Is competition good for King and County? (1 Viewer)

[King & Country]

“Wood versus Polystone versus Metal”

I understand they switched to metal canons on the tanks because they don't bend like the polystone barrels can do over time. On most models with metal canon there is usually something that you can tighten where it's attached to stop the barrel droping. If not, poke in some tacky wax or whatever between the gaps there to keep the barrel up more. It's not a problem exclusive to K & C this one as many of the long barrels on my old Solido tanks used to 'drop and stay'. To fix it I'd just tighten some screws or stick gum or whatever at the base of the barrel.

I agree with Louis about disliking polystone as it is overly heavy and doesn't allow for much detail if cast in to few pieces. However polystone does reduce production costs as there is less labor involved in casting polystone products, and these cost saving can be passed on to the consumer. I think it was a wise move of King and Country to change from wood to polystone as their customer base expanded because of the lower priced pieces.

Clearly the more pieces you have to assemble to make say a tank the more detail you will get, but also the labor costs rise. You have to strike a balance which varies with the size of your customer base. Wood is also less durable over time as it dries out, and countries such as the Phillipines have nearly used up all their trees, raising timber prices (maybe one day they'll wake up to the fact that all those mud slides in those countries are mainly due to the lack of tree cover).

Metal (diecast or slush cast) provides better detail but again you have more labor costs because of the assembly required so I guess Louis and I are stuck with polystone. But the detail on the polystone vehicles is improving and will match most of its competitors in time. I look forward to seeing some closeup pics comparing the K & C and HB panther.

Hi Guys,

It’s nice to agree with “Oz” on many of the points he brought up in his recent post about the pro’s and con’s concerning the various methods of producing fighting vehicles.

Here’s a few thoughts and insights about both the “history” and background as far as K&C are concerned.

1) The Wooden Models

Although my very good friend Louis loves these hand-carved “beauties” and hates polystone here’s my experience.

(a) Apart from our very first wooden models (Sherman, Tiger & Panther) which were made in China the rest including all of our aircraft were made in the Philippines.

(b) For almost 10 years I would fly back and forth to the Philippines virtually on a monthly basis to inspect, quality control and of course, pay them for their work!

It was an ongoing nightmare … Delivery Schedules were never met … quality consistency could be variable and every conceivable disaster that could delay work was inevitable – including … fire … pestilence … plague … earthquakes … and, of course, the death of the family’s buffalo!

The tragedy was that sometimes they produced the most amazingly, detailed work which kept me trying to get more.

(c) The final drawback (apart from their unreliability) was they kept increasing their prices as the Philippine peso kept getting devalued.

2) Thank God For Polystone!

One day in Hong Kong I was attending a Trade Fair and discovered a company up in China who were making vintage 1940 models of old American Cars in polystone. In amongst all the ‘Civilian’ models was a little, not very accurate, jeep in olive drab.

“Eureka!” A light bulb went off in my tiny brain. “If these guys can do a little Jeep … Why not a little tank?” That was the beginning of the Polystone. Not only were the companies in China reliable but they were affordable!!! Suddenly instead of selling 20 hand-carved wooden Shermans for US$300 K&C could sell 200 polystone Shermans at US$69 a pop. You do the math.

The rest, as they say, is history. However it was a major turning point for K&C and, I think, the toy soldier hobby as far as military vehicles go. Fighting vehicles at a price virtually every collector could afford not just the privileged few.

3) All Metal Diecast

I love what 21 Century and Forces of Valor have done with their 1:32 scale metal vehicles. It’s innovative … very affordable … and perfect for them. Why?

Because they want to do business with the “Toys ‘R’ Us” and “WALMARTS” and a thousand other retailers of this world.

I and K&C don’t … we like making and doing business with smaller companies on a personal level.

These big boys have to play with other big boys because of the huge ‘startup’ costs of manufacturing tools and dies to make their kind of vehicles. They have to turn out 50,000 Shermans or Tigers or whatever to get their investment back and make a decent profit.

As I see it when you get into bed with one of these elephants (beit T’R’U or Walmart) no matter how much they may seem to like you if they turn over the wrong way you might just get crushed to death. And that’s when they like you ..!

When they’re fed up with you they will drop you like the proverbial “hot potato”. Oh, and they’re also very, very, politically correct. So you can forget any Michael Wittman Tigers or anything else that any pressure group gets steamed up about.

So, that being the case I’ll stick to doing what we do and, hopefully, continue to learn and improve how to do it better. Hope this helps.

Best wishes and… happy collecting!

Andy C.

 

[OzDigger]

Hi Andy C, thanks very much for that insight into polystone, I (and others) now have a better understanding of why you use that material. I guess it must get tedious to have to explain the reasons for why you do what you do over and over again, and I certainly appreciate you taking the time to make this reply.

Perhaps it would save some time etc, if some company history and other relevant K & C information such as the polystone issue was included in the King and Country section as a 'sticky thread'.

Hi Rick, I've always been into military models etc. I even applied to be an officer in the Australian army back in the 1970's while I was still in school. Fortunately for all concerned they suggested I reapply when I was older. Well I'm still waiting for some maturity to kick in, so I guess it's to late now

I haven't yet seen the Desert Transport up close as it takes a while for that proverbial slow boat from China to make it downunder. However the pictures of it look promising and I reckon I will get it, and certainly the 105 mm gun and crew set as it looks better than the Frontline version.