I remember when I was young, there were several different model battleships to choose from, but today it seems hard to even find one at all.
That said, for an alternate history where young folks, maybe just mostly those from navy families or those going to the naval academies, actively build fleets of model warships as part of their education, as a fun way really learn what different designs really looked like in comparison to their foreign counterparts, could we see model warships, especially the battleships, still a big deal today?
I'm thinking along the lines of a government program that causes the models to be made, and then the hobby industry gets hold of the surplus kits under license, and...
When would such a thing be possible? In what nations? When did the whole plastic model market take off OTL? Before plastic, did kids get wooden models/toy ships? Could we see a "battleship" trading card game, with detailed drawings of the ships on the cards, something like Magic the Gathering?
Is there any hope of getting something like that done nowadays, for naval history classes or something? I would really love to be able to have a complete 'fleet' for the USA WWII battleships, but I would think that if they were made as collectibles, the market value might get out of my price range rather quickly. What if not only the historical ships "as built" were available but also rebuilds/conversions? Would there be members that would indulge their hobby to the point of having a collection including all Dreadnoughts, from all the nations that built/bought them?
Any thoughts on how we could get model battleships back in?