 80's tamiya kits to practice armor. i will post some of my "Before and after" format kind of pictures in my member gallery later on.

For me the highlight has been the re-introduction of 1/48 armor kits. My hat's off to Tamiya for having the guts to do that. If they are de-emphasizing any other product, it is because the sales and or profits are not there. Next year should be even better for the "new" scale, with at least one other manufactrurer announcing new 1/48 armor. Here, here!

Konrad

MRC - I just picked up their M-113A1 and its every bit as good as anything on the market. I especially liked the clear plastic water bottles.

Tamiya - Sometimes I get the feeling it can't decide between building battery powered "toys" , race cars or scaled static minatures. Tamiya's other big failing is reboxing very tired molds and trying to shovel it out as "New". No refining, no retooling just bag it and shove it out the door, relying on the Tamiya name to carry it. Even their "New" Challenger, M2A2, M-113A1 and M1A2, are nothing more than repacking with an extra sprue or two. Hell, the bottom of the hulls still have the motor mounting holes and the cut out for the drive trains.

For me the highlight has been the re-introduction of 1/48 armor kits. My hat's off to Tamiya for having the guts to do that. If they are de-emphasizing any other product, it is because the sales and or profits are not there. Next year should be even better for the "new" scale, with at least one other manufactrurer announcing new 1/48 armor. Here, here!

Konrad