WWI Digest 1200 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Hanriot HD-1 by James Gibbons 2) Velocithings and abhorrent behaviour on the list by Geoff Smith 3) Re: Small Scale Confession by Patrick Padovan 4) Re: Hanriot HD-1 by Patrick Padovan 5) Letter from Americal Gryphon by Shane Weier 6) Re: Hanriot HD-1 by TPTPUMPER@aol.com 7) RE: DR1 by Pedro e Francisca Soares 8) Re: Hanriot HD-1 by BStett3770@aol.com 9) Re: Hanriot HD-1 by Patrick Wilson 10) Re: Hanriot HD-1 by TPTPUMPER@aol.com 11) Veltjens D.V by John & Allison Cyganowski 12) Re: Letter from Americal Gryphon by David & Carol Fletcher 13) Re: Hanriot HD-1 by "David R.L. Laws" 14) Dave's Book by "Leonard Endy" 15) Re: Letter from Americal Gryphon by mbittner@juno.com 16) Curtiss 100HP Fast Scout by "Steven M. Perry" 17) Re: Letter from Americal Gryphon by "Fernando E. Lamas, M.D." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 15:21:47 -0400 From: James Gibbons To: "'wwi@pease1.sr.unh.edu'" Subject: Hanriot HD-1 Message-ID: <01BDDB3C.67E4A3C0.jgibbons@vppsa.com> I was wondering if anyone knows if there has ever been a 1/72 scale injection molded kit of a Hanriot HD-1. I am hoping to pick one up (having just purchased Above Flanders' Fields) and am wondering what to keep my eye open for. Thanks for any help anyone can give. James Gibbons ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 20:39:43 +0100 From: Geoff Smith To: wwi Subject: Velocithings and abhorrent behaviour on the list Message-ID: <35F587FF.2496@cwcom.net> Dear All, Well I'm back and how touching that only two people said bad things about me. Wrong, of course, but I would say that wouldn't I? I've never even heard of Veloci-whatever Jim said. There are far more interesting things to model than dinosaurs - navigation buoys, electricity pylons, telephone cables.........mud. As for the behaviour of some list members, well what can I say. Some people just don't know how to behave in public. You should be ashamed of yourself Pedro. Glad to be back, Geoff. PS Belated Happy Birthday to Mary Shannon. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 13:10:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Patrick Padovan To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Small Scale Confession Message-ID: Lorna: Bingo! Couldn't agree more. Best, patrick ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patrick Padovan e-mail: ppadovan@timberland.lib.wa.us ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On Sat, 5 Sep 1998, Shane & Lorna Jenkins wrote: > Well, I don't think it's size so much as attention to detail that > produces the right effect. > Lorna > > > >P.S. Okay, call me promiscuous: I've also done the 1/28 & 1/32, as well! > > > So what you are saying, Patrick, is that size isn't important afterall? = > > > > I have to disagree - size DOES matter :-) > > > > ========================================================================= > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 13:45:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Patrick Padovan To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Hanriot HD-1 Message-ID: James: Pegasus made a Hanriot HD.1 back in the 80's. I've got one, but, sorry, I intend to build it, so I can't offer it to you. It's OOP, but you may be able to track one down somewhere. Not too bad overall, the wings are a tad thick, but it's quite buildable. As usual, it will benefit from a white metal engine and gun replecement. Good luck and happy hunting, I hope you can find one of these! I know of no others, but what I don't know would fill a lot of books! Regards, Patrick P.S. If I recall correctly, this a/c is on the forthcoming list from Hora resins- check Hannants, or with Ivan at Silverbirds. Maybe Toko will produce one, and make the Pegasus kit obselete? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patrick Padovan e-mail: ppadovan@timberland.lib.wa.us ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On Tue, 8 Sep 1998, James Gibbons wrote: > I was wondering if anyone knows if there has ever been a 1/72 scale > injection molded kit of a Hanriot HD-1. I am hoping to pick one up (having > just purchased Above Flanders' Fields) and am wondering what to keep my eye > open for. > > Thanks for any help anyone can give. > > James Gibbons > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 07:30:52 +1000 From: Shane Weier To: "'wwi'" Subject: Letter from Americal Gryphon Message-ID: <199809082148.HAA02717@mimmon.mim.com.au> Hello all, I received the following letter by snail mail from Glen Merrill of Americal Gryphon yesterday. It's long, and may prod the conscience, but I recommend that everyone read it through, both for the illustration of the effect we can have on others, and for the inside description of the life of a cottage industry manufacturer. I make no other comment. Shane ================Letter from Glen Merrill Going through the huge volume of comment engendered recently in reference to Jasta 5 and our decal sheets and booklets has taken some time, which, along with other duties, has delayed this response. The most amazing and depressing aspect of all of this is not the large number of people who were so severely ethically impaired that they cried "me too" and lined up like so many baby birds with their mouths open to receive what they had to know were stolen goods. Rather, it was that, after being confronted with their complicity in the crime, some tried to rationalize their behavior by claiming they were "doing us a favor." I'm convinced that these same persons would try to persuade a rape victim that she should be grateful to her attacker because he was, after all, a volunteer sperm donor. Our copyright was violated, our intellectual property rights were violated, and we were violated. It was done with the intent that people could have our materials without having to pay for them. There is no nicer way to phrase it. We are now told that the perpetrator is contrite and repentent about his theft. It would be more convincing if he had not said on 2 August (file #1141, point #5), that he needed to find some way to do the same thing and not get caught, possibly by going "off list." We are also told that he did not think about what he was doing, although he questioned the legality of it as he did it. He copied more than 30 pages of text and figures without thinking. This is analogous to someone copying War and Peace with a crow quill pen without stopping to think what he was doing. He merely complained that the colored paper and small type/font made it difficult to scan. Oh, how inconsiderate of us to make the lock to our property so difficult to pick! And finally, we are told he would have contacted us for permission before his transgression (sure) if only we had had a (public) e-mail address (clearly we are at fault in the whole matter because we do not have one) and if we would now give him an e-mail address he would issue us an apology. I don't doubt that that is true, but an e-mail address is hardly the only way to contact us in spite of what some people seem to think. As my friend the late Marty O'Connor used to say when I should have contacted him with a question and hadn't, "We're not exactly in the Witness Protection Program." Let it be known that we will defend our copyright. All of the textual materials, which are clearly an integral and important part of the product we sell, are strictly copyright and marked as such (unless we overlooked doing so someplace). The order blanks and catalogs are not, of course, and it would be truly rare ones that would be. The decals themselves do not carry the copyright symbol (although probably covered inclusively within the packet) for the fundamental reason that one can't really copyright historical accuracy or color fidelity, only ideas and words. Thus some time ago one of our competitors issued a decal with colors that could only have been derived from our corresponding sheet(s) and from no place else whether he got them himself or with the aid of an accomplice. Perhaps we could have convinced modelers of this, but upholding it in court would have been impossible. So we kept our mouths shut and just continued. I see some references to contact one another "off list" for some materials to be transmitted directly, especially plans. I suspect that many of these are efforts to obtain Windsock or Datafile plans without doing it publicly because you know Ray Rimell would have your butts in court in picoseconds if he found out. It's dangerous to do this because he might find out and it is every bit as illegal as the public posting as your webmaster has correctly pointed out. In this connection his warning about jeopardizing your electronic playpen is also valid. This past weekend I had a visit from a colleague who is a Ph.D. librarian in charge of (among other things) the electronic databases and their usage at a major university. His advice was to sue immediately and also send a letter to the president of UNH about the copyright violation that would surely get your plug pulled. I would not do that at this time because of the number of innocent persons who would be adversely impacted, but the outcome of the litigation would be that I would retain a bright young lawyer (a.k.a. "Fang"), well versed in cyberlaw. He/she would have a jury eating out of his/her hand, painting us as a small, beleaguered, struggling business, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy (true), having been ravaged and having its very future endangered by this theft (maybe), that personally I had contracted to write a book on Jasta 5 that will include much of the stolen material (true) and this public unauthorized reprinting of this property will jeopardize the book deal (maybe, but at least I'll feel obligated to tell the publisher what has happened). We would undoubtedly win the case, get a large settlement of which we would probably never see a penny, and be bankrupted by the court costs and legal fees. Still, defending the conventions of civilized society in an international forum would be worth the cost. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a dinosaur because I still believe that there are principles that should govern human behavior and that has no place in the Information (a.k.a. Networked Ignorance) Age. Fortunately and contrary to what many seem to think, laws such as those dealing with copyrights and libel really do apply to the net. The speculation about how much business this controversy would generate for us was entertaining, but like most generalizations about the business, pretty wide of the mark. I can only document one order that we have received that we probably would not have received otherwise. Standing up and saying the things that I am saying in this message will probably cost us more sales than that. Because there was so much speculation, misinformation, and downright ignorance about me/us and the Americal/Gryphon operation, I am going to extend an overly long message even further in an effort to make a one-time explanation that may answer and quiet some of it. As I said to a customer in a letter recently, there is a towering amount of ignorance out there about how decals are produced. I further said that there is no reason why the customers need to know anything about how they are produced, until of course, they start telling us what we are doing wrong and how we should fix it. The classic was a bloke a few years ago who told me to my face, "If decals are out of register it's because the printer wasn't paying attention to what he was doing." I laughed until tears ran down my cheeks, but this one was nearly equaled by one in this forum who said, in effect, that there was no excuse for decals to be out of register in this day of advanced computer technology. Okay, I sit here fondling a computer keyboard with one hand and holding a sheet of decal paper in the other. Pray tell me how to proceed. My purpose here is not to delve into the numerous technical problems and vagaries of silk screening, but to talk about the business, so we will continue with that and merely repeat the truism that ignorance can be cured (at least so we hope), but stupidity is for life. I founded Americal/Gryphon in 1982 in Charleston, SC with my then student Charles Hart. I describe myself as a full-time college professor, time-and-a-half research scientist, and I devote the rest of the time to the decal business. That's not quite true, I estimate I devote about 2000 hrs/yr. to the business and that negatively impacts my research. Prior to that I was a modeler of WWI aircraft, having built some 350 or so in 1:72 going all the way back to the mid-1960s. Since 1982 I have finished none. I moved to Texas soon afterward and Charles to Ohio and later Colorado. Charles elected to leave the business a few years ago. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but the difficulty of running a partnership with the partners in different states and the small return for great effort had to be factors. The dissolution of the partnership was completely amiable and we remain friends. Just as it appeared the business was doomed a new partner, W.T. "Ty" Smith agreed to join me in the labor and suffering and that partnership continues today. There were several business principles that we established and have followed: I view Americal/Gryphon at least as much as a service to WWI modelling, as it is a business. When we began there were no accurate national insigne available, no accurate camouflage schemes in decal form, and few personal markings. It was because of this dearth that I resolved to produce them myself. I thought others would share my desire - I certainly would have been delighted to have someone do what we have done. At no time did I delude myself that I would become wealthy from this undertaking, but I hoped there would be enough cash flow to sustain and expand the line. I did resolve not to make the mistake so many others have made and go deeply in debt to start a hobby business and I would only gradually spend what I could afford to lose. We determined that we would only sell directly to customers and not through dealers. There are several reasons for this and these include a realization that some will be dissatisfied with our products and its far better to deal with them directly than through a host of middlemen (if indeed they could get any satisfaction that way - a few years ago a well-known modeler returned some very early and inferior sheets of ours that he had purchased through a bootlegger/dealer and wanted us to exchange them, thereby rewarding the bootlegger for his unauthorized reselling of our products). There are good, honest dealers in the hobby business, but there are also a lot of crooks as I have found out from direct experience. If you sell to the first type, you will discover that the second are also marketing your products. Hobby products are dealt much like illicit drugs. Every reseller "steps on" the product and increases the price so the end "user" usually pays more than he should and has little to say about the quality of what he receives. We can't prevent people reselling our products although we actively discourage it and the best way to discourage it is by widely advertising that we sell at one price to everyone, worldwide. Finally, we couldn't afford to wholesale to dealers. Standard wholesale is 60% of final retail. In the early days our "simpler" sheets sold for $5.00, meaning we would get $3.00 for a product it was costing more than $4.00 to produce. I can hear someone out there crying, "But your sales volume would increase dramatically to more than cover the difference." I don't think so. Someone estimated a couple of years ago that there are only about 1200 modelers in the world for whom WWI is their primary interest. Our sales over the past 16 years tend to support that estimate. You have to face it guys, for every six- or ten-year old who takes up plastic modeling, there are a thousand doing computer games. Plastic modeling for all eras, and WWI always feels the pinch first, is a hobby in decline. Although it is probably premature to predict its demise, its health is not good. I could go on about the demographics I see for WWI modeling, but I think you get the point- it is an aging (yes, and several of our customers have passed away) and declining population. We determined to be absolutely scrupulous about replacement/refund policies and to only attempt to break even on postage and handling. Some may sneer at that, but read on. We do not overcharge for the product and tout that it's "post free" (= insulting) nor do we try to profit from the postage as do some companies (= not insulting, but unfair in our view). We always (try to) refund overpayment for either postage or product and set the 10% figure for more than ten sheets in an effort to stop being ripped off by a customer in the Orient who makes big orders, but deliberately always shorts us up to $25 on postage. Please remember that a sheet like one of our recent 56 Squadron efforts, with its booklet, weighs approximately three ounces. Last week we shipped an order for nine sheets to the aforementioned customer. All included booklets and he sent the $6.50 for p&p per instructions staying below that 10% figure. And how much does it cost to send nine sheets by small packet air to Tokyo? $10.15, so we still need to adjust the rates even before the USPS forces us to once again (and always can't tell us in advance what the new rates will be, also costing us money). If the complainant on this net, or any other customer, had complied with instructions he would have gotten a refund with his order of the monies above the actual estimated postage in the form of a check, cash, or stamps depending upon the amount. Rosemont also does this, but damned few others do. Criticism of our products, fair or not, is something we expect, but we deeply resent implications that we don't deal with our customers with absolute monetary fairness. We always try to ship the best product available. For a variety of reasons, sometimes this product is imperfect. No one has ever printed a "perfect" decal, and we responded to the person who said he wanted a "perfect" decal that he should spend about $30K in equipment and about the same in supplies over the next 16 years while he labors for 32K hours and then maybe he'll be able to do as well as we do and look forward to perfection. Our product has improved in a pretty steady fashion. Of course, and quite ironically, criticism has increased faster, so that we're turning out some nice stuff these days and being savaged for something someone saw eight or ten years ago (Hell, there have been a couple of Ice Ages since then). If we conclude there is decent value for the money we ship the sheet. If it is then returned to us we examine it and the stock to see if we erred and have better. It's quite possible this may be one of the poorer ones in the run (good ones do go first and lesser ones afterwards until we conclude we must reprint and get a chance to do so). As our catalog says we will replace or refund. The decision which to do is an individual one and one that is ours to make when the customer returns the product. His dissatisfaction level is a major factor. Matt Bittner brought up the matter of an Escadrille Lafayette sheet he bought from us and returned. Because he raised the issue I don't think I'm violating a customer confidence by discussing his incident by name. This is what I remember about the matter, but my memory is not perfect and his recollection may be different. The sheet he returned had some significant problems, especially with the unit insigne. I won't go into the technical reasons why this was true, simply to admit that he had a valid objection. He also objected that the Nieuport serials weren't like the originals. That is less valid, but contains an element of truth. The Nieuport serials for all but the latest aircraft N.124 operated were an odd font that one still sees places in France. If you look at photos of Nieuports with the number "3" in the serial you may be able to see that the diagonal stroke is very, very narrow. On most photos it is invisible. Making it print in 1:72 is as difficult and similar problems exist with other characters in the font. Our problem is that the ones on the sheet are too much like the originals and those are problem areas. We really have few choices: print the incorrect style because it is easier, do them with parts out of scale, or risk parts not printing. We chose the last option, but it may not have been the "right" choice. I think that was his other major objection based on my memory. In any case we concluded that we could not replace the sheet with one that would satisfy him, so we calculated a refund and sent it to him. We always calculate refunds in an effort to "make the person whole," that is, to see that the attempted purchase has cost them nothing. If this was a single sheet purchase and I were calculating his refund today (obviously this was a few years ago and the current "postal rate of the day" was not then in effect) it would go like this: cost of decal = $12.50 + cost of p&p paid to us = $1.75, plus cost of postage in returning it to us as seen on the envelope, probably = $1.40, plus cost of the large envelope = $0.20, plus cost of stamp in original order = $0.32, plus approximate cost of check = $0.15, plus costs of paper, original envelope, etc. = $0.05 for a total of $16.37. We sent him such a check and got a letter back from him saying that he didn't want a refund. Just what we were supposed to do was/is unclear. I can't wave some magic wand over the sheet and improve it. If I understood him correctly he said he now has a sheet, so he must have gotten it later. Lost in all this is the fact that there were a lot of good and usable things on the sheet he returned, but not everything was. A footnote to this is that we have recently discussed reprinting this particular sheet because we are confident that we could greatly improve it in the process. But now, however, because of slams in this forum, it is damned forever in cyberspace and cybertime and reprinting may not be justified if sales/resales have been hurt that badly. Advertising. As an exclusively mail order business, we set the policy to advertise as widely as we could afford to do, concentrating on places where WWI modelers would be likely to see our adverts. I see we are criticized for not advertising "aggressively." We are further told that we should emulate those two Canadian companies, Leading Edge and Experten, by advertising in FSM (= Fine Scale Modeler). For your collective information, we have not missed advertising in a single issue of FSM since its first year of operation. Now I'm sure the people at Leading Edge and Experten are fine folks who produce great products and are easy to deal with, kind to their mothers and all the rest, but this criticism was wide of the mark. I reread it, coincidentally, the same day my latest FSM (October 1998) came in. So I opened the issue and had no difficulty finding the Americal/Gryphon advert, but I searched in vain for one by either Leading Edge or Experten. I always thought Nicolas Chauvin was French, but he may have been French-Canadian. I've learned not to expect objectivity, but I would hope for a little accuracy along the way. Not only have we advertised in FSM since the beginning, but also in Windsock since its first year (I know we missed one issue through an error, but the record is pretty consistent), and we have done the same with Plastic Kit Constructor. Although I'm getting a little long in the tooth to continue it now, I've spent a significant part of the last forty years exploring caves on two continents. In that time I should think that I might have stumbled upon the one in which some of you seem to live. It's either that or you never remove your noses from the computer monitor. I'm sorry, but it's tough for me to imagine a genuine WWI modeler who has never heard of us. This person can't have ever read Windsock, has consistently overlooked us in FSM (possible, of course, but that brings in our greatest volume of business), never heard of PKC and has also missed reviews of our products in various publications in at least the English, French, German, and Japanese languages. Last year we spent nearly 25% of our sales volume on advertising. These are costs in actual dollars and pounds. Other advertising. We also try to support contests and the like with donated products. This is a steadily growing demand - asking for free decals is a true growth industry it appears. Although we try to accommodate as many of these as we can, and probably do 90% of the time, it does become quite a chore. Last year we gave away over $600 in products and there are additional costs as well such as packing and because the USPS charges us as much to give away decals as to sell them. The level of sophistication and gratitude shown by these contests is highly variable. We get some highly sophisticated ones. We also get some that are in the vein of "Dear American/Greephon, Me and Billy Bob and a couple of the boys are holding the first annual Skunk Hollow model contest, swap meet and chili cookoff - our contest subject is 'rods the revinoors never caught' and we know you'll want to buy a trophy package or send us some decals for door prizes." Some have actually gone as far as saying something like "this is a great chance for you to put something back into the hobby." The implication is clear; we've made so much money from modelers we owe it to them to provide freebies. Would it make any difference to these people if they realized there are weeks when we get more requests for free decals than we do paying orders for decals? Probably not, but I don't think they realize that their rapidly increasing numbers may force us to stop cooperating with them. And now, about a website..... No, we don't have one. Will we? I don't know. I can see the advantages, but if the lowest cost I've seen quoted in this discussion came entirely from me it would exceed my "profits" for last year. It is not a matter of being a troglodyte (at least not an obligatory one), because I work with four or five different computers every day, and some of the things I do on them are pretty sophisticated. The most compelling reason is the investment of time I can't afford, not only for the website proper, but answering the flood of expected e-mail that would come with it. I spend a lot of time answering real mail and if, like some of you regarding ordering catalogs or products, people thought they could/should get instant (and free!) gratification by simply sending me an e-mail, I would not get anything else done. I don't have a couple of hours a day to do this. As it is, we get so many requests for information that I sometimes think we are running a Lonely Hearts Club rather than a decal business, but we try where the request is reasonable and on topic (although the courteous inclusion of an SSAE is a rare and appreciated event). Postcards asking if we have decals for the Santa Fe Railroad ca. 1924 usually find their way to the circular floor file, but these requests by so-called snail mail for information can be involved and fairly expensive in time and postage. To relate one especially funny one. Some time back we got a request from a guy asking which lozenge was correct to put on the fuselage of an Albatros D.III (no SSAE). I wrote him a nice long letter explaining that the fuselage, fin, and subfin of the Albatros fighters were plywood covered, left the factory varnished, and that applying printed fabric was not logical or very effective, although perhaps someone, someplace, might have done it. Painting was a far more common way to camouflage Albatros fuselages. Then I described how five-color fabric was really used on Albatros airframes including some late D.IIIs and wondered if that was what he meant. So I get a second letter from him, still innocent of an SSAE, which had the tone of "Hummpffff, that's all you know, I've seen a picture of it like that in a book." So the light bulb went on about what he meant. I won't mention the name of the book, but I think most of us can remember it. So I carefully explained that what he saw was a painting, an artist's rendering, and not a very accurate one at that (the serial shown is not the serial of an actual D.III, for example, and I suspect this fantasy might have been based on 796/17 flown by Ltn Noth of Jasta Boelcke, not that it matters). I further said that before he proceeded with his model he should try to locate a photograph that proved such an aircraft actually existed because I had severe doubts that it did. He bought no decals from us and I don't recall that we ever heard from him again, but I feel fairly sure that somewhere out there is a model of a D.III with its rear fuselage wrapped with one of our competitors' lozenge. I could make a catty remark here, but I won't. This is an extreme case to be sure, but it isn't uncommon for me to spend a couple hours research a week for someone who never buys the first thing from us. I greatly fear a huge increase in such traffic if we are electronically accessible. By the way, I cannot distribute my e-mail address because it is at my job (I don't want any of our machines at home linked for the reasons I just mentioned) and my state and university are not as broad-minded as your webmaster's - I could go to jail if I used that machine for any transaction of business. Now I'm going to do something that is probably unprecedented, I'm going to open the Americal/Gryphon books for you to see. In the early years the business lost money, beyond any doubt. I say "beyond doubt" because some financial matters can be a little hard to pin down. There is no doubt about sales figures; those are quite clear. Not so clear sometimes are expenses. I have never claimed any expense as a deduction that I did not believe was legitimate. However, the rules governing these things are so complex that no one, least of all the Internal Revenue Service, understands them fully. What is clear is that I have not always claimed everything that I know is legitimate. The IRS will allow a business to lose money for something like three out of five years after which they declare it a "hobby" and disallow any further deduction in connection with it. In that context Chrysler was Lee Iacocca's "hobby" for years. That Damoclean Sword still hangs over us, but it is clear that in the earlier years I did not take anywhere as many deductions as I was entitled to and thereby declared and paid tax on a profit that was really a loss. After a few years we actually got into the black and the first year we did, again probably for 2000 hours of work, I figured I made a profit of $0.09/hour. Things did improve, and with some ups and downs both sales and costs slowly climbed. We reached our high water sales mark about four years ago with sales of $14K. Expenses were about $8K so we each made a reasonable profit; about a third the minimum wage as a matter of fact. Since then sales have been in a steady decline while costs have continued upward in spite of our best efforts. The decline in sales comes about from several factors; certainly competition is one of them. Some of our "loyal" customers have convinced big players like Titanic Decal Corporation (TDC - Our motto "A million bucks worth of equipment and fifty cents worth of research") that there are huge profits to be made in WWI decals. So TDC issues a few sheets of dubious accuracy and often ludicrous colors (TDC- "You want green, we got green - Hey, Ed, where's that ink we used to do those mistletoe decals last Christmas?). Then, once the MBA accountants at TDC realize what the REAL sales figures are, they pull the plug and go back to doing things for Messerschmitts and blowtorches and another decal line for WWI disappears, but taking some of our putative business with it as it goes. Savage word-of-mouth "revues" on the net don't help either, although you guys probably aren't as influential as you think you are. On that topic I notice a trend in what I'd refer to as "ego building" on the net. If Joe, The Electronic Slasher, Blow savages a product in your chat room and you're holding a copy of the same product and you think it's really pretty good, admitting that would be like saying you perceive the Emperor to be buck naked. That won't do. Instead, you figure out some cute way to out-savage what he has already said and so the feeding frenzy on egos continues. I saw one person here who had received some of our decals that I, unbiased as I am, would say were gorgeous. His reaction was of the nature "Oh yes, I see the problems in them, of course, but I decided to use them anyway." Getting back to the dip in sales, I still think the biggest reason is demographic as I alluded to previously. Whatever the cause(s), last year our sales were just under $11K. Costs, some of which were not claimed, were close to that if not more. I did not claim the part of our property dedicated to the business (garage, one room in the house and part of another), telephone expenses or the hundreds of miles driven to the post office, to pick up supplies, etc. Doing so would drive us negative again. Costs are increasing and sales have been decreasing and the projected crossing point of the curves by any method of reckoning will probably be this year. We've stepped back in the size of our advert in Windsock, so the advertising costs may be a little less (more than $2500 last year), but other cost increases will probably more than make up for that. My plan is to add up the 1998 sales on 1 January 1999. If the figure has dipped below $10K as I expect, and knowing that real out-of-pocket costs will now exceed that amount, then 1999 will be our last year of business. We will further make our impending demise as widely known as possible in an effort to serve those genuinely loyal customers we have out there and give them their last chances to obtain our products. Unlike most cottage industries that simply disappear - frequently taking customers' money with them - we would continue business operations as always right through 31 December 1999. January in Houston is often chilly enough to make bearable a large bonfire on 1 January 2000. If we sound a bit paranoid in all this, perhaps we are. For sixteen years we've tried to serve a very narrow niche in the hobby market, during that time trying to balance a series of difficult choices, expending a lot of brutally hard work, and have managed to produce and maintain a line of products exclusively for the WWI modeler that now numbers almost 150 items. For this effort and dedication we have been pretty thoroughly abused at times and now to top it off we've been robbed by a part of the very population we tried to serve. Some of you really do seem to be determined to participate in the autopsy on the goose. Shane, I want to thank both you and Charles Hart for defending our rightful interests and for bringing this mess to our attention. I further thank you for your willingness to post this message for us and apologize for its length. At least I hope you won't have to retype it. Glen Merrill Draft completed 25 August 1998 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 17:32:13 EDT From: TPTPUMPER@aol.com To: wwi Subject: Re: Hanriot HD-1 Message-ID: <76769adb.35f5a25d@aol.com> Hi James! Silverbird does indeed list a Hanriot HD.1 in 1/72. It is by HORA and is stock number HOR72016, priced at $11.90. HTH Have Fun!! IRA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 22:45:33 +0200 From: Pedro e Francisca Soares To: "WW1 Modeling List (E-mail)" Subject: RE: DR1 Message-ID: <01BDDB7B.BBB98580@fei1-p9.telepac.pt> First of all guys, thanks a lot to all those that answered my question. I'm replying on Shane's message because it mentions Klimke a/c and it so = happens that i'm planing to finish my DR1 as his, so... ---------- > From: Shane Weier > To: Multiple recipients of list > Subject: RE: DR1 > Date: ter=E7a-feira, 8 de setembro de 1998 1:27 >=20 > Pedro asks: >=20 >=20 > > < > belly > > straps? >> > >=20 > Probably YES and also probably NO. >=20 That's what I thought. I've seen only one photo wich clearly showed = straps thrown over the fuselage which I assumed to be shoulder straps = due to their relative position with regard to the fuselage. > snip =20 =20 > And IIRC some pilots are known to have chosen to remove shoulder = straps > on account of their stature or lack thereof, Klimke comes to mind for > some reason. Nice imput Shane. Since i'm doing Rudolf Klimke's DR1 I'll leave the = shoulder straps off.=20 > I think this is another example of the WW1 field allowing a degree of > freedom to interpret the record which doesn't exist in modern, > standardised aircraft. Let them prove *you* wrong. Absolutely > Shane Thanks a bunch Pedro ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 18:00:23 EDT From: BStett3770@aol.com To: wwi Subject: Re: Hanriot HD-1 Message-ID: <415a45d.35f5a8f7@aol.com> Hi James Two HD-1 kits wre made in 1/72 injection. Model Point of Germany about 1972 - kit was BAAADD Pegasus 1980's - Bagged kit not to bad Keep Modeling Barry Rosemont Hobby www.swiftsite.com/rosemonthobby ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 18:24:29 -0400 From: Patrick Wilson To: wwi Subject: Re: Hanriot HD-1 Message-ID: <35F5AE9D.43991473@comversens.com> --------------DAF6032803F05505E9E83F8B Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit What is Silverbird? TPTPUMPER@aol.com wrote: > Hi James! > > Silverbird does indeed list a Hanriot HD.1 in 1/72. It is by HORA and is > stock number HOR72016, priced at $11.90. HTH > > Have Fun!! > > IRA -- Patrick Wilson Andover Highlands x3008 --------------DAF6032803F05505E9E83F8B Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit What is Silverbird?

TPTPUMPER@aol.com wrote:

Hi James!

   Silverbird does indeed list a Hanriot HD.1 in 1/72.  It is by HORA and is
stock number HOR72016, priced at $11.90.  HTH

Have Fun!!

IRA

  
-- 
                                        Patrick Wilson
                                        Andover Highlands
                                        x3008
  --------------DAF6032803F05505E9E83F8B-- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 19:01:03 EDT From: TPTPUMPER@aol.com To: wwi Subject: Re: Hanriot HD-1 Message-ID: Hi Patrick! Silverbird is a hobby shop in the Czech Republic. List member Ivan Subrt is the proprietor. He offers mail order service throughout the world. I will recommend Silverbird as a satisfied customer. I have no affiliation. Go here: Silverbird On-line Have Fun!! IRA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 19:41:28 -0400 From: John & Allison Cyganowski To: wwi Subject: Veltjens D.V Message-ID: <35F5C0A8.5B8C@worldnet.att.net> Does anyone know if this ship had Lozenge on the wings? Thanks, John Cyg. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 17:10:09 -0700 From: David & Carol Fletcher To: wwi Subject: Re: Letter from Americal Gryphon Message-ID: <35F5C761.921@mars.ark.com> Shane Weier wrote: > I received the following letter by snail mail from Glen Merrill of > Americal Gryphon yesterday... Not much left to say is there? The point I learned at staff college is that plagiarism is when you copy one person, research is when you copy several. And always provide credits and only extract what is pertinent; be especially careful with intellectual property such as drawings; most artists/draughtsmen are only to pleased to see their work get wider exposure if they are asked first! I can appreciate Mr. Merrill's frustrations. After I had spent five years doing research and mortgaged my house to launch my book (off topic, so no plugs), a faculty member suggested that I donate a copy to the college library so he could read it! The gall and cheapness of some people knows no bounds. I approached a colonel of my acquaintance who I knew had flown the (WWII deleted) aircraft in question and he replied "I only buy books when I'm mentioned in them". My career was immediately put on the line when I replied, "You don't have a very big library do you, colonel?" I just got a book order from a chap who lost his copy because he loaned it to a friend who then loaned it to another friend - and it vanished. Those two cheap screws got the info they wanted and did me out of $70.00 in sales - plus one got a stolen book. The moral of the story is "respect the guy who did the work - he isn't getting rich and if he's luckier than most, he's breaking even". Dave Fletcher mdf@mars.ark.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 10:36:35 +0000 From: "David R.L. Laws" To: wwi Subject: Re: Hanriot HD-1 Message-ID: <35F65A33.450A@webtime.com.au> If your'e game to try an easy introduction to scratch building I can copy you a 1:48 set of details and plans which you could reduce on a copier and adapt DAVID ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 00:36:21 GMT From: "Leonard Endy" To: wwi Subject: Dave's Book Message-ID: <35f5cceb.8964572@legend.firstsaga.com> On Tue, 8 Sep 1998 20:18:21 -0400, you wrote: > I approached a colonel of my acquaintance who I >knew had flown the (WWII deleted) aircraft in question and he replied "I >only buy books when I'm mentioned in them". My career was immediately >put on the line when I replied, "You don't have a very big library do >you, colonel?" Hi Dave, After spending 22 years in the Army I can understand that ! Best laugh I had in a long time. Len Visit the Swap'N' Shop pages... http://www2.firstsaga.com/lfendy/fof_site.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 19:49:22 -0500 From: mbittner@juno.com To: wwi Subject: Re: Letter from Americal Gryphon Message-ID: <19980908.194927.-132667.1.mbittner@juno.com> On Tue, 8 Sep 1998 17:33:57 -0400 Shane Weier writes: >I received the following letter by snail mail from Glen Merrill of >Americal Gryphon yesterday. It's long, and may prod the conscience, >but >I recommend that everyone read it through, both for the illustration >of >the effect we can have on others, and for the inside description of >the >life of a cottage industry manufacturer. I make no other comment. Wow. What can you say? However, I would like to clear up a bit about "my name". After reading most of the message (I was shoo'ed off), I noticed my name in particular came up. So, I dug through my files, and found the three letters Mr. Merrill and I went back forth with. I have the decals because I sent his check back. I "messed" up in sending him a letter without sending the decals. My fault. My intention was to receive a replacement set, not for reimbursment. So, I sent him his check back, along with the decals I had. He sent me a replacement which was better. Yes, I admit I have been critical about Americal. I feel like I should apologise, because when I read that section, it appeared I was at fault for the lack of sales on the sheet. While the decals aren't as crisp *as I like*, I kept them because the instructions are impeccable, and most of the decals are useable. So please don't think it's my fault that the Lafayette decals aren't selling. Maybe I read too much into this? However, since my name was used, I thought I should clear up my conscious (is that the right word?). Yes, I was guilty in receiving the Jasta 5 "stuff", but I have always supported Dr. Merrill's decals. Heck, last week I sent off money for three more sheets. Yikes. Matt Bittner _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 21:16:05 -0400 From: "Steven M. Perry" To: wwi Subject: Curtiss 100HP Fast Scout Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19980908211605.006855b8@pop.mindspring.com> Hi all: Does anyone know of a floatplane called a Curtiss 100HP Fast Scout? Imagine a clipped wing, single seat Jenny on a single float with outriggers under the wing tips. In researching the Benoist Airboat at a local museum, a 3 view drawing of this turned up. It was in blueprint form and quite old and creased. The photo archivist made me a copy (took 3 11 x 17 sheets). Looks like a Lindberg Jenny kit could be severely bashed to make one, but I'd like to know more about it. There was nothing at the museum, it was just in a box of old airplane photos & newspaper clippings. TIA sp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 18:55:11 -0700 From: "Fernando E. Lamas, M.D." To: wwi Subject: Re: Letter from Americal Gryphon Message-ID: >We always (try to) refund overpayment for either >postage or product and set the 10% figure for more than ten sheets in an >effort to stop being ripped off by a customer in the Orient who makes >big orders,........ If the >complainant on this net, or any other customer, had complied with >instructions he would have gotten a refund with his order of the monies >above the actual estimated postage in the form of a check, cash, or >stamps depending upon the amount. "The complaintant on this net" must have been me since I was the one who complained that being charged $14.10 postage for the 17 sheet, $141.0 order that I initially intended to buy was rather excessive. I then trimmed my order to ten sheets that came out to $73.00. If Americal has such a refund policy then , fair enough, I won't count sheets on my next order. However, it would have been nice if the "instructions" I should have complied with (pasted below) had at least hinted at such a policy. > "7 - 10 sheets ordered........................$3.50" > "more than ten sheets ordered..........10% of order" > "NOTE: orders lacking proper postage or sales tax will be returned UNFILLED." > Fernando Lamas ------------------------------ End of WWI Digest 1200 **********************