Friends,

I have enjoyed a great adventures with three great DeAg kits, the Samurai (really beautiful), the Capt America Harley ( probably the best kit and most enjoyable model I have ever built) and am finishing (two issues left) the GT40 which has been good but not great.

Is there a future with DeAg?. The Samba is now the only US kit. Collectables are cute but .. where is the imagination in front of us? I hesitate to purchase from them again as of now.

All wisdom would be appreciated. Even old farts need some fun and relaxation.

Respectfully,

Tom Nequette

We are entering a new age where the under 30's never really acquired the hand skills that the older generation use to live by. I'm a 50 something guy who took a trade as an Instrument Maker (Watch maker / Aircraft Instruments). I loved model building in the 70's and this was my future. These days people over 30 are more interested in IT / software. The hand skill specialists are being over run by geeks :-) My kids are approaching their 30s and have no interest in physically building stuff, unless it takes 5 minutes - Max. Younger people of today have no patience - they want everything yesterday and fully made - apart from Ikea stuff. I will be finishing my fourth build next month (All up, 2 from Deagostini and 2 from Hachette). All have been great builds and thoroughly enjoyable. I will be taking a break from the part works for a while. But my modelling desire will never wane.

I believe for the partworks community to continue the model companies have to produce (absolute) top end models to the finest quality that look like museum pieces. The last build I am shortly due to finish had a few shortfalls in engineering. Now a good model builder can work around these issues to produce a quality product, but a lot of other people have become frustrated with the results. This area of quality needs to be improved if they want to keep a healthy group of model builders. IMO the companies should send out complete kits to a few professional model builders so that they can display these builds on their official sites prior to going live. This would give potential builders the chance to look at the completed kit in different styles (weathered, clean, etc..)

Hi Guys,

Let me address the OP and the following on comments in the following;

1) DeAgostini’s future is looking quite rosy to me. I’m not at all worried! I can’t share yet, but there are fun things coming!

2) the Eagle Moss business model was totally different than DeAgostini’s is. They were dependent on brick and mortar stores for distribution of their product, and were not centric on mail delivered subs. DeAgostini/FanHome/DeAgostini collectables is mostly mail subs. Add in that disaster that was the Enterprise E, and then Covid. Covid shut down the brick and mortar stores, which took out most of EMs revenue stream, and there you have it.

3) The GT40 packs are on the way, but I couldn’t tell you a time frame. They ship from China surface, and the container problem will rear its ugly head, then the trucking delays here in the States, ad neauseum.

4) “ IMO the companies should send out complete kits to a few professional model builders so that they can display these builds on their official sites prior to going live. This would give potential builders the chance to look at the completed kit in different styles (weathered, clean, etc..)”

This is why I’ve been pushing the modified builds. It shows what can be done with a bit of new techniques that are simple. BoJazz (Joe Bergman) and his GT40 build is a great example of this. I’m trying to get the modified builds to function as tutorials as well as just “show and tell.” Another thing I’ve done is that official builds are no longer written regurgitation of the build guides. I thought it far more appropriate that they be written by a MODELER, and will show how to solve the inevitable problems. You can’t beat first person build logs!

5) the “all the other stuff” builds but few partwork builds. This was deliberate on my part. The partwork industry as is still releasing great stuff. But, at a glacial pace. So, in an effort to maintain new content, and keep viewership up, I actively promoted and encouraged not only build logs of competitors product, but also of “regular”modeling. It’s by design that it is a more “one stop shop” in terms of content.

I am gratified that these humble forums were missed! I’ve really tried to make this a welcoming place, and comments like that let me know I’ve succeeded. So, thank you!

Best,

Mark

Hi there,
PM sent to your inbox
Regards
Glenn

Hi Dave,
Are you talking about the ModelSpace site, DeAgostini or Fanhome?
Regards
Glenn

As the 'designated Official Builder' of the Mig 29, having waited in excess of 2 years for both parts and confirmation that this build will actually continue, i personally would rather just have some clarity on De Agostini's position regarding Official Builds as a whole

I do think not selling complete kits anymore is a mistake. I would only have bought a full kit, and sorry but after hearing of the supply of part works I would not buy a part work.