Plastic model kit
Other subjects include science fiction vehicles and mecha, real spacecraft, buildings, animals, human(oid) dolls/action figures, and characters from pop culture.
Complex markings such as aircraft insignia or automobile body decorative details and model identification badges are typically provided with kits as screen-printed water-slide decals.
Resin casting and vacuum forming are also used to produce models, or particular parts where the scale of production is not such as to support the investment required for injection molding.
Many manufacturers began production in the 1950s and gained ascendancy in the 1960s such as Aurora, Revell, AMT, and Monogram in America, Airfix in UK and Heller SA in France.
Other manufacturers included; Matchbox (UK), Italeri, ESCI, (both Italian) Novo {ex-Frog moulds} (former Soviet Union), and Fujimi, Nichimo and Bandai (Japan).
American model companies who had been producing assembled promotional scale models of new automobiles each year for automobile dealers found a lucrative side business selling the unassembled parts of these "promos" to hobbyists to assemble, thus finding a new revenue stream for the injection molds which were so expensive to update each year.
Within a short time, the kit business began to overshadow the production of promos, and the level of accuracy and detail was raised to satisfy the demands of the marketplace.
[citation needed] Brands from Russia, Central Europe, and Korea have also become prominent recently with companies like Academy Plastic Model.
The Model Builder game, produced by Moonlit studio, available on Steam (service), consists of cutting, assembling, and painting airplanes, helicopters, tanks, cars, and others and making dioramas with them.
Another form of practicing in the virtual world is a 3D modeling with the use of such software like Blender, FreeCAD, Lego Digital Designer (superseded by BrickLink Studio) or LeoCAD, etc.
Early manufacturers of vacuum formed model kits included Airmodel (the former DDR), Contrail, Airframe (Canada), Formaplane, and Rareplanes (UK).
In recent times, the latest releases from major manufacturers offer unprecedented detail that is a match for the finest resin kits, often including high-quality mixed-media (photo-etched brass, turned aluminum) parts.
For example, the effects crews on the various Star Trek TV shows frequently kitbashed multiple starship models to quickly create new classes of ship for use in background scenes where details would not be particularly obvious.
The demographics of plastic modeling have changed in its half-century of existence, from young boys buying them as toys to older adults building them to assemble large collections.
Technological advances have made model-building more and more sophisticated, and the proliferation of expensive detailing add-ons have raised the bar for competition within modeling clubs.
