Latest release posted over at MDFC.


Nice details and poses. Don't know why they are blowing that poor guy off on his own up. I would gripe more if they didn't look so interesting.

Hey, we have to keep that Volstad guy employed, don`t we.

``Ve haff vays off making you buy``

They are very nice, but I am sooooo tired of Germans.............. .................Al

Haven't had a thing to do with Dragon figures for more than two years. These are based on book illustrations done a dozen years ago. That being said, the continual focus on German releases says only one thing...that's where the money is.

FWIW,
That Volstad guy

*sound of crickets chirping*

The single guy is easily explained. He is the odd Westfalien in a squad of Berlliners and insistet in a proper diet with lots of onions andere beans. Now the rest of the squad fears the enemy will either think they are using chemicals or the guy will blow up when Hit... :-)

Ron,

With all the respect I have for your drawings, I think you're wrong (and fatalist ).
Look at Masterbox or Miniart, most all their new releases are allied subject, or a mix combining german and allied. With reasonning like yours, they would have never released french resistants, british tankers or civilians. Who dare win, as the brit would say.

here is so much kits on German that nearly everythig has been done. Now there is room for alled subjects, and some manufacturers understod it.

In France we have a debate close to this one : we pretend that the 20pm TV news from the biggest private broadcaster (TF1) is specially casted for dumb people, like if your major news show was only designed for rednecks exclusively. Then some of the Frenches say that this news show is popular because France is mainly composed of rednecks, and if you put more intellectual subjects, nobody would watch it. But others says that this show pull the people to ignorance & sillyness whereas with an educational news shows , some people would be less idiotic. With the first reasoning, a channel like arte (a brilliant franco german TV channel with excellent programs, sometimes too much intellectual but still a great channel) would never has been launched. And other TV shows from other channels, wihich talk to your brain and not your guts or butt performs very well indeed.

There is no fatality : german subjects are not the only way of modelling. The truth is elesewhere

You know, from my personal experience, I started modelling 20 years something ago. It was the time Dragon came on the market and Tamiya was still releasing loads of stuff. Most of them was geramn subjects. So I started to build German subjects, buy books on German uniforms, and read books about WW2 mostly from a German point of view.
And then I grew up, and I part from this fascination for german subjects because I discovered Heller kits portraying French troops, Dragon Vietnam series, Tamiya Us vehicules ad more recently those two brands full of quality and originality which are Matsrebox and Miniart. Now I rarely make a German subject.
Just look at this site and you will see that since 2 to 3 years, there are more and more subject on allied WW2, modern, afghanistan, Vietnam etc. and consumers asking for release on this subject.

And you know what, I realised that maybe this fascination of some modellers for German subjects is somewhat wako and unhealthy. I cannot think that it's just the beautifull shapes of German tanks and helmets that drive you to model during an entire life each and every version of a panzer IV, paint every variant of a oak leaf pattern, or portray in vignette the Turkmenistanian squad that served Hitler...

My two cents
KG

It looks like an interesting kit to me don't know if I would us all 4 of them in the same scene but I do like the 2nd gen gear

Nice set, and always a pleasure when DML releases Gen 2 sets!!
Isn’t the guy that’s alone the one that placed the explosives under the barbed wire obstacles?

You have all your reasons why YOU don´t do German soldiers anymore, and you are very entitled to them. But how can you say anybody is wrong, when you dont have access to Dragon´s marketing strategies and financial records. You dont .. do you?
Dragon like any other company will release what they think will sell or sell best, and obviously its German ... they will hardly keep producing "German x 4" sets if nobody bought them?

Franck,

First, I don't know who you quote ?
Maybe this mysterious person deleted his post, feared to be fired at will by German builders ?
Except for few of us, we just build, glue and paint what the manufacturers propose to us. And as of now (and there I'm exagerating a little) Dragon released very very few allied themes, many of them was of poor quality (I remember the desert rat set where the load of the Bren was in the wrong way) except few exceptions ( I can think of sherman riders late war and 101st in Bastogne).

Anyway and to put it in a nutshell, first you never know until you really try, and secondly I don't think MIniart and Masterbox are doing their kits for charity. They certainly do marketing surveys to come out to the solution that allied subject needs to be filled. For me Dragon is a dying company in terms of creativity, as Italieri and Tamiya was when Dragon entered the business.

For example, how many ex US military guys we have on Armorama ? A lot I guess. Many of them would be delighted to exercise their skills on a decent Vietnam soldiers set, or operation Iraki freedom, or Afganisthan theatre, or Jihadists, don't you guys ? . Yesterday I was gluing the french foreign legion set of Dragon released 10 years ago, Man, those figgies are crappy compared to gen 2 figures. Why don't they release a set of Us troops in ACU ?Everybodyelse is doing so (from plastic manufacturer to resin producers). Why the hell dragon is stuck in the third reich subject, even the more obscur one ?

Best,
Julien

I am prsonaly 100% on line with Julien , and I do respect the point of view some of the German builders. Let me put it this way. very simple. If no matter what you eat you put hot sauce on it to kill the flavor of the food, you will never know what you are missing. Same goes for all this German business. I have German figures and hot sauce too, but I do enjoy the rest of what life has to offer. We all don't drive the same brand and model of car and the same should go for what is available in model kits..................just sayin...............a good point .........if all they put out there is Germans, then what else can we do but buy them. With no choices ,comes a false view of what is popular. This being the case , they most likely do make more money at it, but they are screwing the modelers by doing so.

Hi

Does it really matter that this is another set of Germans from Dragon? Why should you care ? surely with other companies producing subjects that are not Axis based you are not losing out, only Dragon is, under your reckoning.

We seem to get this every time a kit is released, be it figures, tanks or trucks. "Oh they should have released this instead etc. etc. " After returning to the hobby from modelling back 30 - 40 years ago I can't believe the number of kits released each month, let alone each year. Modellers have never had so much choice or quality before.

Personally I don't really care what manufacturers name is on the box, I don't have stocks/shares or a vested interest in any of them. Bottom line for me is, the subject matter, composition and quality of figures (or any other subject) provided.

Oh and price....

To us the consumer should anything else really matter ?

I leave the marketing, product planning, subjects and cost implications to those it really matters to, and the most qualified to make those decisions....the manufacturers.

Alan

[quot

We seem to get this every time a kit is released, be it figures, tanks or trucks. "Oh they should have released this instead etc. etc. " After returning to the hobby from modelling back 30 - 40 years ago I can't believe the number of kits released each month, let alone each year. Modellers have never had so much choice or quality before.
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And all this bithcin that we do about Germans is the reason why we have more choices..........................Al











.

Alan
[/quote]

Hi

You seriously believe that major modelling manufacturers base their product planning or are influenced by " all this bithcin that we do about Germans is the reason why we have more choices" then you are labouring under a misconception of the size and influence the membership these sites have in proportion to the number of people modelling as a whole in this hobby.

As an example, after being a member of this site for several years I can easily see that there is a small, myself included, group of modellers who post to the various forums here which isn't equal to the numbers shown as overall membership. Many, many members just look and read, never posting. Now imagine that beyond this site, or any of the other modelling sites, which again shows on the whole repeat members of various forums. If model manufacturers relied on the site modellers who post to be the only buyers of their kits they'd have gone bust years ago.

I'm not arguing for or against the release of any particular subject just making the point that the decision is best left to those who foot the bill. Alternatively why not suggest a subject for manufacturer and to show your belief and commitment offer to back it with your own money.....If its a sure fire money maker then you stand to make a tidy sum from your share. See how many come forward on that concept.

Alan

Well.Alan I don't happen to believe that Armorama opinions is all that there is, but I hope you don't really believe that the other modelers in this world are all German (model) fanatics.........as for putting up ones own money.........all stocks and investments are risks with greater or less potential. Put it this way of risk.......NO GUTS , NO GLORY. If no one ever took a risk , we would still be back in the stone age.

What? You don't get royalties?


I'd sue!

It is pretty funny ................just the title of this post was set up to start the whole debate . To German, or not to German. That is the question. Am having fun with this difference of opinion thing.......................Peace be with you......................

No, I don't believe that the modellers of this world are all German model fanatics and I fail to see where I suggested such an assumption, but it cannot be argued against that a significant number of subjects produced by all the model manufacturers are German WW2 subjects, and without going into each ones catalogue, I'd estimate more than sixty percent.

I buy and want to make what interests me, and I'm sure its the same for every modeller, but it seems that as modellers we are also being asked to make a moral judgement sometimes. That's the underlying message coming through in many of these posts and exchanges. Axis bad, Allies good. It's not about that. I find equipment used by the Axis powers during WW2 interesting, and I also find the Allied equipment interesting, more so lately, but is that to be seen as "seeing the light, coming round to supporting the good guys" No, if I wanted to take a completely "moral" decision I would say all weapons of war, which is what all of these are, designed to kill and injure people, is evil and if you want to make models why not something of a non military subject.

As for the glory and risk bit. Sure, if no one took a risk we'd not have progressed to the point we are today, I just love the way others suggest and push "the risks" but leave it to others to take the actual risk, not themselves.

Talk is cheap and to quote another old expression "if you believe it so much, put your money where your mouth is"

It's official !

There are more 1/35 'German' kits than there were Troops in the Wehrmacht

Snore ........................

Well, I am merely a lone voice in the wilderness and wish to maintain my exalted position of "mushroom".

I cannot guarantee any of the numbers posted but perhaps there is a touch of enlightenment at the Gallery on Track Link site:

http://www.track-link.net/gallery/new

I understand that these are posted directly by modelers themselves.

FWIW
Ron V

Hi Alan,

I see that you take the question very seriously, with your heart (I don't know if it's the correct translation).
To refine my arguments, I'm just disappointed to find out that Dragon, which has brought to the hobby tremendous technical progresses, like DS (or magic, I never know which is the boring to assemble one) tracks, Gen 2, PE as standard pieces for tanks, and a lot more goodies, just VERY focus only on German subjects.

If others producers are doing modern or allied subjects, why Dragon is not entering the business ? All of the other would be marketingly speaking wrong. Let's take Trumpeter for example. Most of their new releases are modern. I'm not an AFV builder, but I tend to know that Dragon kits are a bit better (due to PE, tracks and so on). But I'm a figure builder, and I can say that despite origality of the subject (their latest release of US guys and girls disembarking supplies) is an original set, but quality of figgies, compared to dragon, is just crap. If only Dragon could do a gen 2 set of modern US soldiers, it would be fantastic, don't you think (specially with all that very technologic and detailled gear the current US uniform has).
It's always the same rant we make because everytime Dragon announce a new German subject set. And their last release of allied soldiers (despite the fact the poses are good) covers 3 years of combat and 2 nationalities in one set, composed of subject that never fought together, whereas you got within their new release a comprehensive set where each figures interacts are and uniformologically and historically relevant .

I still do admire Dragon because they made me dream and filled my hobby for years, but damn it's time to be innovative again !

And I do still think that "german subjects only builders" do have a problem, eventhough it's just a "hobby".

And regarding making something else than military subjects, fortunately Masterbox gave us the opportunity to do, without having to change the scale on which we are used to work.

Last, but not least apparently, I think manufacturers, at least some of them, do watch very regularly what's posted on this site and others, about what modellers want (this is very common in web 2.0 business, with beta versions). That why you start to see post from small producers asking the modellers what are their whising list, or Masterbox or miniart regulalrly posting in progress picture to test public taste to their subject, and listening to modifc ation they could make for accuracy or better poses and so on.

And I won't stop ranting like this until I will get heard (I suppose this is the meaning of ladying wrote by Alfred)

Best and good night
Julien

I for one am really not making any moral judgement against Germans or axis. In fact I would like to see more Japanese and Italians. I do not assume that everyone is a fanatic for Germans. Am just a little tired of this deluge of almost everything German. Some agree with me , some don't. Personally i feel very strong about this subject. My intention is just an opinion and I wish not to insult anyone for theirs.. If I have. Sorry.!....................... ..........edit........I have played the stock market and taken risk, sometimes you win , sometimes you loose. Just the way it is.

Julien ... thats why I basically hardly ever look in on threads like these anymore. Same comments with every new release. Its gotten quite boring by now. The only positive is your post counter!