dirk87
Novice
I love american and european trucks in 1:87!!!
Posts: 6
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Post by dirk87 on Aug 3, 2006 15:10:10 GMT 1
Hallo !!! I want to introduce me! I am the newest member of this messageboard and I'm very happy about that. My name is Dirk and I live in a town near Hannover in Germany! Now,to the question:Non-members must miss a lot cause 1:87 is not accepted very well in the Modelbuilder -Society in Germany!!! They built planes and military equipment in 1:35 or 1:72 but when they ask me about my favourite they often say 1:87 cars + trucks are toys for children and so on,bla bla....So this messageboard is the right answer for them to show that 1:87 is not a childs toy... (Sorry for my not so good english....i'm german ;-))
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Post by nickvoges on Aug 3, 2006 21:55:22 GMT 1
Hello Dirk, welcome to our site! I think that for the real (model)builder 1/87 isn´t the best choice if you see the possibilities in 1/35 and 1/72 with an amount of accesories. What can you find in 1/87? Some extra tires, a few lightbars----- that´s all. So you have to do a lot equipment for yourself. For that the mayority who is with H0 are "collectors" in the classic meaning: paint a rearlight and the model is worthless for them. Look to the german Mo87 site. The big mayority are truckcollectors, who are happy when the next lorry of Herpa comes with a new number on the backside or in another paintsheme. Its okay, because without the collectors there wouldn´t be much to build for the people who likes this. Dirk you started an interesting thread for your first time. What are you building? Hope we can see something soon. Have fun here! Grüsse nick ingmar
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Post by Marc S. on Aug 3, 2006 23:12:20 GMT 1
To my mind, it's quite the contrary. In Germany, 1/87 remains to be the most important hobby scale, while it lacks that strong followership on an international scale (no pun intended). That's both, of course, collectors and modellers, with the majority of threads started on mo87.de being related to modelling rather than collecting.
When I see how many people present their modified or scratch-built models on sites such as mo87 and 1-87vehicles.org, my conclusion is totally different than your's: 1/87 is still going strong, with lots of enthusiastic and skilled people engaged in the hobby. Certainly not just collectors.
As far as military modelling is concerned, 1/87 is a nieche for those in the know. 1/72 and 1/35 are much more common. If you talk agriculture, it's 1/32; and for construction equipment, it's 1/50. So it depends on the people to whom you talk, and on their particular field of interest, which scale they regard as the most important one.
1/87 is focused on trucks and passenger cars, and it allows for great dioramas with loads of details on relatively small space.
Viele Grüße aus D'dorf Marc S.
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stanhas87
87thScale addict
1978 Dodge Monaco CHP
Posts: 4,906
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Post by stanhas87 on Aug 3, 2006 23:40:00 GMT 1
Dear All:
Now,if trains (sorry Eric) are involved,HO is by far the gauge to mold;tons of acessories for them.S gauge,which have a vast majority of (toy,I know) passenger cars avaliable,as far as trains are concerned,everything has to be scratchbuild.
Indeed,each major scale has its highs and lows.
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BillC
87thScale addict
Posts: 2,541
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Post by BillC on Aug 4, 2006 5:57:21 GMT 1
While it's true most of the available accessories are for trucks, there is more than just lightbars and tires for cars. Busch has a few sets of add-ons including a nice set of roof and bike racks and other items.
In addition, more American manufacturers are trying their hand at 1/87 scale including Modelart, Norscot and Tonkin. There are other new products in the works I can't discuss yet.
In terms of what can be created, I think 1/87 holds its own with the larger scales in most respects. I look the scenes from Chester Fesmire, Albert Prats and Eric Kersbergen, among others, and models built by people like Joe Enriquez, Håkan Westergren, Sylvain LeSturm and so many other talented people and find them fully as rewarding as some of the larger pieces, perhaps even more so, considering the small canvases upon which these artists create their masterpieces.
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dirk87
Novice
I love american and european trucks in 1:87!!!
Posts: 6
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Post by dirk87 on Aug 4, 2006 9:37:19 GMT 1
Hello !! Thank you for your warm welcome !!!! Sorry,there is a little misunderstanding...I know very well that 1:87 is still going strong and I'm very glad about it!!! Here now something about my background: I started as a collector of trucks ,first Wiking only than i went to Herpa cause of the lack scale by the old Wiking cars + trucks.(Nowadays Wiking trucks are exact H0 scale!!!) I paused then several years with collecting H0 trucks.1986 i licked blood again and began to collect Herpa and AWM trucks !!! Hooraahh ;-)) In 2000 I become a member in the"VdPM Hannover"(Verein der Plastikmodellbauer Hannover) Translation:Plastic modelers club of Hanover and began to built trucks in 1:87 like Kibri,Preiser,Heljan-Concor and so on.And in the VdPM the acceptance of H0-scale is very bad!!!! I've tried another scale (1:24/25) but ..grrrrrr....its not my scale I love my 1:87 trucks!!! And Marc: Yes,of course,you're absolutely right: In Germany 1:87 is the biggest hobby scale!!!!! Marc,can I see you at the "Fulda-Meeting 2006" I hope so... Aaahh,sorry you asked about my favourites: US trucks from Mack AC to Mack Vision,Kenworth,Pete,Heavy transport and cranes!!! My current project is an old Heljan/ConCor Mack AC.This kit is a ride to hell and back again!!!!
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Post by Marc S. on Aug 4, 2006 10:38:23 GMT 1
Marc,can I see you at the "Fulda-Meeting 2006" I hope so... As I am one of the organizers, I will probably drop in for a minute or two We already exchanged e-mails, Dirk! Marc S.
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dirk87
Novice
I love american and european trucks in 1:87!!!
Posts: 6
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Post by dirk87 on Aug 4, 2006 11:55:00 GMT 1
;D Erwischt !!!! You got me.......!!!!!
Greets and happy weekend
Dirk87
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Post by nickvoges on Aug 5, 2006 9:59:40 GMT 1
Hello again, want to go back to the thread. Marc you are propably right. But have a look to this point: a new Herpa model f. e. has around thirty parts, sometimes more. The costs to assemble them are quite high (even if this is work of chinese children, what in effect it is). May be they could offer the models half the price if they would make a kit. Really they don´t offer them as a kit, because their would be nearly no asking for. nick ingmar
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Post by Marc S. on Aug 5, 2006 18:57:19 GMT 1
Assembly is not the biggest factor to define the price as we are speaking about Chinese wages in most cases. Rather, the cost of tooling is. A kit does not appear to be a solution.
Marc S.
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Post by Albert on Aug 5, 2006 20:03:53 GMT 1
Assembly is not the biggest factor to define the price as we are speaking about Chinese wages in most cases. Rather, the cost of tooling is. A kit does not appear to be a solution. Marc S. Didn't Herpa try to sell models as kits many years ago?
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BillC
87thScale addict
Posts: 2,541
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Post by BillC on Aug 5, 2006 21:17:32 GMT 1
Hello again, want to go back to the thread. Marc you are propably right. But have a look to this point: a new Herpa model f. e. has around thirty parts, sometimes more. The costs to assemble them are quite high (even if this is work of chinese children, what in effect it is). May be they could offer the models half the price if they would make a kit. Really they don´t offer them as a kit, because their would be nearly no asking for. nick ingmar Hi Nick, As Marc noted, tooling is one of the big culprits. Tooling for a Ricko model car can run over US$50,000 even in China. That's more than twice the cost of tooling up for a typical diecast car. However, there are other costs involved. First, while there is plenty of child labor in Chinese toy factories, these models are not assembled by children. As a matter of fact, they are usually assembled by some of the best adult workers, most of whom are women. Second, the number of additional hand operations, painting, pad printing, etc., all add to the cost. However, I think the kit idea may be over-rated. True, there are many in our group who would be delighted with kits, but I don't know there are the necessary thousands of potential customers that would be required to make kits successful. In addition, the price differential wouldn't be that much. There would still be various handling and packaging costs to be recovered. I recall Athearn offered a special run of 500 unassembled Ford C Rescue Pumpers in poly bags and, IIRC, the price of the kit was still nearly 70% of the price of the finished model. Bill C.
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stanhas87
87thScale addict
1978 Dodge Monaco CHP
Posts: 4,906
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Post by stanhas87 on Aug 6, 2006 3:06:47 GMT 1
Dear All:
Some things never change: the Lesney Matchboxes were assembled by women as well
Regarding the kits,something similar happened to another scale:when diecast vehicles started to be readily avaliable in 1/24-1/25 scales,the kit makers were facing problems and at times,the metal item was less expensive.But I suppose,if assembled plastic item would be avaliable at that scale,the kits would be cheaper,too.
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BillC
87thScale addict
Posts: 2,541
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Post by BillC on Aug 6, 2006 5:57:54 GMT 1
Not to be "sexist" but it has been known for a long time that women generally have better skills at the type of operations involved than men.
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Post by mancosbob on Sept 11, 2006 3:37:52 GMT 1
Hey, I made it in, thank's for opening the gates. I am totally new to this arena, but have been modeling in 1/87 for 3 decades. I have bashed vehicles in the past, but nothing like I see around these environs. I am ... in awe ... of some of these models I have been seeing; not to mention all of the new sources for trucks and cars I could only dream of last week ... this is too cool for school! Peace, John Huey in L.A. California ...
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