Hello all, does anyone know why Voyager hasn’t released any sets for the MENG or Rye Field Abrams kits? Also wondering about the Bronco MaxxPro. They released about a zillion updates for Dragon’s so called perfect Abrams kits but none for the newer ones. What’s up?

Regards,

Eric

Voyager has really slowed down on issuing new sets, but they often get around to it. ET Hobby and others have been stepping into the mix instead. And frankly, the Meng and Rye Field kits are hyper-detailed, so the demand for AM PE sets may be down.

If Meng, Ryefield and Takom start adding PE for the pioneer tools, I wouldn't be buying PE at all for them

Hey guys, I was just hoping for some sympathy here. Just kidding. I really hoped someone here had some insight into what may be coming. There are always areas of vehicles that can only be made close to scale thickness in PE. The main reason I'm asking is for the grates on the rear of the Abrams. The Dragon ones should fit the MENG kits. I may eventually have to buy those. Also my Bronco MaxxPro has some areas on the side grills that only partially etched through. Lucky Model sent me a replacement but for some reason I never saw it in my mailbox. They had delivery confirmation... but I didn't! They will not send me a second set so I am hoping Voyager does a set for the kit before I start it. I have an ET Models set for the M1117 I'm working on for the Trumpeter 5 campaign. It has some well engineered pieces in it.

Regards,

Eric

i noticed it too i really hope all is well there, i like their PE sets very much

I have actually noticed this across the entire Industry to a point. There still isn't even a barrel available for the Panda M1 kits after a year now. Not to mention I could use a barrel for the Tamiya M1 kit that I decided to build along with the new Panda kits...

I too have noticed this, especially earlier in the year when all the Panthers were coming out, though they have since released some for most (all?). Being in Australia, we generally have to wait a little longer too, so I try to be patient.

Guess I should learn to scratch build

I am in contact with some aftermarket companies. Various reasons I've heard:

- New models are coming too fast and there are just too many. They can't keep up.
- Current models do not need as much help as a 2000-era kit.
- It's clear in a lot of cases that the companies have other variants in the pipeline. They are afraid to make a conversion or upgrade set when a kit may come out before they finish their masters.
- (From a retailer) The giant, expensive PE sets do not sell as well any more. The amount of parts that are truly needed keeps going down but the size and cost of the sets keeps going up. Many of the parts appear to be just fillers that are bad representations of good kit parts while obvious sheet metal parts on the real tank aren't included. Quote: "Their customers seem to be guys who like to take photos with as much unpainted brass showing as possible, not people who like building or painting their models."

KL

^^^^Totally agree^^^^

I much rather work in plastic or resin than PE. I have a time capsule of aftermarket stuff from before my 14 year break from the hobby. I have tons of Eduard PE that I'm not sure I'll ever use because 2/3rds of each set usually gets tossed in the spares bin.

Ditto.

In my admittedly limited experience with PE, the most I've ever used off an AM fret would be sound 20/25 %,and even then I've been disappointed with the end result

For me it depends on the set, I love some voyager sets and tend to use up to 80% off the sprue (notice I didn't say successfully). Some eduard sets, grifon, voyager and et models i can justify the purchase of. Aber has been crossed off my list for a while since they are way too complicated snd fiddly. But every company can go overboard with offering every in scale rivet and screw the model company left out. I find mud, tarps and stowage cover such omissions better and cheaper. But I agree with the OP, Meng, Takom and RFM are not getting the love they deserve from these companies, but it may be down to the fact that they do not cooperate to begin with. Dragon and tamiya used to send pre production models to pe companies and their releases were immediately followed by aftermarket sets.

like any material, PE is best for certain uses.
My take on it is, anything that was made out of sheet in 1:1 could (should?) be made in PE.

i'm a bit surprised at the lack of PE for the recent glut of kits aswell. Especiallly the 'interior'kits, there's loads of stuff in a KT or Panther that would look better with a little more scale thickness!

AFAIK only Eduard do an interior set for the recent Takom Panther A for example.

Interesting thread.
Thanks for your market insights Kurt! The speed at which the kits are arriving and the amount is stunning, so it seems plausible that the AM makers are a bit on the cautious side with regards to resources commitment and allocation.
Most PE is way too fiddely for me, but I always love these massive PE builds going on here on the forum. I’d assume that all these new interior kits will be super interesting for AM parts, so it seems weird that there is not too much movement in the market..
/Stefan