My modelling interest centres on 20th century warships in 1/700 scale, covering the World War I and World War II periods and, I'm ashamed to say, I'm guilty of not really keeping up with releases in 1/350.
However, the other day I was on the Trumpeter website and I was quite surprised by the fair number of subjects, in this latter scale, which are only 'trickling down' very slowly into their 1/700 realm (I say trickling down but, at the moment, this feels almost a drought).
They've got the US carriers Sangamon, Langley and Ranger, the UK cruisers Colombo, Calcutta, York and Exeter, three of the four Zara class (I suppose Pola is omitted because of the different hull shape at the forecastle break), plus Szent Istvan, Viribus Unitis, Tashkent and Schleswig Holstein to name some, none of which seem to be in evidence in 1/700.
This got me wondering if Trumpeter are slowly phasing out their 1/700 interest.
I surmise that, given the price differentials between the two scales in question, the profit margins are far great in 1/350 than 1/700.
I also wonder if their existing, sizeable 1/700 portfolio is still continuing to sell well, even though many of the subjects have been around for a fair while now and if this is a dissuader from needing to produce much, if anything, new at the moment ??
The 'conspiracy theory' which appeals to me the most is that, given the 1/700 painstaking superiority in detail and quality of FlyHawk releases, Trumpeter are rightly wary of releasing anything which might compare unfavourably and are taking the time to try 'get their act together'.
However, at the end of the day what do I know ??

I could be spouting a load of rubbish and talking out of the back of my head

, but I just wish some of the tasty models I listed above, could find their way into the world of 1/700, no matter how flawed they may or may not be.
DaveW