They would sell a lot more camels and DR1's at 80 quid a pop than Lancaster's at 400 a pop.
I think the cancellation of any more work on these kits, that were not very far away from launch, tells us a lot about the situation.
Here's what he posted yesterday on the WWI Aircraft Forum where he's the chief cook and bottle-washer:
I am still hoping that the shutdown is temporary but RA's response is "grim" as he put it. Over the last 6 days I have sold 10 WnW kits online, I would normally average 1 a month from online sales. viper 36 viper 36 Member; LSP_Members; 36 28 posts; Posted April 11. I have it from a very reliable source close enough to WnW that up to the point of release of the Sopwith Camel kits WnW had not turned a penny in profit. Or a virus. Sadly, Bernard Hill played Yosser Hughes in "The Boys from the Black Stuff" - a series by Alan …
I hope you understand that I have nothing else I can say at this time.
Over the last 6 days I have sold 10 WnW kits online, I would normally average 1 a month from online sales.
i'm in agreement, with all of the above, the panic buying could work for people or it might not, If some other company were to buy the assets of the company they then have state of the art WW1 kits ready to go without any of the R&D costs etc. Sad news from New Zealand today indicates Wingnut Wings has been closed down permanently and its assets are to be sold off. Wingnut Wings - The End? It also might mean that someone will buy them off – maybe Trumpeter/HobbyBoss -and will sell them with all that they have currently.
And that kit you’ve just opened would have been worth more today lol As an official Wingnut Wings Retailer the last email I received from WnW was on the 11th March announcing another limited release of more Albatros and Pfalz kits but without decals. The reaction of a significant number of people seems to be “Quick, buy WNW kits NOW!”.
On reflection it shouldn't really come as a surprise as the costs of setting up the Company, establishing commercial contracts with the factories etc would have been huge, then add on the R&D and tooling for each kit as they came along. Not Corona related evidently.
Until we hear news good or bad from richard or the crew at WNW I will take it that they are struggling with Covid 19 like the rest of the world and Wilson, who stated on Hyperscale that he is a professional journalist, further stated that his original message was based on multiple sources with information who did not want to be named. I hope that they stay open and I for one think that the Lancaster would be a cause of a lot of the strife. It feels like saying goodbye to an old friend for the last time. Tellingly, Wingnut Wings and its parent company have made no public statements about the decisions made there. Not only the tragedy that it is (and I'm thinking of a very dedicated staff of researchers, engineers, etc losing their jobs), but you know that Fokker Tripe would have been a money maker just like 109's and Mustangs are for other companies. Link to post Share on other sites.
I know the Peter Jackson has been getting some flak of late, but you just don't know whats real and whats made up nowadays.
The lack of comment does not mean it is not happening. I have instruction sheets for several aircraft bookmarked and will have to decide to print them out or to see if I can transfer them to a flashdrive if it will be closed down. I'm not sure if this is correct but Asmodai on 'the other place' has mentioned something that I wasn't previously aware of: Here's what he posted yesterday on the WWI Aircraft Forum where he's the chief cook and bottle-washer: I have worked hard to maintain the standards that WnW wanted and I will be very sad to see them go if that is what happens. The other problem will be those that want to build their kits will soon be priced out of the market by speculators. The real problems have been there a while.
This did make me wonder what was going on as the previous release of these kits (in basic boxes with the inclusion of their aftermarket decal sets) at the turn of the year was clearly intended to generate funds that they were not going to be receiving due to the delay in the Lancaster release. I heard this elsewhere, but the WNW website only says it's temporarily closed. If it is true, there is a possibility that the virus is just the last straw. Until we hear news good or bad from richard or the crew at WNW I will take it that they are struggling with Covid 19 like the rest of the world and I have had no other emails from WnW updating me on the current situation, in fact it was a customer who contacted me a couple of days ago that alerted me to this (and that also explained why I had had a rush of WnW sales starting the previous day). Author Topic: Shock news - Wingnut Wings is closing down (Read 14283 times) macsporran. The rush of sales of my remaining WnW stock continues, 3 went out the door this morning and another has been bought in the time I've been typing this. Sign in to follow ... one way of doing so would be to offer boxes of 12 of a kit, in stripped-down overtrees style, at a good discount.
Rumours spread like wildfire.
But has anybody bought one of those from WNW?