I told you guys we were working with them on more than just USN stuff! [:D]
The CAD that went into this was beautiful; Rob wasn’t designing the CAD for just a model; at one point he even had wire mesh rendered out on the light AA guns. The barrels of the main guns have rifling (in the CAD). They had to cut some of the detail down of course, due to limits in plastic technology, but this is going to be another bang-up model for those who want the highest detail possible.
HALLELUYAH!!! When is it due out?
Bill Morrison
And also silly money for it!
Later this year or early next year. Price is TBD, despite “silly” comments otherwise.
Sold! Probably my favorite German warship of all time…I’ll be buying one…
Given the prices of their other ship kits, I’m guessing this one will be over the $200 mark, in which case you can count me out.
The DKM Scharnhorst is #1040 of the Modern Sea Power Series. So far, no model in this series was priced above $50 yet.
Yes, the Scharnhorst will be the biggest ship in this series and not so modern (WW II), but $200? I had been really happy with the Dragon Smart Kit ship model for the high quality and moderate prices. I sure hope that they will not break the tradition.
If I can get the Scharnhorst kit for the £UK equivalent of $50US I’ll show my arse in Macey’s Department Store.
No harm in hoping though.
The DKM Scharnhorst model is a bigger ship than any other models on the Modern Sea Power Series, but still smaller than the DKM Bismarck or the USS Missouri. So, expect to pay more than $50 equivalent, but likely to be much less than the $200 you expect. No need to make a scene at the department store.
If $200 is too much for you, how much is a fair market value to you?
Revell of Germany makes a very nice 1:350 Bismarck. It goes for about $80 in the US. I hope that Scharnhorst will be at the same price range. No everyone charges over $200 for their ship kits like Hasegawa.
You referred to “Dragon’s other ship kits” and their prices in your first post. What did you refer to? What made you guessed that the Scharnhorst would be over $200?
I have been informed by Dragon that the target price is under $120 US.
Hopefully, it will be a model at the Revell, Tamiya and Trumpeter 1:350 scale battleship price point with higher quality, detail and fidelity. It sounds very reasonable to me and should result in a street price under $100.
The model length should be 26-3/4 vs the Bismarck’s 28-1/4.
I bet within 12 months, Revell or Trumpeter will also release one, and sorry but they too wil be silly money,
don’t get me wrong it you want a model some people will pay the asking price, but i for one won’t, i would go with out than be over charged, please don’t go on about the cost of the moulds etc etc, these companies make hansome profits off the kits the produce, but way over charge, as do the wholesalers, theres no need for it, and the compaines would sell more kits,
I would love the 1/350 Prinz Eugen and the new Scharnhorst, as they are my two fav ships, but sorry they will have to do without me unless they sell at more realistic price, i was talking to a guy in a well know model chain store and asked how the big 1/32 scale plane kits were selling, i got " there no, its because they are too expensive," sorry in todays cilmatic world, people have more important things to buy, than spend it on plastic model kits, which has the knock on effect, the model compaines, then say, they aren’t selling, pull the plug,
so unless they lower the price, and sell a lot more, they will shoot themselves in the foot,
sorry for going on, and someone will shoot me down in flames now, right!
It’s nice to know that you are able to criticize the price of a kit that doesn’t even have an announced price, isn’t yet on the market and that you haven’t seen. Enough already, you should at least wait until there is actual pricing and reviews of the kit contents to go on a rant. Just what is your idea of a “realistic” price for a kit like this, with all research, state of the art tooling, currency variations, shipping and marketing expenses, legal fees and insurance?
If you don’t want to pay for it, don’t. I’m very happy to see new kits of ships like this and Prinz Eugen. I don’t think the prices for these are “silly money” at all. I have been buying much more expensive resin 1/350 kits for years and have been satisfied that I have received plenty of value for my money. I am willing to give a producer a profit. It is a business. The object is to make money. These kits aren’t produced solely to make me or any other hobbyist happy. They are part of a business enterprise. If they don’t make a profit they won’t stay in the game.
I, too, am very happy with the newer ship kits being released and will happily pay the price. These kits are far more detailed, far more accurate, and are in far greater variety than when I was growing up in the 1960’s. I distinctly remember the weekly trip to the local drug store to buy my newest Pyro Table Top Navy ship model for either $0.39 or $0.50, or the Renwal fleet sets for $1.00. It represented a much bigger step when I could afford the $2.00 Revell or Aurora ships, or the larger scale Renwal. But, the detail and accuracy of these ships varied considerably.
Today, I do not consider it unreasonable to pay for a huge variety of ships in outstanding detail. I believe that, for the most part, the manufacturers are performing an excellent service to us at reasonable profit. I hope that they keep up their good work.
Now, if they would only start producing sailing ships!
Bill Morrison
Actually Revell appear to be one of the few manufacturers that don’t ask “silly money” for their newer kits (Academy is another); their new 1/350 Bismarck is very good value (around the same RRP as the old Tamiya kit, though of course you can get the latter for much less if you look around) and though their Tirpitz, released this year, is a bit more, it’s still significantly cheaper than any other new-tool 1/350 battleships released recently.
The price of around $120 mentioned for Dragon’s new Scharnhorst certainly isn’t cheap but, if the kit is to the same standard as Dragon’s recent USN DD kits, it should be reasonably good value in comparison to what many other manufacturers are asking. I can’t imagine the same kit from Trumpeter costing much less than this, and the latter’s standards of accuracy and quality seem to be more variable than Dragon.
I’ll certainly be very interested to see how the 1/350 Scharnhorst turns out, here’s hoping Dragon follow it up with a Zerstorer or Torpedoboot in the same scale!
I can’t agree more with every points you made here. Thanks.
Even their 1/72 scale submarines are reletively cheap considering what they are. (But it would have been nice if they had thrown a little photoetch in there)
And they are accurate as well…