Hello everybody,

My name is Jakub and I am one of the owners of the company called State-of-Art Models (http://soamodels.com) , which is based in London.
I am writing here, because I would like to get some feedback from inside the modelling community about our new project, which is a 1/4 scale kit of an instrument panel. As you can see on our webpage, we are now making ready-made instrument panels. However, we know that this option does not appeal to a large community of modellers, so we want to come out with a kit, so you can make such panel yourself.
The smaller parts are made from resin, instruments and the main panel are from quality plastic. As I stated earlier, the scale is 1/4th, making the panel around 18cm wide, 15cm high.
After contacting some potential retailers, we got to the target retail price in the UK, which would be around £50. There would not be very large numbers (around 15-20 per month per aircraft type) of these kits, making them very unique.

Spitfire project kit (http://www.stateofartmodels.co.uk/images/spitkit.jpg)

Spitfire project kit 2 (http://www.stateofartmodels.co.uk/images/spitkit2.jpg)

Ready-made Spitfire panel (http://www.stateofartmodels.co.uk/images/spitfiredeska/spitfiredeska.jpg)

1. Would you be interested in and then buy such kit?
2. Would you prefer more complex kit than the one on the pictures? (I mean fewer parts pre-assembled)

We are then interested in preparing kits and plans for whole cockpits, which you can then make around the panel. There would be around 4 individual steps, like… 1. instrument panel, 2. plans and some parts for a part of the fuselage, 3. additional instruments, levellers etc. 4. seat, pedals etc.
I will have pictures of first cockpit project of Fw190 during the September, so I will post them here then. The target price for all the parts for cockpit assembly is around £200.

1. Would you be interested in such "cockpit" project?
2. Do you think that whole cockpit kit is more interesting than just panel kit, so you would prefer cockpit kit but not just panel kit?

I would be very thankful if you can share your opinion with us. It will surely help us in making final decision whether or not to continue in this project.
Have a nice day,
Jakub

Looks pretty interesting! Are you thinking of doing a P-47 panel? My Dad was a Jug Jockey. It'd be cool to have a P-47 panel. I like that the nature of the subject allows for wall-mountability.

As for whole cockpits, I'm thinking 1/4 might be a little too large. 1/6 is a tad smaller, and would have the added benefiy of being in scale with 12" military action figures, so one could add a pilot without too much difficulty. Even smaller, 1/12 might be more attractive to people who'd want to build a collection of several. At 1/4, I'd think people might only have the room for one.

Just one guy's opinion :).

Hello John P,

We have P-47 panel on offer already. However it is not a kit, it comes built already. We can maybe prepare a kit for you if you are seriously interested. Do if you are looking either for a kit or ready-made panel, just write us an e-mail. You can find it on our webpage, in the section Contact Us. Or you can send me a personal message here on the forum.

Cheers,

Jakub