I in no way suggested that Wingnuts are purely profit driven, and no-one, not even an accountant can know the inside workings of Wingnuts. They are a very secretive company and are controlled soley by Sir Peter Jackson, he is a multi millionaire with a passion for WW1 aircaft of HIS liking, he is not swayed at all by what the public wants or needs, he doesn't have to, he has his own model shop. There are hundreds of WW1 aircraft that could be kitted but never will be, why haven't other companies jumped in and made these kits simply because they know there is not a market for them. Wingnuts can make whatever kit they want to and know darn well it will sell purely on their reputation, they are not influenced at all by modelers yelling and screaming for particular kits. They do have sold out kits as all companies do but you can bet your boots that in time most of those kits will surface again, probably under a different box and with some extras added, SPJ will never sell his tooling for these kits so they will always be present with Wingnuts for future use.
You say the Wingnuts have a tiny marketing budget, how do you know that, have you looked into their books. They don't need to market their product, all the forums and websites around the world are doing that for them, free advertising is the best form of advertising, there are even websites and forum dedicated to Wingnuts kits, you couldn't ask for better marketing. They shut down for two weeks over Christmas, big deal, so does a majority of other businesses, try getting a tradesman over the Christmas/New Year break, and besides, their website is still operating over that period and orders are still being accepted, so the only real difference is that there is no staff to process the orders.
I have known many companys who make limited run kits and once sold out that's it, their gone, When Wingnuts first started they made a public statement that all, and I mean all, of their kits are limited run kits, so it is inevitable that the kits will eventually run out, but on the other side of the coin they are being replaced by new kits at a far greater rate. Many modelrs are complaining that they missed out on certain kits, but they were forewarned with the limited run message.
You have written a list of aeroplane that Wingnuts should kit, why not write to all the other model producing companies and ask them to make those kits, I bet you would get a very positive "no way".
We should all be very thankful that Wingnuts are here and producing superb kits, regarldless of the way the company is run they are doing an excellent job and satisfying the modelers, just look at the response on the forum to their Felixstowe kit, an enormous kit with an enormous price but it hasn't deterred modelers from buying it, who needs multi million dollar marketing when the modelers will do it for them, common sense in my eyes.
Des.
PS. I used to own and operate my own model shop so I do know quite a bit about the model industry and how they operate.
