HPH has closed up?

[Zola25]

14 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

Am I remembering correctly that HpH announced an F-106?

 

I've built (ok not true......I mostly built) several HpH kits and while they can be very difficult to build, they had subjects that no one else would even touch.

 

 

 

You are correct - they announced it together with the SR-71 last year.

 

 

I was really convincing myself that it was ok to spend money on Airscale´s new Boulton Paul Defiant after all - but now I am thinking I will have to buy one of my dream kits instead - The HpH PBY Catalina

 

/Niels

Edited Tuesday at 12:52 PM by Zola25

[blackbetty]

latetest news from mirek via heinz ( noon today):

„Hi, we are fixing some details about future. I hope I will have some time to support HpH and we will continue.“

[ghatherly]

Very sad to hear, but not surprising.    Many of the old stand by companies that did low production work require tremendous amounts of time to prepare a product for market.   In addition the market is holding steady or shrinking as the population of "Historical" modelers age out, and the new modelers are in the Gundam / Fantasy model space and 1/48 scale gets more and more detailed.  Plus as the modelers who started these companies get older, health issues related to age, just do not allow the modelers behind the companies to continue, and there is no value in the old school companies.    

 

Experienced this myself the last few years, with having my right leg amputated above the knee, as infection of the metal prosthetics finally had to be addressed.   I scaled back for a few years, and just now 4 years after the amputation have the energy to look at making long planned for new sets and revising old sets.   The goal is  to be more cost effective for modelers,  as incomes for the aging customer base is not keeping up with growing costs of the basics of life, along with our hobby.   I may be wrong, but what we have now for the 1/32 scale, for larger kits and jets in particular, may be what we have to build from looking forward for our segment of the hobby.

 

I wish the HPH crew the very best, love what they did, and will miss them.

 

Have a great day all!

 

Gary

[Paul2660]

For me, this is Sad news for sure.  HpH kits are by far the most difficult kits I have ever attempted, partly due to my mistakes, and partly due to the sometimes vague instructions.  However they stand at the top of my list of the independent companies.  Their quality of resin is the best, it doesn't shrink over time, and has no typical resin smell.  

But for me the one area that I will miss is the Customer Service.  They are 100% the best.  If you need a part, all you needed to due was email them, and within a few weeks, you had an estimate and the parts were shipped.  On their Me-410, which I am slowly working to finish I have needed spares 3 times, 2x due to mistakes or I just did not like the way it came out and 1x due to a missing part.  I just completed my last parts request from them today and they did confirm that for now they are no longer going to be selling over the web.  

Hope that this doesn't become permanent, and that they or someone else will continue to produce the products.  I realize that 3D printing seems to be taking the markets over by storm, however there is still big place in the market for the products that they produced. 

One note to others, when you open a HpH kit, stop and make sure all the parts are there.  It can take a bit of time but the first thing you need to do is inventory.  

I guess it may not matter as I am not sure if they will continue the support structure they had in place.  The website is now down 303 error and the email listed is not a valid one. 

 

I do hope this will situation will change in the future. 

 

Paul 

[scvrobeson]

Sad to see them go, I've always enjoyed their kit selection. I'm sure it's tough being such a small operation, especially with the size of some of the projects they took on.

 

Now to hopefully find some shops with Z-37s and Letov S-328s in stock.

 

 

 

Matt 

[JMcD]

So sad to read all this! It is always hard to hear the demise of a brand and even harder if it's about a special company with special products. I'm glad I've had the opportunity to build some of their kits and still have another few in stash. Now I'm not sure if I'll ever choose to build them, for owning those kits that way is maybe a better reminder of the brand for me.

[Rick Griewski]

I raise my glass to all at HPH!  Thanks so much for models you made for us!

[Steve Eagle]

Thank you HPH. I built the La-7 and the Me-410 over the years and really appreciated your efforts. 

[blackbetty]

not all hope is lost…. read my post above

[Kagemusha]

14 minutes ago, blackbetty said:

not all hope is lost…. read my post above

 

Indeed!

[thierry laurent]

This was just what I needed to order a Kate! I was postponing the purchase for months and this was the right incentive! 😏

[Anthony in NZ]

1 hour ago, blackbetty said:

not all hope is lost…. read my post above

Yes indeed!  I have 3 of their kits (PBY, C-47 and Walrus) and was REALLY looking forward to the PV-1 in future release....here's hoping still

 

Cheers Anthony

[florin13]

My humble contribution! The modeling world will be poorer without them!

 

 

 

 

And in very slow progress!

 

[petrov27]

yeah really hope we dont lose them - have done subjects no one else has touched in 1/32

 

my build of one of their kits

[Sabrejet]

It sounds like there is hope: but it's also a wake-up to us all that you shouldn't procrastinate about buying these lovely kits.