Gigant

Since Gaz asked me to add photos of my P-40F, as I was searching my "man-cave", I ran across this build I did a while back:
 
[
 

 

 
[
 
The kit's pilot was not good as good as a 1/48 scale figure in a Monogram Mustang.  
But at the time I did this one the very nice AM cockpit and harness detail sets weren't available.
 
[
 

 

 

 

 

 
Once again, since I had no airbrush at the time, it was painted with Testors enamels and MM acrylics, hand bristle brushed.

Like most things in life (Amazon, Facebook, etc.), ebay has pros and cons. Be wary, be objective, learn to work around the cons, and take advantage of the pros, and you can do very well as both a buyer and seller. It's certainly more expensive to sell there than it used to be, but good luck reaching as wide a market anywhere else. I've done both a lot, and have always come out of it quite well, and have found their customer service to be decent, though in favor of the buyer most of the time.
 
I find the extreme hatred of it to be unwarranted, but I do prefer to do business through great groups like this whenever possible. I consider using ebay to be a last resort, but an effective one. Just my experience.
 
Tim

Since Wingnut Wings went out of business, and the main hobby dealers no longer stock their kits, I thought I would pick up a kit of theirs while shopping on eBay for other old collectible kits.
 
So I bid on a few kits from one seller, based on my Burns Guide, "PAK-20", and offered fair prices for each.
 
After a short while, I get the notice that I was "out-bid" on two of them, one I did not care about, but the other I decided to look into.
An "alternate bidder", literally bid like 12 times, and drove his bid price up to nearly double!
I told this to a friend of mine, and he told me that it is a common practice on eBay for the seller to have a second account, or a buddy to drive the price up, to see if you will bite like fish.
So then I spot a WnW Bristol Fighter kit, and the guy starts at a fair price, not ridiculously low like some, or high like Rare Plane Detective who was starting out asking $777.00 for a Gotha G IV (of course they got no bids on it).
The next thing I know, I get a notice in my inbox, where the kit's price literally was driven up to nearly 2.5 times the starting price by a single "straw bidder"!
Just to see for myself, I checked on the bidder's history and in all of his history as an eBay member, his total bidding history was 100% on this seller's kits ONLY!
And since I wouldn't bite (I sent him a message telling I was not going to, and he responded by claiming he was not the "straw bidder"). He later that day claimed he sold the kit, and re-listed the SAME KIT later that day at the same starting price!
So I sent him a message telling I would buy it for a fair price, and he literally told me he would not sell it to me for any price.
So I reported him to eBay's service department and was told his refusal to sell at all was in violation of their policy.
The nice thing was is their associate had actual access to his rude message to me, and she duly reported it.

Since Wingnut Wings went out of business, and the main hobby dealers no longer stock their kits, I thought I would pick up a kit of theirs while shopping on eBay for other old collectible kits.
 
So I bid on a few kits from one seller, based on my Burns Guide, "PAK-20", and offered fair prices for each.
 
After a short while, I get the notice that I was "out-bid" on two of them, one I did not care about, but the other I decided to look into.
An "alternate bidder", literally bid like 12 times, and drove his bid price up to nearly double!
I told this to a friend of mine, and he told me that it is a common practice on eBay for the seller to have a second account, or a buddy to drive the price up, to see if you will bite like fish.
So then I spot a WnW Bristol Fighter kit, and the guy starts at a fair price, not ridiculously low like some, or high like Rare Plane Detective who was starting out asking $777.00 for a Gotha G IV (of course they got no bids on it).
The next thing I know, I get a notice in my inbox, where the kit's price literally was driven up to nearly 2.5 times the starting price by a single "straw bidder"!
Just to see for myself, I checked on the bidder's history and in all of his history as an eBay member, his total bidding history was 100% on this seller's kits ONLY!
And since I wouldn't bite (I sent him a message telling I was not going to, and he responded by claiming he was not the "straw bidder"). He later that day claimed he sold the kit, and re-listed the SAME KIT later that day at the same starting price!
So I sent him a message telling I would buy it for a fair price, and he literally told me he would not sell it to me for any price.
So I reported him to eBay's service department and was told his refusal to sell at all was in violation of their policy.
The nice thing was is their associate had actual access to his rude message to me, and she duly reported it.

Since Wingnut Wings went out of business, and the main hobby dealers no longer stock their kits, I thought I would pick up a kit of theirs while shopping on eBay for other old collectible kits.
 
So I bid on a few kits from one seller, based on my Burns Guide, "PAK-20", and offered fair prices for each.
 
After a short while, I get the notice that I was "out-bid" on two of them, one I did not care about, but the other I decided to look into.
An "alternate bidder", literally bid like 12 times, and drove his bid price up to nearly double!
I told this to a friend of mine, and he told me that it is a common practice on eBay for the seller to have a second account, or a buddy to drive the price up, to see if you will bite like fish.
So then I spot a WnW Bristol Fighter kit, and the guy starts at a fair price, not ridiculously low like some, or high like Rare Plane Detective who was starting out asking $777.00 for a Gotha G IV (of course they got no bids on it).
The next thing I know, I get a notice in my inbox, where the kit's price literally was driven up to nearly 2.5 times the starting price by a single "straw bidder"!
Just to see for myself, I checked on the bidder's history and in all of his history as an eBay member, his total bidding history was 100% on this seller's kits ONLY!
And since I wouldn't bite (I sent him a message telling I was not going to, and he responded by claiming he was not the "straw bidder"). He later that day claimed he sold the kit, and re-listed the SAME KIT later that day at the same starting price!
So I sent him a message telling I would buy it for a fair price, and he literally told me he would not sell it to me for any price.
So I reported him to eBay's service department and was told his refusal to sell at all was in violation of their policy.
The nice thing was is their associate had actual access to his rude message to me, and she duly reported it.

Since Wingnut Wings went out of business, and the main hobby dealers no longer stock their kits, I thought I would pick up a kit of theirs while shopping on eBay for other old collectible kits.
 
So I bid on a few kits from one seller, based on my Burns Guide, "PAK-20", and offered fair prices for each.
 
After a short while, I get the notice that I was "out-bid" on two of them, one I did not care about, but the other I decided to look into.
An "alternate bidder", literally bid like 12 times, and drove his bid price up to nearly double!
I told this to a friend of mine, and he told me that it is a common practice on eBay for the seller to have a second account, or a buddy to drive the price up, to see if you will bite like fish.
So then I spot a WnW Bristol Fighter kit, and the guy starts at a fair price, not ridiculously low like some, or high like Rare Plane Detective who was starting out asking $777.00 for a Gotha G IV (of course they got no bids on it).
The next thing I know, I get a notice in my inbox, where the kit's price literally was driven up to nearly 2.5 times the starting price by a single "straw bidder"!
Just to see for myself, I checked on the bidder's history and in all of his history as an eBay member, his total bidding history was 100% on this seller's kits ONLY!
And since I wouldn't bite (I sent him a message telling I was not going to, and he responded by claiming he was not the "straw bidder"). He later that day claimed he sold the kit, and re-listed the SAME KIT later that day at the same starting price!
So I sent him a message telling I would buy it for a fair price, and he literally told me he would not sell it to me for any price.
So I reported him to eBay's service department and was told his refusal to sell at all was in violation of their policy.
The nice thing was is their associate had actual access to his rude message to me, and she duly reported it.

They identify the bidders by listing them while giving you abbreviated versions of their e-mail address with "***'s" in it to protect his/her privacy.

As I understand, starting with their Salmson biplane, practically all of WnW's kits have weak landing gear struts, wing sag, etc., which is the result of trying to make tiny detailed things like struts and wing attachment points exactly to scale out of soft plastic.
Although I have bought a couple of their kits, the one that really scares me is their Bristol F2b. After building the old Aurora kit with the stubby fuselage stand-off struts for the lower wing attachment, I simply would not want the pain of figuring what type of fixture it would take to get a soft plastic WnW fuselage to not try to rotate on me while standing in them while the glue is setting up, in addition to the worry as to how substantial it will be for me to finish getting the upper wing with all of it's eight inter-plane struts and cabane struts to behave.
 
Frankly, I see this trend as a "cop-out", where under the "true to exact scale drawings" caveat, they obviously do not take time to test-fit the parts to see how practical it would be for the average builder to assemble their kits without heavily investing in buying or making special jigs and fixtures, that have very limited use beyond a single build or two.
 
IMHO, that is the main reason why most WnW's kits are still sitting around here and there unbuilt in their boxes, popping up on eBay and Amazon instead of showing up a built projects on model airplane websites.
 

Since Wingnut Wings went out of business, and the main hobby dealers no longer stock their kits, I thought I would pick up a kit of theirs while shopping on eBay for other old collectible kits.
 
So I bid on a few kits from one seller, based on my Burns Guide, "PAK-20", and offered fair prices for each.
 
After a short while, I get the notice that I was "out-bid" on two of them, one I did not care about, but the other I decided to look into.
An "alternate bidder", literally bid like 12 times, and drove his bid price up to nearly double!
I told this to a friend of mine, and he told me that it is a common practice on eBay for the seller to have a second account, or a buddy to drive the price up, to see if you will bite like fish.
So then I spot a WnW Bristol Fighter kit, and the guy starts at a fair price, not ridiculously low like some, or high like Rare Plane Detective who was starting out asking $777.00 for a Gotha G IV (of course they got no bids on it).
The next thing I know, I get a notice in my inbox, where the kit's price literally was driven up to nearly 2.5 times the starting price by a single "straw bidder"!
Just to see for myself, I checked on the bidder's history and in all of his history as an eBay member, his total bidding history was 100% on this seller's kits ONLY!
And since I wouldn't bite (I sent him a message telling I was not going to, and he responded by claiming he was not the "straw bidder"). He later that day claimed he sold the kit, and re-listed the SAME KIT later that day at the same starting price!
So I sent him a message telling I would buy it for a fair price, and he literally told me he would not sell it to me for any price.
So I reported him to eBay's service department and was told his refusal to sell at all was in violation of their policy.
The nice thing was is their associate had actual access to his rude message to me, and she duly reported it.

I agree with the poster above to a point.  Their engineering is highly aggressive, i have never built any of the big ones so don't make a comment on sagging bowing or anything else like that.  However I have built the Dvii, the DV, the Pup, the Camel and another of the single engine ones.  As to the DVII I found the landing gear strut attachment to be on the ragged edge of too small and it went together but it was anything but strong.  I also had experience with key struts that were deformed, not fully formed or otherwise had minor flaws.  
 
To me the DVII was somewhat on the flimsy side.  The Albatros was a little shaky but it was okay.  With respect to the DVII though when I saw how tinny the fittings are holding the upper wing in place and how the landing gear mounted to the frame, I would not want my life to depend on that plane staying together.  The upper wing impresses me as something just above suicidal.  Now the reality may be far from that but I would to want to pilot a real one.  
 
One more point, my highest praise to those above who have 1, built the big WNW kits and 2, made the rigging of such quality that it is a strengthening element of the model.  That is just real skill.  I used the stretchy stuff, which does not add much strength for the rigging I did.

Just because it's that nice. Built by a fellow years ago.
 
Regards
- dutik

Well pretty much none of that true. I've built several WNW kits, including the Gotha G.IV, Brisfit, and Salmson and not one shows any sign of sagging or deformation in the landing gear, struts or wings - or indeed any part of the kit. The Brisfit is now getting on for 10 years old and is as sturdy as the day I built it.

Honestly I have found none of that to be the case.
 
I have a DH.2 that is going on 12 years old built a Felix and Gotha for two different clients, and as recently as 1 month and a half ago spoke to both.
Both models today are "just the same as when you sent them several years ago" according to my customer that I built the Gotha for.
 
So no, I would have to say that overall none of that is true from my experience.
 

I want to think that when a model of a biplane is evenly rigged without force bias that the wings and landing gear will be much, much stronger against shear forces than before the model is rigged.   Just like the 1:1 real aircraft.  Too much compression will do in flimsy supports.  The rigged model however will prevent or delay the shear/twisting /splay that usually happens right before a collapse.  A three legged stool is much stronger with spanner between each leg.
 
WNW kit designers do seem to trend toward scale sizing.  But that is what makes the kits so amazing. 
 
 

Well, thank you gentlemen for your encouragement for me to "venture out" a bit!

Was bidding on an MPH Walrus...same thing,reasonable price to start but then one bidder sent it way over,I bailed and ordered one directly from MPH.
saved about 150.00 as "apparently" that's what it went for over the retail price..It's just  silly and stupid. 
I couldn't see who bid it way over retail though,wanted to because it really seemed odd.

That's also the trouble of bidding early, I still don't know why people do it, it just wakes people up to bid against you and the more time you give the higher it will surely go.
if you left it to the last 7 or 8 seconds might be better.
I've also noticed fake or fraudulent sellers trying to sell a piece of machinery that clearly is in a college etc and they invariably want payment up front and have no track record. I've also kicked ebay into touch for selling my kits as over the years they were constantly changing the rules in their favour and getting above themselves, I've just closed my sellers account yesterday.
Graham 

Since Wingnut Wings went out of business, and the main hobby dealers no longer stock their kits, I thought I would pick up a kit of theirs while shopping on eBay for other old collectible kits.
 
So I bid on a few kits from one seller, based on my Burns Guide, "PAK-20", and offered fair prices for each.
 
After a short while, I get the notice that I was "out-bid" on two of them, one I did not care about, but the other I decided to look into.
An "alternate bidder", literally bid like 12 times, and drove his bid price up to nearly double!
I told this to a friend of mine, and he told me that it is a common practice on eBay for the seller to have a second account, or a buddy to drive the price up, to see if you will bite like fish.
So then I spot a WnW Bristol Fighter kit, and the guy starts at a fair price, not ridiculously low like some, or high like Rare Plane Detective who was starting out asking $777.00 for a Gotha G IV (of course they got no bids on it).
The next thing I know, I get a notice in my inbox, where the kit's price literally was driven up to nearly 2.5 times the starting price by a single "straw bidder"!
Just to see for myself, I checked on the bidder's history and in all of his history as an eBay member, his total bidding history was 100% on this seller's kits ONLY!
And since I wouldn't bite (I sent him a message telling I was not going to, and he responded by claiming he was not the "straw bidder"). He later that day claimed he sold the kit, and re-listed the SAME KIT later that day at the same starting price!
So I sent him a message telling I would buy it for a fair price, and he literally told me he would not sell it to me for any price.
So I reported him to eBay's service department and was told his refusal to sell at all was in violation of their policy.
The nice thing was is their associate had actual access to his rude message to me, and she duly reported it.

They identify the bidders by listing them while giving you abbreviated versions of their e-mail address with "***'s" in it to protect his/her privacy.

As I understand, starting with their Salmson biplane, practically all of WnW's kits have weak landing gear struts, wing sag, etc., which is the result of trying to make tiny detailed things like struts and wing attachment points exactly to scale out of soft plastic.
Although I have bought a couple of their kits, the one that really scares me is their Bristol F2b. After building the old Aurora kit with the stubby fuselage stand-off struts for the lower wing attachment, I simply would not want the pain of figuring what type of fixture it would take to get a soft plastic WnW fuselage to not try to rotate on me while standing in them while the glue is setting up, in addition to the worry as to how substantial it will be for me to finish getting the upper wing with all of it's eight inter-plane struts and cabane struts to behave.
 
Frankly, I see this trend as a "cop-out", where under the "true to exact scale drawings" caveat, they obviously do not take time to test-fit the parts to see how practical it would be for the average builder to assemble their kits without heavily investing in buying or making special jigs and fixtures, that have very limited use beyond a single build or two.
 
IMHO, that is the main reason why most WnW's kits are still sitting around here and there unbuilt in their boxes, popping up on eBay and Amazon instead of showing up a built projects on model airplane websites.
 

Since Wingnut Wings went out of business, and the main hobby dealers no longer stock their kits, I thought I would pick up a kit of theirs while shopping on eBay for other old collectible kits.
 
So I bid on a few kits from one seller, based on my Burns Guide, "PAK-20", and offered fair prices for each.
 
After a short while, I get the notice that I was "out-bid" on two of them, one I did not care about, but the other I decided to look into.
An "alternate bidder", literally bid like 12 times, and drove his bid price up to nearly double!
I told this to a friend of mine, and he told me that it is a common practice on eBay for the seller to have a second account, or a buddy to drive the price up, to see if you will bite like fish.
So then I spot a WnW Bristol Fighter kit, and the guy starts at a fair price, not ridiculously low like some, or high like Rare Plane Detective who was starting out asking $777.00 for a Gotha G IV (of course they got no bids on it).
The next thing I know, I get a notice in my inbox, where the kit's price literally was driven up to nearly 2.5 times the starting price by a single "straw bidder"!
Just to see for myself, I checked on the bidder's history and in all of his history as an eBay member, his total bidding history was 100% on this seller's kits ONLY!
And since I wouldn't bite (I sent him a message telling I was not going to, and he responded by claiming he was not the "straw bidder"). He later that day claimed he sold the kit, and re-listed the SAME KIT later that day at the same starting price!
So I sent him a message telling I would buy it for a fair price, and he literally told me he would not sell it to me for any price.
So I reported him to eBay's service department and was told his refusal to sell at all was in violation of their policy.
The nice thing was is their associate had actual access to his rude message to me, and she duly reported it.

Hi all,
Just a quick update.
The engine and propeller are finished.The engine has push rods of 0.4 mm Nickel-Silver tube with 0.5 mm Brass tube bases.
Also 0.5 mm tube spark plugs with 0.2 mm copper wire ignition leads.
The propeller is from 'ProperPlane' and although it's a British 'Lang' type, is similar to the 'Imperial' propeller fitted to some aircraft, rather than the 'Garuda' propeller.
The 'Imperial' decals were spares from a previous model build.
The basic cockpit is also finished, but without any added detail, such as control cables, bracing wires and pipes etc.
This is because for the first time, I'm adding a pilot figure into the cockpit.
With the pilot located, just about everything in the cockpit is hidden from view, except for the top of the control column and the one instrument.
The figure I'm converting for this model is from 'Wings Cockpit Figures.
 
Mike
 

Like I noted above, I did talk on the phone to eBay's representative, and she took her time in noting everything I had to say, where I pointed out the "straw bidder's" questionable history.
As well as fraud, according to the Federal Trade Commission, it is against the law to refuse to sell anything offered to the public to anyone who has the money.

Am I pished ?
One of my doctors said no more alcoholic beverages.
My other doctor said no more caffeine; which didn't sound too bad but then I found out that chocolate is full of caffeine.
No booze, no chocolate, no coffee, no tea, no salt, cut down on sugar intake.
Only thing left for me to do is make models.
Getting old is no fun at times.

Sadly after 17 years on eBay , my observation is the only thing they care about are their fees , and occasionally fake products if they get into the mainstream media attention .
 
Bid up your own auction increase the sale price ?...increase the fees payable to eBay  ... and they will object because ? 
 
Bit like the endless Chinese sellers pretending to be in your country ....order something........... it turns up 2 months later instead of a coupla days , the only person loosing out is you, and eBay don't care about that much either .... they still got paid .
 
Get messed around by some idiot on something you are selling ....can't leave bad feedback now ...again eBay still get their fees . 
 
I sell models on eBay , as do a few on here , and luckily have only been ripped off once with a seller claiming "damaged I want a full refund" with not eveidence  ....do eBay care....will they investigate or just auto refund  .......I sure you can guess the answer . 
 
eBay lost it way for me some years ago , and the fees are getting higher and higher compared to when I started, and it's becoming a "Yangste" rival with lower standards and service.