Jump to content

Recommended Posts

5 minutes ago, Sio said:

Still waiting for distibutors' confirmation. Will try to post it on Monday.

 

Haha. F100d?

just remember that it's been a solid forty years since anybody did a good one in 1/48th. Still sells fairly well as it's the best. Now if you want a license to print money then look no further. Same with the F111, and a couple others. Myself, I want a new F100 and a very early Tomcat in Wolfpack markings.

gary

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Sio said:

 

Haha. Yes! We care about packing very much.

 

We changed the packing design of our 1/72 Kfir missiles. You will see. But it lasted us half a year to change it. This is why Martin said, we don't want this situation happen again.

speaking of missiles and weapons; I suggested to Marten that you folks market them in a separate package. Any thoughts?

gary

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello from Bavaria...

 

I do not have a local hobby shop near me...the next one is over 50km away. I am not sure if he does pre-orders? BUT I am willing to pre-order a F-14!!! So why do you not follow the distribution model, a successful one btw, like wingnut wings has it? Direct order from the producer to the customer!

Ok, back to the pre-oder...how much...and where do I send the cash to?

 

Another comment to AMK so far...the kit I have seen to date, namely the MIG-31, is out of this world, meaning really super good! What I do not understand though is...as a start up with a great concept but finacial constrains, why did you pick such a niche product like a MIG-31, one of the most ugly birds around! It will only attract the hard core Russian fan...and sales numbers will be overseeable to put it polite. The F-14D, had it been released instead of the MIG-31, would have rolled up the market by now and maybe even held back Tamiya from doing theirs...! The F-14 market would have been yours alone...the earnings astronomical (how many Tamiya F-14s were sold since November last year? I bet a good mid range 5 digit number....) and you would not have to kneel in front of your factory for a production slot since cash rules as we all know! Now...you have a super nice (technically) product that sells ok...but not in high numbers, smaller earnings and not the power to successfully carry on what you have started. I so much hope you will re-cover and be able to carry on the way you started since your kits are excellent. I am still not going to buy a MIG31 though...can't bring it over me.

All I can do, and I am willing to do so, is to pre-order a F-14D...if you tell me where and how!

 

thanks

Uwe

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Sio said:

 

Yes!

Question 1. Preordering will be closed by the end of May or early of June.

Question 2. Both options will be ending at the same time, end of May or early of June. Haha. So get prrepared of it. As we need 5-6 months for production to guarantee our quality, if this taking too long, we cannot catch up to release it by Christmas. If so, it is meaningless to run at full speed. Even we cannot achieve the goal, just leave it, we will make it with the same way.

 

Yes! Sincere is taking preorders now, but I think, plus shipping, should be higher than local distributor price, right?

 

Alright, thanks. Again, i have to say i feel that timeline is a bit too compressed, especially for option 2. Assuming a full month;

 

5000 : 24 x 30 = ~7

 

This means that every hour, every day, there has to be 7 preorders constantly non stop for a month. I certainly hope it is achievable and that it will happen. But anyway, this kit clearly will happen regardless whether the 5000 actually happens or not within that short timeframe.

Link to post
Share on other sites
9 minutes ago, anj4de said:

What I do not understand though is...as a start up with a great concept but finacial constrains, why did you pick such a niche product like a MIG-31, one of the most ugly birds around! It will only attract the hard core Russian fan...and sales numbers will be overseeable to put it polite.

 

thanks

Uwe

 

And you know this for a fact? Because this sounds a lot like assumptions to me. From what i have seen, the MiG-31 kit has done extremely well despite it being limited in markings and users. Sometimes "niche" products can do insanely well. As to MiG-31 being ugly, eye of the beholder. :) Is it beautiful in the same way a Su-27 is? Nope. But i certainly this it has a lot of presence and isnt flat out ugly as you describe. But as said, that is just eye of the beholder.

Edited by Berkut
Link to post
Share on other sites
8 minutes ago, Berkut said:

 

And you know this for a fact? Because this sounds a lot like assumptions to me. From what i have seen, the MiG-31 kit has done extremely well despite it being limited in markings and users. Sometimes "niche" products can do insanely well. As to MiG-31 being ugly, eye of the beholder. :) Is it beautiful in the same way a Su-27 is? Nope. But i certainly this it has a lot of presence and isnt flat out ugly as you describe. But as said, that is just eye of the beholder.

Of course one can not really discuss taste...but the statement that an F-14 globally will sell A LOT better then a MIG-31 has nothing to do with taste...it's a simple fact. There are "mainstream" subjects that are auto sellers, the F-14 is one of them. Others are Mustangs, BF-109s, Spitfires, Dakotas, B-17s, etc...I would even go so far to say a MIG-25, even though far from beautiful, would sell high numbers!

 

thanks

Uwe

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Space Tiger Hobbes said:

What does shipping run for "Sincere Hobbies"? Because $44.71 at the current exchange rate has my full and immediate attention.

Currently 5-17 day shipping on a Mig-31 from Sincere is $18.64 to NY. So the F-14 should be somewhere around that. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Space Tiger Hobbes said:

What does shipping run for "Sincere Hobbies"? Because $44.71 at the current exchange rate has my full and immediate attention.

The shipping for my three kits (5-17 days) was $70. The total for three kits inclusive of shipping was $204 or $68 each. Way less than the recently released Tomcat from "you know who."

 

Rick

Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, Sio said:

<...>

Our own factory is our advantage but also our disadvantage. Advantage is, we can guarantee our quality. Disadvantage is, we are too slow to leave some chances for competitor to release the same kit before we release it. Haha. Hopefully, there is no other manufacturer produce a crap before we release this Tomcat (SuE hinted).

 

Just an idea, but if you want to recoup a bit of that SuE investment (research, CAD drawings and all that), there IS a market for an accurate, well-detailed and nice to build 1/72 Super Etendard! :coolio:

 

Looking forward to your Kfir. Got seven of those on pre-order. Going by the recent pics, I'm sure it will have been worth the wait. :worship:

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 2017-5-6 at 6:40 PM, Sio said:

 

OK! Story time..............

 

First question, actually, we never announced a release date of this project. The story was, about one year ago in 2016, Martin asked me when we are going to release it. I answered, we will try to release it in December, and he replied someone "Maybe in December". Haha. Then, everybody was thinking the release date is december 2016.

 

As MoFo said, we are originally a molding company, making molds and plastic injection. This is our main business. A few years ago, an ex-partner started AMK with us, but left AMK after the first kit.

 

Thanks to our molding knowledge and this Chief Designer (Haha. The one replying you.), we have the quality of AMK kits.

 

Since our own factory has customers, and their orders should have the priority to be produced in the factory. What we did before, is to use the spare time in the factory to produce kits. That is why we were slow.

 

"Unfortunately", our factory was quite full the last whole year, and it seems customers' orders are still coming in. We don't see any available time of the factory to start production in the coming future. And, we want to release it before december, that is why we are trying this way. To guarantee our quality, we need 5-6 months to finish our production. That is why we set the deadline for preordering by the end of May.

 

With this preorder funding, we may probably increase our production capacity or outsource some machining works to guarantee the release date. If you guys want to support us, we will be happy and we would like to have a 20% discount to you. If you think it is risky, you can wait until we release it with normal price which already set to be the same as MIG-31. Different market may have different prices, with comparison to MIG-31 price, you can know what should be the preordering price. Exceptional is US market, we suggest USD 55.20 for some other consideration.

 

Actually, sales of 5000 pcs is more or less our production cost. This is why the goal set. And, this can keep production non-stop, and therefore, a guaranteed release date. If we don't achieve this goal, then we won't take the risk that production may stop at some certain point causing delay of delivery. But we will still produce it, with same old slower way. This is why we may have a conclusion by the end of May. But from all the responses around the world these days, we are quite confident we can achieve this goal.

 

Is this making sense to you now? Haha. If no, just ask me any question!

 

Our own factory is our advantage but also our disadvantage. Advantage is, we can guarantee our quality. Disadvantage is, we are too slow to leave some chances for competitor to release the same kit before we release it. Haha. Hopefully, there is no other manufacturer produce a crap before we release this Tomcat (SuE hinted).

 

Sio, you are as slow at producing as I am at designing! I'm still working away on that big black one...

 

So when can I preorder that MiG-25 and the SuE? :rofl:

Actually not really a Tomcat fan, but I might still bite.

 

Jeffrey

Link to post
Share on other sites

So If I understand correctly the US Pre-order is $55.20 If this is indeed the case I will buy no less than 4. That said I guess you are now 4996 away from securing 5000 pre orders.

Now all I need is the USA retailer to put in my order.

Link to post
Share on other sites
17 minutes ago, Skull Leader said:

Called it.

Is this all you are able to add to the discussion or do you have something more of essence than "Called it."?

Edited by Berkut
Link to post
Share on other sites
38 minutes ago, Berkut said:

Is this all you are able to add to the discussion or do you have something more of essence than "Called it."?

Wherein "essence" is concerned, "called it" conveys a great deal. Jog on.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I understand completely that things happen. However in September of 2016 the official FB page for AMK stated in a comment that "the plan was to release before Christmas".

 

Please don't try and hide in semantics or "well that's not the same as saying a release date".

 

It is okay to admit there were unavoidable and unexpected delays.

Link to post
Share on other sites
6 minutes ago, Jonathan_Lotton said:

I understand completely that things happen. However in September of 2016 the official FB page for AMK stated in a comment that "the plan was to release before Christmas".

 

Please don't try and hide in semantics or "well that's not the same as saying a release date".

 

It is okay to admit there were unavoidable and unexpected delays.

Now you're just expecting too much!

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 5/6/2017 at 11:40 AM, Sio said:

First question, actually, we never announced a release date of this project. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/posts/531672166997615

 

Quote

**Announcement** Kit release schedule for 2016 - Part 1

With some recent rumour and speculation on various forums we are pleased to announce our kit release for 2016. One thing before I post the kits. We also have three other kits in research that have not yet made the list. These may slot in-between the kits below or at the end. As soon as the schedule is set in stone then we will make another announcement.

1/48 F-14 Tomcat Family (A, B and D)
1/48 Dassault Super Etendard
1/48 G-91 Gina
1/48 L-39 Albatros
1/48 MiG-25 Foxbat

Remember: Detail, engineering and Accuracy are of paramount importance to us. If we think a kit can be improved then it won't be let out of the door and we will drop down the release schedule until such a point that we are happy with it.

This is just PART 1!

 

I can't imagine why anyone would think that AMK planned to release an F-14 (and seven other kits) in 2016.  :rolleyes:

Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

Wherein "essence" is concerned, "called it" conveys a great deal. Jog on.

 

So, you decided to write and tell everyone that you were right about something at some point in time. Got it. Extremely interesting contribution.

 

7 hours ago, MoFo said:

 

https://www.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/posts/531672166997615

 

 

I can't imagine why anyone would think that AMK planned to release an F-14 (and seven other kits) in 2016.  :rolleyes:

 

Now you are just being petty, which is definitely not usual from you. Your linked post is well over 1.5 years old. At that point in time, with the external orders and tooling they had, they thought they could do it. As Sio went out of his way and explained;

 

Quote

Since our own factory has customers, and their orders should have the priority to be produced in the factory. What we did before, is to use the spare time in the factory to produce kits. That is why we were slow.

 

"Unfortunately", our factory was quite full the last whole year, and it seems customers' orders are still coming in. We don't see any available time of the factory to start production in the coming future. And, we want to release it before december, that is why we are trying this way. To guarantee our quality, we need 5-6 months to finish our production. That is why we set the deadline for preordering by the end of May.

 

So;

 

1 - In late 2015 they had the time to do F-14 and optimistically, a bunch of other products.

2 - Factory orders got full from external buyers in 2016 and more orders are still coming, pushing the release date of everything AMK. Including not having the time to even polish up the Kfir tooling - yet alone tool a beast like F-14.

3 - They explained the delay and it seems perfectly reasonable to me.

4 - Since AMK doesn't have time traveling machine they couldn't travel back in time to October of 2015 and warn themselves of impending doom orders.

 

Now please link to explanation from Zvezda why theirs Il-76 is delayed? Or why the Su-27SM came out nearly two years after the initial date? You won't find any. Considering for how many years Tamiya F-14 was hinted at and semi confirmed multiple times i promise that got delayed multiple times too. Tamiya being Tamiya they don't ever announce anything so i guess technically nothing is delayed too.:rolleyes: And for how long has Trumpeter been "announcing" some of their kits, like MiG-19 in 72? Or the A-6?

 

Again, people act as if they have nothing better to build in meantime. World doesn't center around the release of AMK F-14.

Edited by Berkut
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello AMK

 

I have just tried to put in a pre-order with the previously mentioned German dealer...MBK. He does not accept pre-orders right now since an already paid for order for other goods from you is pending delivery since October2016! So what do we do now? Please advise...

 

thanks

Uwe

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...