Hey MARS,
You make some valid points but it still makes no sense to me that we do not see SAAF related products, kitted overseas, available in South Africa. Surely the point of all of this should be to provide content that is of interest to modellers and surely this should be considered a lost opportunity for all parties if it is not capitalised on?
I agree with you that the local industry should be supported but one is unfortunately stuck between a rock and a hard place if they want a local manufacturer to produce a conversion set or kit regarding a specific subject if there are already conversion sets or kits available on the market as the local manufacturer would have competition before they have even begun cutting the masters. The reality of the situation is that their time would be better spent on building something that is not presently available anywhere as they would then enjoy complete local and international market saturation for their efforts.
In an ideal world, where a conversion set or complete kit of a SAAF related product exists overseas, I would like to see the local retailers and/ or importers engaging with overseas cottage industry manufacturers to bring these products to the local market and/ or visa versa. Gordon Stevens of RAREplanes wrote an interesting article on AeroScale where he made mention of contacting dealers in the USA directly in order to make his products available to the American market and by all accounts he seems to have been successful as they effectively helped keep RAREplanes in business for twenty years.
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The RAREplanes Story - Part 1-
The RAREplanes Story - Part 2Regards,
Stratobat