Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Chris: any update?

Well,,, I was getting really close to finishing when I took on a 'little' side project (an exciting subject that I'll eventually be able to announce). Unfortunately this other project took up all of my time, and then some.

The good news: The F-14 intake project is back on the bench and coming along quickly!

Pylons are getting close:

Pylon_1_zps3b030d00.jpg

More pictures soon!

Chris....No......no....noooooooooo.........Su-30MKK correction........waaaaaaaaaaah.....LOL.........guess I'll have to wait another 4+ years....:-/

Soooo sorry...

Canopy problems have been plaguing me for a long time but the latest plastic was giving me a 100% reject rate. I had no choice but to stop making them and look for another source. This really hurt because the A-7 and Su-27 canopies were still some of my most popular products and there are so many more subjects that could use better canopies.

I am currently investigating having an overseas vendor make them for me. If all goes well I hope to get back to doing more canopies including finishing the two-seat Flankers.

:cheers:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh maaaaan

I think it will be a Tomcat to go on my Pitz Model Carrier deck section (once I build it :rolleyes:/> )

Great job

Jozef

I would love to do the same, but the Pitzmodels sets have not been available for a while... They do look beautiful. Don't have a spare do you?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Great job Chris.

I have always dreamed of a F-14 with wings wide open all ... any chance you makes them in the future? (fallback mechanisms of flaps on the Trumpy wings are very simplified)

I remember that Teknics had them in catalog many time ago, but they were never completed :bandhead2:

maybe some F-14 fans would love to mount it with the wings at the minimum arrow.

I will continue to stay tuned for the air intakes, however.

best regards

Luca

Edited by Alpagueur
Link to post
Share on other sites
Great job Chris.

I have always dreamed of a F-14 with wings wide open all ... any chance you makes them in the future?

Thanks Luca (and the rest of you !) :cheers:

I can't say for sure what I'll be doing. It's looking like my schedule might just be pretty full for the foreseeable future.

Pylons are finished. Just a few little details left and I'll be pouring production molds.

Pylon_2_zpsde12f704.jpg

:cheers:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello Chris,

yes! It's coming very close w00t.gif

Have you got any idea of how many people you're gonna make happy when these intakes?

Count me in, that's for sure!!!!

have a great weekend

Proost 271.gif

Jeroen

Link to post
Share on other sites
:whistle: hey chris , judging by the great interest in these , are you going to have enough sets to go around .not sure how many you make at a time , just hoping i get a couple
Link to post
Share on other sites

All I need is one... With that said Chris maybe a list of guys who will commit to these would better give you and idea on how many to produce?. I understand the whole not wanting to take preorders thing but once your ready for production what can it hurt to get at least an accounting of who's in for these bad boys.

Jim

Link to post
Share on other sites

I would love to do the same, but the Pitzmodels sets have not been available for a while... They do look beautiful. Don't have a spare do you?

I am sorry, I have only one. I was happy to get it, it was one of my dreams. For sure the price and size of the set would prevent me to get another one even if I had thought of it.

Chris, I can wait for the set, but I WANT one.

Best

Jozef

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
judging by the great interest in these , are you going to have enough sets to go around .not sure how many you make at a time , just hoping i get a couple

I will probably be backed up with orders initially, but I'll keep making them as fast as I can until I'm caught up.

maybe a list of guys who will commit to these would better give you and idea on how many to produce?.
preordering should be a great idea

No lists, no pre-orders.

I tried the list thing in the past and it was a huge headache. So many who signed up either ended up not replying, not ordering or ordering weeks after the notifications were sent which in some cases meant finished parts sitting here while others waited.

As for pre-orders, I like to send out my product as soon as I receive an order. That's not always possible if everybody orders at once and/or I don't have enough parts ready, but until I know that production is rolling and I can start to deliver, I don't want money for something isn't ready.

The aftermarket business can be very unpredictable.

Because I cast, package and ship all my own parts, if I suddenly receive lots of orders I don’t have time to work on patterns for new products.

*Then there's the unexpected disaster* that can de-rail everything as when I broke the first intake pattern.

There's also the fact that these things all tend to take longer to complete than expected. Being a perfectionist doesn't help.

Because of the unknowns I not even give guesstimated release dates anymore. If I don’t know when I’ll release something I certainly don’t want to accept pre-orders for it.

Like ammunition sales you could limit to one set per person initially.....
I've limited sales to one each in the past but this didn't really work out great.

Some people who 'planned' to buy several only ordered that first set so I probably lost some sales by limiting it to one initially.

Then there were some that cheated. I can't imagine three different people in the same apartment complex were ordering for themselves. :P

* The latest unexpected disaster!

While opening the first production intake mold my pattern shattered :bandhead2:

Because of this, the final product will not be seamless intakes. :crying2:

I am almost finished back-tracking and hope to pour production molds of the intakes soon. (chopping up the good unbroken seamless intake was a traumatic experience!)

Meanwhile,,,

Here are a few parts I hadn't shared yet (please forgive the horrible pics! Zactowoman has my tripod.)

Internal supports:

Intake_35_zps965b3e4c.jpg

After cutting away parts of the lower fuselage to accommodate the new intakes things become wobbly. These supports help fix that and also make it easier to attach the nose section:

Intake_36_zps412e9c22.jpg

Vacuumformed shipping tray is done. First round of production parts came out nice:

Intake_37_zps1577932c.jpg

New boxes are here waiting to be filled:

Intake_38_zps0eb699a9.jpg

Now all I need are intakes to put in them (and instruction sheets).

:cheers:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Getting very excited. Call me behind the times, but I have only recently received all the parts to begin the Trumpeter Flanker with all Zacto parts.

Knowing the standard of parts that will be produced makes it all the more exciting.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...