Ex_Pat_Tanker

Cromwell - Kit available
Russian
T34 - WSN RTR
IS2 - Kit Available
KV 85 - Kit Available
American
T95 - obscure and expensive! can be made from Tamiya Sherman parts and styrene sheet.
Jackson - Turret kit available, hull hopefully soon
German
Panzer VI J - cut a couple of return rollers off and ask http://www.panzerparts.com/ for their late model mantlet and gun.
Stug 4 - Asiatam
Panzer IV 70 A or V - Profiline for the Alket version and Modellio for the V/70
ROF pak 40 mount - 21st Cent for 1/18, look for papercraft if you want 1/16 scale
Hetzer - bluestar model co.

I never cease to be amazed at these "Why don't they make the most obscure tanks in history?" threads - the bottom line is that if Tamiya or HL don't sell 10,000 units they aren't going to make it - I defy anyone here to find 10,000 people who have heard of a Comet, or any of those paper panzers you all so much adore...

STO_118

Possible and May I said no definitive decision. There are a large number of tanks that were used in countless theaters other than WW2. Simply put while there may be a big number of possible tanks that doesn't mean they will be popular or even worth doing. There are no reasons to force ourselves into the WW2 bracket and stick there. It might not make the people who battle day but for others it would be appreciated. Take the Centurion for example, a large number of variants from a tank that saw service in Korea, Vietnam and extensively in the middle east.

How many Comets do you really foresee selling? The mainstays have been covered from the German and US side of things, we have a smattering of Soviet armour so that only leaves British and Japanese. Both countries had trouble actually making a combat worthy tank, although Britain got there in the end. If you concentrate the market in one time period, now 67 years ago you will eventually run out of customers with modern generations. If you choose to spread the market out then the aftermarket side of it will also expand.

You ask about the market, the market is mainly made up of impulse buyers, people who buy toys for their kids or gifts for him at Christmas. While enthusiasts do make up some of the market and may buy more than one tank there are far less than many people obviously think. Although there are many more who are not on the forums at all. I've seen the sales figures for the main Heng Long distributor in the UK, as well as two other companies that are also on the higher end of the list. The market has always been this. If you took away the RC element then you would be left with modellers only unless the tanks were all finished like the FOVitems. A lot of people who buy spares from me tend to fall in this bracket, a lot of my larger customers tend to be people who have had a tank given to them as a gift and have gotten into the hobby that way.

If your source is Mato, Mato don't tend to put out their feelers very much and for the most part don't really care about other retailers. When i talk about the King Tiger I talk about my own sales performance and the other companies selling it in the UK. It is worth pointing out that the King Tiger was released in the middle of the recession. My sales of higher price items has dropped with people preferring to buy one or two little things at a time. Ican't say about the USor Canada or in fact anywhere outside of the UK but the main distributor for Heng Long in the UK has not imported any new tanks since the Panther/Jagdpanther so the StuG, ZTZ or KT never made in numbers over here.

The ZTZ-99 was never officially released outside of China, in fact other than a few retailers in the UK it is never seen in numbers. Even Mato were not going to offer it for sale internationally. Any numbers will be will not be very useful because of this. I stopped importing them after an entire batch turned out faulty because Heng Long wired them wrong. Although this was a fluke and Imay order more in if the demand is there (it's not).

You have focused a lot on what I said about Cold War Era tanks, what I actually did what forward around 20megs of compressed photographs of a large number of potential projects. Included in this were the main British tanks that saw combat during WW2 but also the Centurion, Chieftain, Challenger, Challenger 2 and Warrior. I also included photographs and information on a number of Russian tracked vehicles including the T-72 up to the T-90 (I skipped the T-62 and T-64) and various BMP's. I also included the modern US vehicles including Pattons up the M60, Abrams and Bradley and for kicks the LAV. If the modern side ever really caught on then Iwould perhaps look at the earlier M113 (always a good seller) and perhaps the derth of Britsh vechicles.

If the range of tanks were there for Cold War and modern engagements would people not make use of them? Cold War and modern armour have always been quite popular in smaller scales and Tamiya obviously agrees since some of their first large scale tanks were the Leopard and Gepard.

When I give advice to them I don't think about what I like, I put forward other peoples ideas with the chances of commerical success. We know what Heng Long are producing and I know the next five projects from Mato one of which is my pet project I have been harassing them for months to do and there is also my other pet project that has been sitting on the burner for awhile. Mato and the others are well aware of the dangers of producing random tanks.


Just for you...

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wowinside...ege_engine.jpg

B/Man

The Walker Bulldog has always seemed like an odd choice to me for HL to release. From what I understand it saw service in Vietnam but mainly with the South Vietnamese and didn't get a lot of use with the US. Does anyone have any information on why HL went with a Bulldog?

Ex_Pat_Tanker

They reused the M26 running gear - legend has it that originally it was a 'Pantiger'esque hack job, that got somewhat modified prior to release

Jhdumas

I'd take a comet... but probably would rather have a Churchill or a Grant.. maybe a Firefly....
A less expensive HL JS 2 would be great!
Maybe some of the Self propelled Guns would be Great too..
Priest, Bison, Mardar, I'm on-board for any of them..

Imex-Erik

I like this list..... Also now that you have me here I can help push a few more obscure models. I'm a WoT player and WT player so I'm always pushing strange models to bossman. I think I may have just succeeded too.....

R|M|D Photography

I think the top tanks I would love to see by HL or Taigen would be an M3 Lee and would LOVE some of the WWI tanks like the Renault FT17 and like a Mark IV.

YHR

I wonder whatever happend to Sto 118?

Ex_Pat_Tanker

He's still trading on Ebay, Panzer Command is his ID I think?

Ex_Pat_Tanker

I must admit that I was a little surprised that you guys revisited the T34 at the same time as HL released theirs, I'm assuming that there was some part commonality with the version that Torro carried on selling after everyone else dropped the WSN branded ones?
(Either way, the original WSN was not the best in the mechanical department, so the upgrade is a welcome addition for those of us with a few of them knocking around the place )

I play MWO rather than WoT or WT, so I have no idea about what the cool kids all want besides the usual enormous German or Russian paperpanzers...
(A tie in with WoT could be an option to explore, they have a promo going with Italeri at the moment I notice - tho I suspect that Wargaming.net will want a cut of any profits you make from this )

Looking at that old list again, the Alkett JagdPanzer IV could be a possibility for you, as the main gun would sit clear of the battery and gearboxes? The regular Vomag version would be a squeeze tho, and the late model Panzer IV is now covered by the Hobby Boss static kit (unless you can get the rights to make a RTR version with that top on your Panzer IV chassis?).

M10/M36 would be welcome in plastic too - I'm sure I'm not the only one looking at Mato's metal offerings while wondering how long they would last in a battle

KV85 would appeal to those who like big green monsters, easy engine deck tweaks and new turret?

I'd like to see some trucks personally, crawler chassis converted to Dodge Weapon Carriers, Humber Quads or Horch's. That way they would have some cross-over appeal to the crawler boys.

Hopefully Merit have sold enough of their 105 and 150mm guns to warrant expanding that range in 1/16 as well. I'd like a 57mm M1 to tow behind my half tracks or a 155mm to put behind my M4 HST.

@ Ryan, FT-17 is available in static as both MG and 37mm versions. There was talk of somebody offering a RC conversion, but I think that died - lack of interest or technical difficulties the most likely culprits.

YHR

What is MWO?

I think Clark has a Ft17 conversion package. He is quite active in 1/35 scale as well

Panther F

But what fun would that be for some as having to build and then install electronic gear cannot match the shear satisfaction of pulling those RTR's out of a box and then taking pictures of them. LOL







Jeff

Ex_Pat_Tanker

Mechwarrior:Online (kind of like WoT but with big robots instead)

Was it Clark, I thought it was somebody out of HongKong? rc35.com or something like that?

Martellus

I think it would be better to have a churchill before a cromwell or comet, those are already availible as kits and more viable as a scratchbuild, having a churchill with proper tracks and suspension is not as accessible right now.

Still want them mass produced eventually.

Martellus

Why do you have to play with our feelings like this?

Praying for T95 personally if I was to choose one from that list..