Scotsman Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I've just spotted an announcement over on Britmodeller , related to an F-4 FRG-2 conversion set currently in development in Canada, the company, Wintervalley, is new to me , but their decals look intresting, here's a link to the home page here Let the rejoicing begin... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomPhreakII Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Uh oh...... Harald Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Uh oh...... Harald I would think that Derek would be more interested !...........Harv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Colvin Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) Cool.....When I saw the Voodoo I was dreaming they would list that as a future kit. Edited February 24, 2012 by Rob Colvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony T Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I've just spotted an announcement over on Britmodeller , related to an F-4 FRG-2 conversion set currently in development in Canada, the company, Wintervalley, is new to me , but their decals look intresting, here's a link to the home page here Let the rejoicing begin... David Winter has obviously got hold of the ball. Maybe an FGR.2 / F-4M at under $500US, the pre e-bay asking price for David Klaus' incredible creation, but who knows? How much would one pay for this? Personally, given an F-4J donor kit is required, not more than... ... who knows? tony t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Well, as far as I am concerned, it does not alter my plans at all. I am aware of Dave Winter's conversion, as he had contacted me about it. I was under the impression that his master patterns were further along than I now believe them to be. For that reason, I suggested that he continue with his conversion, as mine would not be ready for some time. He belives that there is not enough room in the market place for two conversion sets for the same subject, and he may have a good point, however, I think there is! I am not going to rush my conversion set as I itend to make sure that it is as accurate as I can get it (additionally, some of the items I shall be producing for the conversion will also be sold separately as AM upgrades for other Phantom aircraft), and I expect that mine will be somewhat more comprehensive than Dave's - so I see it as two conversion sets at differing ends of the detail range (these things will always be a compromise between detail and cost, but it should still come out at a reasonable price for what you get). So, I wish Dave luck with his product - and I am certain that he will sell them - but this is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and do well, so everything is still go for me! Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Well, as far as I am concerned, it does not alter my plans at all. I am aware of Dave Winter's conversion, as he had contacted me about it. I was under the impression that his master patterns were further along than I now believe them to be. For that reason, I suggested that he continue with his conversion, as mine would not be ready for some time. He belives that there is not enough room in the market place for two conversion sets for the same subject, and he may have a good point, however, I think there is! I am not going to rush my conversion set as I itend to make sure that it is as accurate as I can get it (additionally, some of the items I shall be producing for the conversion will also be sold separately as AM upgrades for other Phantom aircraft), and I expect that mine will be somewhat more comprehensive than Dave's - so I see it as two conversion sets at differing ends of the detail range (these things will always be a compromise between detail and cost, but it should still come out at a reasonable price for what you get). So, I wish Dave luck with his product - and I am certain that he will sell them - but this is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and do well, so everything is still go for me! Derek Stay the course Derek..I know you have the skills to turn out the finest conversions, plus the multitude of variances you can do for us as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I just checked out his site. He states that he won't be including a pit. He also says there are seats for the FRG-2 already on the market. Who makes those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Well, perhaps David himself can offer a few comments, since he's just joined up... Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidWinter Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) Hi Everyone. I'm David Winter, chief cook and bottle washer at Wintervalley. Matt, one of the moderators of LSP, pinged me this morning and let me know this discussion was happening. I wanted to chime in earlier but was waiting for my account to be validated before I could post. I'd like to thank Scottsman for the original thread and hoped to nip in the bud some potential misinformation. First, as this is my first post here, I should start with a bit about me I guess. I've been model building for something over 30 years. I have models of various ilk in numerous museums across Canada include a large 1:100 scratch built destroyer in the Canadian Naval Museum in Halifax, and several large scale aircraft models in the RCAF museum at CFB Trenton. I have been commissioned for builds by various legions across the country. I've also won (or placed well in) a few competitions over the years. My scale preference is 1:32 although I do other scales if there are no other practical options. So I'm no stranger to model building or its advanced techniques so there's no fear of me being someone that's just walked in off the street and announced a project that would be well beyond their skill set. I understand that many people in the modelling world have never heard of Wintervalley. It's a company I started in 1994 and had nothing to do with models or model building. I'm in the gaming industry by trade and Wintervalley was my own gaming company (as you can probably tell if you go to my site). In the summer of 2010 I decided to make significant personal changes and one of those was to repurpose Wintervalley away from my games and towards model products. I started with decal sets with my first set released in November. Yes the vast majority of my product line is Canadian content, but there are other subjects I want to explore. The FGR.2 being one of them. So, in regards to the FGR.2 set. This particular F-4 variant has always held an interest for me. I started this project quite some time ago and it would actually be much further along if it had not been for a relocation to another part of Canada interrupting things. The majority of time spent on the project had nothing to do with building masters, rather it had to do with reaching out to experts and collecting reference materials. As part of my ongoing hunt for any research data I could find, I found Derek's posts on this forum. As I'd already started my project, and based on what I'd read. he seemed to be in the very early stages. As Derek mentioned, it's my opinion that there's no market for two of these kits, and so I asked how far along he was. If he was ready to go to production I offered to simply drop my own project. The masters for my set are actually quite a bit along. Many are mold ready, others, not so much. It's a work in progress. I hope to make an inexpensive set but to be clear this is not some thrown together hunk of plastic of which resin copies are made. The goal, as always with me, is extreme accuracy. I'm very OCD about quality and accuracy of my work. I have thrown away whole runs of decal sets at my expense because I've found minor errors on them. But I still have to walk that line of affordability. I'm aware that the kit that came out previously was extremely comprehensive but was being sold for many hundreds of dollars. To me I find this crazy and have no interest in offering a product that is 4 times more expensive than the base kit. Which means some items like seats are not planned, but if there's a huge demand and enough people are willing to pay the extra costs, I may take another look at them. The same with PE parts. I'm pretty sure that the previous conversion set didn't include a full cockpit. While I'm here I might as well talk about my decal sets. I currently have; CF-104 NMF circa 1963. This set includes Canadian specific maintenance and warnings marks that were derived from the actual DND drawings of the time (I still have access to many of these drawings). The package comes in three core scales. CF-188 Symmetrical Era Markings. This set is currently available in 1:32 with 1:48 and 72 at the printers. They should be available in a few weeks' time. The markings are all encompassing and include all appropriate maintenance and warning marks, slim lights, Gulf War markings, and appropriate squadron crests in various tones of grey (these changed throughout the time period). I'm also in the late stages of the core graphic work for a comprehensive package of CF-101 retirement schemes. This package includes the 414 EWF Black Bird, 409's Hawk One Canada, 416's Lynx Squadron, and 425s Sonic Chicken (a set that's never been released as a decal before). The set allows you to build 4 complete aircraft complete with all appropriate warning marks appropriate to the specific aircraft. All my decals are printed by Microscale and so are the highest quality silk screened decals, each with its own carrier film. So I hope that clears up who I am, what I'm doing, how long I've been doing it, and what I hope to accomplish. Feel free to ask any questions you may have either here or via email. Thanks again David Winter [edit] - minor typo's and formatting. Edited February 24, 2012 by DavidWinter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Cheers for the intro David, a very warm as a Brit I'm looking forward to the conversion with much interest, best of luck! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Welcome to LSP David. Glad you came on board. As you can see there are a lot of guys here that love those big ugly airplane thingies. I think you will find a lot of people here, more than happy to help out any way they can. Cheers, Harold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidWinter Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Hi there. It seems that my posts get checked by an admin before being posted so I apologize if sometimes these come in late, but I wanted to thank you for the welcome and for expressing an interest in my various projects and products. Please feel free to ask whatever questions you have. thanks David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 David, Welcome to LSP - It is nice of you to put yourself forward and explain things from your perspective - our backgrounds are not dissimilar in terms of experience (although mine has always been aviation based - first in the RAF, and now in the military aviation industry - and yes, I have worked on Phantoms as well as several other British fast jets in my time). I am sure that both of our conversions will complement each other to a large degree - mine will be very much FG.1 and FGR.2 specific (with other 'common' parts applicable to other Phantom variants and designed for future expansion). Obviously, there are only a finite number of ways that you can convert a kit such as the Phantom, so our approach will be similar to some extent (and for this, read seamless intakes), but the way we approach the modification of the back end may differ somewhat. I do not doubt that you produce a high quality conversion that will sell well. Good luck Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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