Bob MDC

"Hands Up" I do buy 1/35 stuff but as I spent about 25 years in mining both underground and outcrop, where else can I get large scale plastic/resin Locos and rolling stock,excavators, dump trucks dozers and WW1 light railways. Most of our stuff is 1/32 with some 1/48 and the odd other scale but the bulk of our new stuff will be in 1/32 with a couple of exceptions. Note for file 1/32 vehicles are available or 54mm https://www.forcesofvalor.com/ also I think Tommy's War has some stuff as well. Bob

"Spot On" that man !! Art is creating something others can look at whether a 2D painting or a 3D diorama , or a bloody pile of bricks

As some of you know I was the UK source for GSI products for a few years basically picking up Mr S at a Nuernberg back in the 80's and been in love with it ever since. How I became UK distributor is another tale!! As you know Mr S can be removed without sanding with IPA (isopropyl alcohol) or Mr Color Thinners, just a tip I have been using , try optical lens cleaners the thin tissue wipes in the little packet the paper is slightly abrasive and removes the filler well the original tissue come with a mild alcohol base but can be easily re-hydrated with the solvent of your choice. My brand of choice is Zeiss as for some reason I get them offered as an add-on with Amazon I paid just under £2.00 for a box of 100 tablet wipes same as the spec wipes but bigger

I have both the Waldron and RP Toolz, smaller sizes Waldron larger RP. The Waldron are great but a bit "swiss" the RP toolz are the "journeyman"and easy to use . Bob

I used the NWS for a bit but upgraded it to the Dspiae http://www.dspiae.com/en/a/PRODUCTS/PRODUCTSB/64.html It comes in at about £50 UK but machined aluminium vs MDF and the sanders on a slide with self adhesive abrasives it is the "doggies doodas" I don't think I can saw bollocks ! But to be fair to North West Shoreline they were the first and the best for many years. As we are on the subject I have used the NWS "Chopper 2" for years and I thought the new RP toolz would be an improvement the jury's still out on that one ,the NSW is the journeyman using single edge razor blades and can tackle most jobs the RP toolz is a bit more "swiss" really only more delicate jobs for the detailed stuff again a real quality tool machined aluminium. So best of both worlds the NSW for day to day and the RP Toolz for the delicate stuff Just my observations Bob . .

AFV Modellers are stocking the T Rex stuff https://www.afvmodeller.com/product-category/t-rex-resin/

Three from British TV Budgie Sutherlands Law The Big Breadwinner Hogg

Space - Above and beyond

Remember Revell have a new team in charge it may take them a bit to sort the vast mould bank out but I don't think it will be to long as the old Revell were well into mould rotation. Coupled with the current (problems) and lack of contact via shows it may take a bit of time.

Top Man

I think I now have a better handle on to problem and as far as I can make out (after a fun afternoon talking to HMRC and only getting "new" staff you have to book a call to talk to the man with the answers my slot is 0.300 on the 29th Dec !!) but calling a few old colleagues from my mining days when I used to buy a boatloads of coal for import to the UK ,that are still into import/export all had the same question why make the point of sale collect the VAT with the potential of millions of new VAT registrations. Then the penny dropped. I think it was about 10 years plus ago credit card fraud was really crazy so the UK government passed a law that all companies using credit card for payment had to use a payment service provider (PSP) customer orders from you site the PSP takes the money then passes the order to you with the money less his "cut" so you have no sight of the card details. Now Online Market Providers/Places (OMP) Checking into OMP's online the first hit I had was an article "OMP's an excellent opportunities for PSP's" So as far as I can work out the OMP is another add-on for your site so I think it works like this your site or PSP has a OMP attached with it and you will set up to import to the countries that require you to collect the VAT. Now I think (please don't quote me as even HMRC is a bit in the dark about this) Order placed on your site (includes the relevant VAT for the country of delivery) PSP takes the money and OMP takes the VAT off Then they both have their pound flesh. Then you get what's left. When you confirm dispatch the OMP transfers the VAT to HMRC So HMRC collects ALL the customs money due automatically with no staff or Parcel Farce involved. Also it's up to the OMP to register with HMRC but you can register directly but I think this is not the option as Kevin from Ultracast was given the UK's finest runround as only HMRC can do, they don't want companies to register individually it means work. It was a bit of an eye opener but how little the HMRC have let businesses and the general public know including me ! So Sorry Kev for my first post but I think the OMP will be the way to go but just as a finish PSP or OMP or collectively "Grabbing Bastards" Will try to keep you updated. Bob Now !! finish a 10 year old Madeira, or open a 12 year old Glen Dronach single malt ???????????

Sorry Ultracast I can see where you are coming from the UK gov pages are bloody crap and the import pages deal with big stuff, but the magic figure is £135 so checking personal imports just fill in the customs forms and watch this space I will have a go a trying to " cut through the bullshit " Bob

The only "B" word I would be Bollocks. I don't know about the amount of spurious brown stuff that is circulating but VAT or Import duty if you sell in the uk we collect the VAT for the UK government at 20% this was similar for EU but the it had to be documented differently. All non EU countries a customs sticker ( sorry declaration) and it's up to the receiving countries postal service to pick up the duty. As I have been doing this for a few years as far as I am aware Canada was not part of the EU so the same rules apply to them as the US or Japan countries we deal with commercially for many years, when we send out an order we included copies of the invoice so the receiving customs can collect the correct import duty from the goods recipient before delivery. I have been dealing with Ultracast for many years and I am not sure where the problem is ALL the snags are EU based not the "rest of the world" 1 take the order 2 send the order out with custom declaration (job done) for the seller 3 Royal Mail collects the import duty 4 "simplies" nothing to get the nickers in a twist about To the Moderators " can i have a proper rant please " will try not to use to many sweary words

It will be interesting to see when the big boys pick these up as once the programme has been written press a button and X amount produced without any human intervention. About 15 years ago we had discussions with a couple of major manufactures about resin parts but the numbers and time scales were a bit challenging the main stumbling block was the initial lead times from receiving the masters to production and the size of orders , but now that a machine can do it , go for it !! Bob

Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Jarre, Mark Isham (well worth a listen) his Tibet CD great and a lot of other "new age" stuff. As I suffer from tinnitus due to 25 years in Coal mining a bit of music is great, I have noise cancelling hearing aids but after a couple of hours they can be a bit of a distraction. So TG and aging hippie stuff for me Bob

Two time frames 1. Early WW2 RAF bombers 2. Early RAF Jets Plenty to get their teeth into

When I was the UK guy for GSI (Mr Hobby) products we spent most of our weekends (normally about 35/ year) at shows dealing with the British public 99% of our customers were great but there was the odd one ! I asked if GSI could produce Mr Soap and Mr Hot Water for the other one percent !!!! Bob

1/24 aftermarket is not the best seller, we have a range of seat belts but apart from a flurry when the Airfix Mosquito had no belts it is very slow. Bob

Evergreen is the best quality material, but as I use a lot of rod and bar in setting up parts for casting I have been using Maquett good quality and value for money (at present). I'm going to try it on a couple builds I hope to get done soon, so we shall see. https://www.albionhobbies.com/product-ranges/maquett-plastic-profiles-sheets/ Bob

Yes the only bloody Wingnut plane I would buy and I have a monkey stashed (just in case)

That's the rub Quality research/ manufacturing I would think sales good. As we are told "quality sells" Ohh to be a fly on the wall

Try Mr White Putty R it's a bit of a faff to use as it is a bit soft but I put a daub on a palette and work it from that it's great and no sanding as IPA or Mr Colour tinners will remove it even when hard. Hands up on this I used to be the GSI importer for the UK but now I have to buy the products myself. Hopefully after Jan 01 we can get some of the "good stuff in " Bob

Fair comment about the various suppliers but singley or on a whole they have had an income source removed some who have had a project come to completion Gotha/Felixstow will just have a storage issue but the Lancaster/0-400 contractors will be a bit pissed that they have no income for work started so it will be a bit complicated, but my initial point the manufacturing companies still have a dice or two to roll. But as I said in my previous post PJ is committed to the preservation of WW1 history as can be seen in his "They shall not grow old" film and the Gallipoli diorama 5000 54mm (1/32 scale) figures http://anzacdiorama.blogspot.com/2015/05/first-pics-of-massive-gallipoli-diorama.html I know the guys that did the sculpting and production on that job from my (evil empire ) days and that job was no expense spared.

Try turning it round and looking at it from the WNW injection moulding company (company X). So you have been working for WNW for many years then the work stops ! one. that buggers up your cash flow, you now have a huge amount of moulds to store (correctly) plus you have a lot of tooling costs on 3 new projects two of them large projects with multiple test shots, question how do we get payed , stop gap easy fix Fokker Dr1 easy quick and get some cash flow, time to sort out cost of mould storage and the large projects which have not come to market . Having a bit of insight into the world of PJ as I was involved with all the original miniatures for LotR when we worked for "the evil empire" WW 1 stuff is really close to his heart and I don't think he would walk away from it but as he has created WNW I don't think he will want it to disappear. and !! from company X you have a lot of moulds to store production /pre-production work to find including two major projects with zero income , it makes an interesting point on your business model. When company X runs into the red on the WNW project it should get interesting !!! I had a bit of a tally today we have 15 companies which we have masters and moulds for I contact them after a year and the moulds are kept till they are no longer viable, but we have boxes of patteren's that we have to store, even with three large barns we would struggle to store the Wingnut stuff ! ( one of the projects is a 1/72 HMS Caroline fittings that is the last survivor from Jutland) Bob

Intellectual property rights in some countries in Asia "are guidelines more than rules" and if your last mega project bombed anything can happen.