Dave Roof Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Knowing what I know, I won't be buying a B-25. I can live without it. But I will buy whatever model you produce that has your name on it. While I don't know the full details, I am taking Martin at his word and will not be buying the kit either. Presuming Martin's side of the story is the truth, anyone that does buy the kit is simply condoning the actions of the other partner. F that! I hope they tank. The Chinese partners loss is Tamiya's gain! Hello, Mustang! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Site's gone... is that it? MaN................I hope not. That would be a real shame. So many subjects left that im sure a LOT of people would love to spend their money on. Martin, it would be a shame to waste model building talent like yours. Please keep WingScale going. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ads Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Wingscale is not gone, I just know that for sure. I think they are in rebuild mode right now and they will get over the “hiccup” and they do have new plans in the works that are being tied into a revised website for re release later. I think as soon as the plans are able to be released, they will let us all know. I hope they will come back with some strong stuff in the future - in fact i am sure they will Ads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Propwash Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Dear fellow plastic modellers, Wingscale friends, Herewith I like to update you all about the current status of Wingscale. Because I highly respect all your confidence and trust in Wingscale. You all are so supportive and enthousiastic about our oncoming releases. I enjoy every second seeing it happen. Therefore I personally feel it as appropriate to inform you as following. As company Wingscale that is more difficulty, because it gives a naked and vulnerable feeling As you lately maybe have noticed, my response on emails and the discussions in forums is “sluggish”. To a degree it maybe got annoying to some of you. Please accept my apologies for this behaviour ! For that slow response there are offcourse some reasons. Reasons I really regret and I personally do not like either. Because me as the person Martin, and as a Wingscale trademark, like to communicate on a fast, open and honest way to you all. Therefore now my decision to publish this on the forums. I must start at the beginning, a small insight how Wingscale should have been. Wingscale is a intended cooperation between me (commerce) and a chinese partner (technical). The legal establishing of Wingscale was in progress, during which time we went ahead with the projects, to avoid delay. As you all have seen at the first builds of the B-25, we did a damn good job until now ! The rest went into some difficulty though. As I have been discovered during January, they choose to take another partner onboard. Therefore placing me in a position I do not like and do not deserve to be in. Last 3 months I am fully occupied trying to continue communication and seeking a solution how we can proceed in some way. In the meantime trying to get the projects going too. As you can imagine, after 3 months this is personally driving me nuts Reality now shows it just will not succeed. It is mission impossible. And there is a time decisions have to be made. Even when they are not popular for the customers. Even when the chance is there the reputation of the brand is negative affected by it. But that is business !!! Not more, not less !! I have decided per today to end the cooperation with the chinese partner. Maybe a cooperation which was never there !!!! Meaning that the B-25, B-17 and Meteor will be released within their new chinese brand. NOT by Wingscale. All our retailers have been informed already about current situation. With regret, because they all put already so much effort in supporting the Wingscale brand. All the advertisements, trust, cooperation they did for us. So please think of that too, give them a big thumbs up !!!!! They are really great !!!! About the B-25, B-17 and Meteor, I am not participating in these unfinished projects anymore. So I can not quarantee what you will getting regarding quality. And when, how or what so ever. But you as modellers, just see it positive. The B-25 will be coming soon. Enjoy the build of it. Make great models from it. I am proud to have paid some contribution in the realisation of it. How Wingscale will continue, i will keep you posted about that later. Thank you for taking the time reading this publication. I hope I succeeded in telling you clearly about current Wingscale situation. I will keep you all posted about further progress in the nearby future. I truly hope that despite this truly “annoying” situation, Wingscale can keep having all your support and trust. Wingscale will try to repay that support and trust in the nearby future !! Best regards, Martin Oude Vrielink CEO Martin's demoralizing experience with Mainland Chinese business ethic is by no means an isolated incident. The following is kind of peripheral to the topic of this thread, but I thought I'd share anyway, since it shows that many people are getting fed up with this sort of thing. This is a brief summary of a feature I heard on NPR's Marketplace sveral days ago: Seems rampant intellectual property theft, poor quality control and failure to meet deadlines are driving a growing number of businesses in the U.S. to abandon Chinese contractors for ones on this side of the Pacific. The business world has discovered that even with the higher domestic labor and manufacturing costs in the U.S., the relative simplicity of being able to deal directly with someone who speaks the same language and is subject to familiar laws and regulations frequently offsets problems with product defect rates as high as 30 percent, shipping costs, and subcontractors who arbitarily change product specs in order to adapt the manufacturing process to their frequently substandard assembly lines and unskilled labor force. Not only that, growing automation of assembly lines promises to make their physical location irrelevant. Looks like the Chinese may be in for a lesson in one of the basic rules of capitalism: If you don't do it right, there's always someone else who will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I was very excited of the Wingscale B-25 kit coming out and ordered one to build for a friend that has a real one, I love the fact it was not from china,I will cancel this and save my money for Wing Scale in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmayhew Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I was very excited of the Wingscale B-25 kit coming out and ordered one to build for a friend that has a real one, I love the fact it was not from china,I will cancel this and save my money for Wing Scale in the future. i think you missed something - it was always "from China" in that that is where it was going to be made, even when Martin / Wingscale were part of the equation but anyway, let's not go in to the whole China thing (yet) again... so...welcome to the forums Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkmouth Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 So, no idea who this company is to avoid? Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Matt Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 No...no one with any ideas. Yet. Besides, as Martin did say quite clearly he'd prefer if people didn't boycott the kit when and if it does come out. Each person will no doubt decide in their own mind if they'll buy it. There's no doubt though its a shame how it all transpired. Cheers Matty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Herne Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Supporting our friends and colleagues in the hobby is fine, but there's a fine line between the hobby side and business side. Business is business - good, bad, or otherwise. This is why we see so many hobby shops fail in the first year or two - the owners are hobbyists and not businessmen. Since we're not privy to all the details (nor should we be), we're not in a position to pass judgement on what happened and who was involved. If Martin asks us to buy the kit from the Chinese mystery company despite what he's gone through, then he's obviously taken the moral high road and wants to see his customers (and friends) happy. I applaud him for that. Personally, I can't say that I would have done the same, but then again I'm not noted for my subtlety. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaVenom Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 It's a shame to hear what's happened with Wingscale but yes....I don't think boycotting the kits is a good idea (is anyone really going to turn down the B17 if it's good?). Hopefully Wingscale can rise from the ashes and do some other subjects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Propwash Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 No...no one with any ideas. Yet. Besides, as Martin did say quite clearly he'd prefer if people didn't boycott the kit when and if it does come out. Each person will no doubt decide in their own mind if they'll buy it. There's no doubt though its a shame how it all transpired. Cheers Matty I too am of the opinion that the best way for us to show our support for Martin is to follow his advice and purchase his kits, regardless of the shabby way he was treated. Martin admits that he was naive in his business dealings and consequently left himself open to this sort of exploitation. At any rate, product boycotts seldom have much effect beyond the satisfaction they give to the boycotters. A few hundred cancelled orders out of a production run of thousands will hardly be noticed by a big corporation. However, I am holding off on making a final decision on whether or not to purchase until I have more information on accuracy. Once the B-25s are in production, We should have a month or two to read the pre-production reviews before they reach our shores. If the kits are still up to Martin's standards, I suspect that many of those who cancelled previously will have second thoughts. I admit that my reason for not cancelling is purely selfish. Everyone has their dream kits. Ever since I took up modeling more years ago than I care to admit, mine have been a B-25 and B-17 in 1/32. And so, I'm going to hang in there and hope for the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ads Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Anyone wanting to see what could have been, and a hint of quality of martin's ideas for the future can see the build article of the test B-25 in that new magazine military illustrated modeller AIR - you can see the potential the kit had and indeed still has - i dont know where it will go from the point it was there - but you can see he will be a bigger and better player in the future - I am sure lessons learnt will make him better at what he will bring out in the future If you like the kit buy it - you will be getting 95% of his hard work in it!! Ads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 All these expectations and speculations aside, i can asure everyone that to a builder this model is just awesome, both in appearance as in quality. I had the good luck meeting Martin at the IPMS convention in Antwerp some time ago this year, and he had this finished B25 (which all of you must have seen by now on this website) on the exhibition table, plus a unassembled kit, box and contence, to just have a "feel" for it. So, he allowed the separate parts and sprues to be handled and i must say having the parts in my hands made me look forward to its release date more and more, but ofcourse then "the sh@# hit the fan" and we all could read this thread's story..... I also will buy at least one of the kits (preferably the strafer nose version, paleeeeeze) despite the dilemma at this time. just my 2P's Jack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ads Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I was lucky enough like Jack - and thats why its good that if you want it buy it - you cant go wrong really - and the more people but his kit the better it will be for him ( and yourself) in the future Ads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michel borderline Beekveld Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 It's funny, but my Bulgarian "associate" is collecting boxes of Glaser safety slugs, mumbling something about a Chinese Take-Away he's waiting for? Didn't even realize he liked Chinese... MBB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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