Can anyone else on here believe that 2 of the most impressive and visually interesting aircraft ever, haven’t been done with state of the art tooling in 1/48 scale by companies like Tamiya, Trumpeter and Hasegawa? It’s ludicrous that the only models available are old innacurate toolings. It’s ridiculous I say!
Your list is but of a few subjects that could use new tooling or initial representation. If you’ve got deep enough pockets to pay the licensing fees, design and tool the molds you’d find someone willing to produce them without much effort. Lets say a cool 3/4 of a million for starters.
You are absolutely correct…I would love to see new kits of both of these aircraft in 1/32 scale. My bet is on Trumpeter if anyone is to make my dream come true. I really appreciated the Eduard photo-etched sets when building my 1/48 Revell Mig-25. I was surprised to see how large this kit was in 1/48 scale. Can you imagine what this beast would look like in 1/32 scale? I would park it next to my Tamiya F-4 Phantoms just to make them look pretty in comparison. Thanks for your thoughts and have a good day.
They are both outstanding aircraft in every respect as far as capabilities and technology. When it comes down to it though they are both low production and not very well documented aircraft. Neither one has faced enemy aircraft head to head and battled it out like the Me 109’s F-86’s F4 Phantoms and such. Therefore they just do not have that" killer" appeal of a P-51 and many other subjects that are covered nicely in 1/48. I do not beleive you will ever see Tamiya producing either one in the near future for that reason. Just my personal opinion!
Soulcrusher
Yes, a newly-tooled SR-71 would be VERY high on my wish list. But, as the others have pointed out, the demand for such an aircraft would be lower on most peoples list. Probably not high enough to get those manufacturers to consider laying out the cash and resources to do it.
We should convince Anigrand to do an SR-71- I’td be a good one for their more esoteric collection.
Esp. if they did an A-12.
I might be wrong but I don’t think most people buy aircraft kits because of their “killer” appeal. I think most people buy aircraft, tank, car kits etc because they like the look of the vehicle and those 2 aircraft are great lookers and have an air of mystery to them.
There’s many other aircraft that need new toolings I agree and I wonder if licensing fees would be an issue with these 2 (knowing us modellers luck Lockheed and Mig would charge a fortune these days for the rights, whereas they most probably used to be free).
I dont think any aircraft is capable of facing an SR-71. It’s performance envelope is just too difficult to engage. There are several instances of SAM’s being fired at them, but none was ever successful. The MiG-25 has been in combat in Iraqi and Syrian hands. Some sources credit an Iraqi MiG-25 with downing Lt Cdr Speicher’s F/A-18 on the first night of Desert Storm. Others attempted to draw F-15’s in SAM/Flak traps over Bagdhad. There were a few recored kills of Foxbats by F-15’s. Syrian Foxbats have fought with Israeli F-4’s and F-15’s. The F-4’s had no luck but the Eagles did better. The Foxbat is also a difficult aircraft ot engage when flown to it’s best advantages.
I have never heard of a Russian company trying to charge licensing fees. The American companies trying to do it are on very shaky ground legally. The model companies should team up and file a class action lawsuit about it, they would win hands down.
The model companies have two very solid arguments on their side:
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The one they have used is that military hardware was built to a government specification, for the government and was paid for with public money, so models of military hardware should be public domain.
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The argument I haven’t heard, but is also valid is that the US aircraft companies sat on any rights they did have. If argument #1 is not true and the aircraft companies did have rights, they never said anything when the first model of an aircraft was made. Trademark law is very clear about this. If you have trademark rights and you become aware that someone is violating them, if you do not act on them immediately when you become aware of it, you have forfeited your rights.
It is inconceivable that Lockheed would be unaware that Testors and other model makers have made models of the SR-71. So they would have no right to make a claim to trademark rights for a new model of one.
Under argument #2, the only time an aircraft maker would be able to make a claim would be for the first instance of a kit of a particular aircraft. And they would have to be dilligent in pursuing their rights immediately from the release of the first kit of a particular aircraft.
The aircraft companies trying to shake down the model market are avoiding going to court about this because they know they will lose. If the aircraft companies brought a suit and lost, they would end up having to pay the lawyers fees for both sides.
My wife is an attorney and she found this situation one of the most unreasonable situations of corporate harassment she’s ever seen.
Bill
I haven’t heard of Lockheed trying to pursue rights for these models (they’d have to be exceptionally greedy to do so) but I’m sure I remember some pen pushers over here in the UK trying to charge some model company the rights to use their name on their products. I think I remember reading it in Scale Aviation Modeller or possibly Military in Scale magazines.
Ooo! The very thought’s got me drooling!
Here are a couple of articles:
[link]http://www.cfcforums.com/archive/index.php/t-13530.html[/link]
[link]/forums/341972/ShowPost.aspx[/link]
Bill
Interesting articles! I think what was said about “people justifying their existence” is spot on. It seems to be happening in many different areas of life now and even aircraft and military modelling isn’t safe now. The same thing with models of sci fi films - the movie companies put their licence fees up to extortionate levels, the model companies decide “to hell with this” and stop making them - end result everybody loses out because nothing get’s made.
What seemed to be the main argument in favor of license fees for model railroad equipment was advanced by the Union Pacicic Railroad, that purchasers of models bearing their logo would somehow be confused that the railroad was the OEM. And that any faulty product might become their liability. Absurd.
Were you confused that the last SR-71 you bought was built by Lockheed? You could only wish!