Archive for September, 2011
Round 2 Model Kits: DO… YOU… WANT… TO…PLAY… A… GAME…?
This may not turn into “Global Thermal Nuclear War” (well at least I hope it doesn’t), but I always like to post about things I’m kind of jazzed about when I’m working on Round 2 model kits. Usually when there is a lull in posts, it is because I’m busy working on a package or instruction sheet. Both are major time hogs but generally aren’t much to talk about. So when inspiration hits, I always try to write something out real quick.
Anyways, I’ve been working on some decals this week that have been pretty fun. Rather than come right out with it, I figured I’d make a game out of it. (Michael, our new creative director LOVES games. I hope he is proud of me.) So, the pic shows what I’ve been up to. I’ll give you twenty guesses as to what it is. Whoever correctly guesses first is the winner. I’ll send the winner a proof of the decal sheet when it arrives.
UPDATE: OUR WINNER… CHIANGKAISHECKY
I knew it wouldn’t take long but I figured I would have to drop at least one hint. We are bringing the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C back out by the end of the year and it will feature a nice size decal sheet featuring ALL NEW battle damage decals based on the original filming model. When I first started figuring out how much I would be able to include, I discovered that the ship was pockmarked with relatively small spots of damage. Once I had a map established, I discovered that if I concentrated on the hull opening itself but not include the black burn marks, I would be able to include every spot I could detect in the reference I had on hand. I figured most modelers could handle the little bit of freehand airbrushing that would be needed to complete the look. Even without the additional airbrushing, they look pretty good on their own. I’m showing one of the decals below along with the reference shot and how it will look with a little airbrushing.
Besides revised Enterprise-C registry markings, U.S.S. Yamaguchi registries will also be included. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I will have room on the sheet for the U.S.S. Excalibur registries. The sheet size is determined by the bottom of the box and it looks like it will be pretty well packed. We will have a product page up our website soon.
Round 2 Models: Get ‘em While They Are Hot!
Sorry for the long gap between posts but it has been a busy month here at Round 2 Models. We have been super busy wrapping up our new model kit catalog and our national sales meeting. With all that behind us, it is back to work.
One thing dawned on me while working on the catalog… Well, two things actually.
1) The Bigfoot and Strange Change Mummy and Vampire are in production as I type and they are being manufactured here in the US. With a couple hiccups overcome, I hope to see pre-production samples soon. We hope to have the kits released by the end of October. That leads me to…
2) We are starting a new initiative that we are calling “1 RUN OF FUN”. Basically, what we have found is that there are certain kits in our tooling banks that we get requests for that are too cool not to bring back out, but they won’t necessarily appeal to everyone. So we will be running the kits once and that is it! In the case of popular kits, we might do several runs as our inventory gets low and sales on a kit continue steadily. We have seen some cases where we soon find out that after the first batch, they will never be run a second time. With history on our side, we can predict which kits will likely fall into this category. In a few cases, there are kits that we might run because we want to backdate the tooling to an earlier version so we’ll first run it one last time in its current condition for anyone looking for a later version. Then, we’ll rework the tooling to its original condition with no hope of changing it again. So, from now on whenever you see a 1 RUN OF FUN sticker on one of our kits that means “get ‘em while they are hot” or you might miss out. The Strange Change Mummy and Vampire and Bigfoot are our first kits released under this program.