KenLawrence

Greetings Everyone, First, This kit is from a new set of masters. Second, our FW-190A-1/2/3 and metal winged Hurricane MK.I which followed the 152H were both well received by the modeling community as pretty accurate, so one could expect that this kit will be also. I would like to say again that we had the masters vetted twice by a Luftwaffe expert, so we expect that most everything is accurate. This is not to say that it will be perfect, but we expect it to be as good or better than our FW-190A and Hurricane kits. The box artist did not have a kit to work from, so what you have seen is his first draft of the boxart. He is going to attempt to put some deheidral (sp?) in the wings today, but in any case, the boxart is only a representation of the aircraft, not the kit. Last, I don't know if Sword bought one of Jerry C's kits to use as a reference, but if so, I have no problem with that. It is possible that Tamiya bought our Spitfire kits to check them and I have no problem with that either. I do know that Sword took a long time to make these masters, they sent me photos of them and twice sent them to our Luftwaffe consultant for checking. Corrections and additions were made twice, in some cases three times. So it is our kit. We hope that it meets everyone's (well almost everyone's) expectations. Thanks and Best Regards, Ken Lawrence Pacific Coast Models, Inc.

Greetings to all! Some comments for this thread. First, sales of our less than perfect Ta-152H-1 have been very good with about 95% sold. It does build up into a good looking model. Our Hurricanes and FW-190A combo kit are better kits than the 152. Second, everyone knows that the model business is not so good these days right along with the economy. This is why we announced that we have another kit in the works, so that modelers don't think that we had stopped making kits. The wing sprue will be made starting this week, so we are hoping to have the kits by the end of November/early December. As soon as the box art is ready, we will announce this kit. We already made another Luftwaffe kit (FW-190A-1/2/3) after the Ta-152H, so we are not afraid to make more Luftwaffe subjects. We are always striving to improve our kits. Many of you have sent us suggestions, all of which we keep in a New Projects file and review periodically. I also monitor various web-sites to see what modelers are asking for. Please keep those suggestions coming, some of them will get made! Thanks for your interest and support. Best Regards, Ken Lawrence Pacific Coast Models, Inc.

They are here and being shipped. Cheers, Ken PCM, Inc.

Hi Manny, You've so many issues and I have so little time, but let me begin. First, I supply a kit to Tom Cleaver for the simple reason that I know he will build it promptly and get it up on ModelingMadness quickly. He says what he wants to about the kit. I have only corrected him once and that was on the painting references for the 190 which was vetted by Jerry Crandall. He also vetted the decals. Second, I don't pay much attention to people who complain about any kit from any maker when that person hasn't actually bought the kit and built it. The people who count with me are the actual builders. We listen to them. Third, no kit is perfect, but we and Sword work hard to improve each new kit we produce. Look at the good reception for our Hurricane MK.I fabric wing. The two most difficult kits I built gave me the most satisfaction. We all like a shake and bake from time to time, but I don't ***** about having to make things fit or adding some small scratch built parts to a model. That's just modeling. Last, looking at some photos and calling our kit a "turd" would be like me seeing a photo of you and reading your posting, then calling you a "turd". Pretty shallow in both directions. Last, we and our customers think that our kits are priced reasonably. They include a nice PE set from Eduard, decals for 6-11 aircraft (depending on the kit) printed by Cartograf, color painting/marking instructions by Richard Caruana and many resin detail pieces. $70 is a good value for our kits. If you think differntly, I suggest you try making a kit like ours and see where your costs end up. As I don't wish to get into a pissing contest with you, this will be my only posting on this subject. Thanks to all of you who support us and we hope that you continue to enjoy building our kits. Best Regards, Ken Lawrence Pacific Coast Models, Inc.

Hi Manny, <<The kit remains one of the biggest turds I've seen to date and I'll sure stay the hell away from it but can't wait to see your build coming to an end!>> For a different opinion on our kit, check this out. http://www.modelingmadness.com/reviews/axi.../g/tmc190a1.htm Best Regards, Ken Lawrence Pacific Coast Models, Inc.

<<whilst i really want companies like PCM to do well, in my view they really have not helped themselves in so many ways...without even mentioning 152-gate:>> Hey, thanks for not mentioning it. There isn't much of that horse left for you to beat. <<- website: come on guys pay someone $500 and get it sorted properly so we can actually see better pics of product and especially decals; give us more info on the pilots, location etc.>> Web-site is a canned product. Altering it would cost thousands. Sprues, boxes, decals all get posted on multiple web-sites for all to see large. <<- decal options: try to get them right please (Spitfire kits have errors on well known aircraft).>> We do try hard to get them right. Hired an expert to check the FW-190 decals. <<- decal options: help yourselves here by giving people "populist" choices - why oh why not lots of Battle of France options for fab winged Hurri?>> We picked options to appeal to people around the world. We know that there will be decal companies which will offer other options. <<- stop trying to make us feel bad for not buying your fab wing hurri!! that is certainly the tone with which i read their text.>> Tone? What tone is there in text? Only what the reader puts into it. It is simply an explanation of how we are going to release the metal wing version so that people know the facts. <<- assuming it's not a marketing ploy, why on earth would you make the BoB hurri a limited edition? more i think about this, the more i don't believe it!>> So now you say I am a liar? Maybe we can meet someday and you can try to say it to my face, eh? <<now as to the pre-order, what do you do if in the UK??>> We will be announcing a new distributor in the next few days. They will be supplying our kits to hobby shops. For those of you who have pre-ordered already from us, we will supply you or you can cancel your order and order from your local hobby shop if you wish to support them. <<ps one more thing: stop charging people in UK $20 more for same damn kit! and don't give me any of that "it's the distributor..." lark - they choose the them for God's sake!!!>> Prices in other countries are not set by us. Regards, Ken Lawrence Pacific Coast Models, Inc.

<<OK, I may be wrong, but I am definitely confused... Who is surprised that the "ragwing" Hurricane performed badly? >> I was, as so many people encouraged us to make it. <<In my opinion, releasing the "bread and butter" metal wing kit as a "limited run"/"pre-order only" release is an even poorer decision.>> We have limited funds and cannot afford losses or break-even kits for long. As I stated in our announcement, the metal wing Hurricane MK.I will be a limited production kit. We will make only a few more than the pre-orders received as we cannot afford to have hundreds of kits left over sitting on the shelves. Then if we receive enough orders to do another production run, we will. I say this in all seriousness; if anyone thinks that in this economy that we should make hundreds more kits than what are ordered, investors are welcome. In our automotive spare parts business, we have found that companies we buy from who import parts are no longer even stocking parts we buy on a regular basis. They are waiting for customers to order and then ordering the exact amount ordered by the customers! This economy is going to be lucky to not go in the tank! As far as multiple boxings of the same kit goes, small unit runs of boxes, decals and color painting instructions are extremely expensive. Also freight costs are much higher. We will "Fix the seat!". Thanks for the support of all of you who have bought our kits and modeling items over the years. Best Regards, Ken PCM, Inc.

It has been brought to our attention that some of the armored windscreens for our new Hurricane kit have a dimple or indentation in them just under the top of the frame. We have checked our remaining clear sprues and all of them have this dimple. If you are building one of the aircraft with an un-armored windscreen (Finnish, Belgian and one British), this does not apply to you. If you are building the Italian or one of the two British aircraft with the armored windscreen, please be aware of this. You may be able to fill in this dimple with clear canopy glue or some other material and then finish it to your satisfaction. If you are working under time pressure for a contest or customer, you may also be able to trace and cut the armored section from clear plastic and glue it to the un-armored windscreen. We have discussed this matter with Sword. They think that if they use the same mold to make replacements, the same problem can happen again. They are proposing to make a new armored windscreen as part of the clear sprue for our next kit which they are working on now. We have asked them when they think the replacement windscreens can be ready for shipment and are awaiting their answer. As soon as they tell us, we will inform everyone. We will meet with them Saturday at the Toy Fair in Germany and hope to get more information then. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause any of you. Thanks and Best Regards, Ken Lawrence Pacific Coast Models, Inc.

<<...than the PCM kit and it's only $34 dollars more. To say it's not worth the extra $34 over the PCM kit is kinda just sillyness.>> Both of our Spitfire kits retail for $59.95. The lowest price I have seen so far for the Tamiya kit is $112 with many retailers selling it for more. So at best, the price difference is $52. Their kit is a great kit and has brought more attention to our kits. We have sold out of the C version, but bought 50 back from one of our distributors which will be in next month. The E version is getting low so we are ok with all of this. Best Regards, Ken PCM, Inc.

Here is the latest info on our new Hurricane. The airfreight forwarder is supposed to pick up the plastic, resin and assembly instructions tomorrow. Depending on the freight volume and Customs, we may get them next Wednesday. Eduard is supposed to finish the PE tomorrow. It will probably arrive the week after next. All of the other items are already in our warehouse. So hopefully we may be able to begin shipping the week of Dec 28th. Thanks and Best Regards, Ken PCM, Inc.

Greetings, I checked both kits today after receiving a call from a customer alerting me to this problem. The plug is correct for the Fiat G.55, but not for the Ta-152H-1. It would most likely be correct for the Ta-152C. I have sent an e-mail to Sword about this and am awaiting their reply. We will post another message as soon as we hear from them. Best Regards, Ken Lawrence Pacific Coast Models, Inc.