The History of 1250 scale

Rather than copy it all to this page, a very good and concise history of the 1250 scale ship market can be found on this page:

http://www.steelnavy.com/1250hist.htm

To summarise what is said on those pages, the hobby as it is today began out of necessity. The first 1200 scale model ships were made by companies who won government contracts to supply the navy with recognition models. This was the basis for the hobby, and several firms did well producing them until the early 1950s. There was a lull in the market between when the scale was used for the military and when it became a hobby. With the revival of the german economy in the 50's, hobbies became an affordable luxury once more and due to the metric system models began to be made in 1250 scale for collectors. The hobby really took off in the 1960's and many of the firms that started then are still successful today, such as Navis Neptun, Hai and Albatros among others. The hobby has grown slowly since then, and is in a state of transition today where the old ways of production and style are being challenged by newer methods and technologies. Together, the two schools of thought could bring wonderful models to the market, however this is unlikely to happen as in every industry there are those who stubbornly cling to the old ways, and mistrust the new. This is natural however, and the hobby will continue to develop.
Major problems facing the hobby are the greying of both collectors and producers, the hobby is quite litterally dying. New blood is scarce as younger people simply aren't interested or don't know. How well producers and retailer adapt to these problems will be the challenge that will decide who goes and who stays on.

Many exellent photos of 1250 scale ship models bith old and new can be seen here:

http://gs61.photobucket.com/groups/h70/7EGAO7QTCZ/?albumview=grid