It was brought to my attention

[OLESHEP63]

for your information I bought around 50 of them FAIRMONT bodies from a guy in AUSTRALIA. did he copy yours ? who knows.. the guy told me he mastered it partly from a FOX BODY MUSTANG & AN EXP...I'm thinking unless who ever you are that says I copied your body owns FORD MOTOR CO. you don't own the rights to anything...

[Deano]

So, you're WHISKEY RIDGE RESIN & DECALS? Nice to meet you. Welcome to my black list. I've never bought from you, never contacted you, didn't even know you existed until this thread. The tone of your post tells me all I need to know.

[Lownslow]

So, you're WHISKEY RIDGE RESIN & DECALS? Nice to meet you. Welcome to my black list. I've never bought from you, never contacted you, didn't even know you existed until this thread. The tone of your post tells me all I need to know.

hes mad butthurt on FB hes not helping his credibility, and from his wording a few posts up it shows hes open to stealing others work and using that as his defense.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Lownslow

[Maindrian Pace]

Yes, the old "It's a Ford/GM/Chrysler etc design, not yours, so take it up with them" defense. But cheaters like this never win, and never get ahead; they get bad reputations that stick with them for life.

-MJS

[mikemodeler]

I refuse to buy any resin sight unseen unless they are a well known and respected caster, because the last thing I want to do is support some rip off artist.

This past weekend I was at the CKM show and spent over $100 on resin kits and parts. Bandit Resins was the beneficiary of my spending spree and I would buy from them online but enjoy seeing them at shows and talking with Kenny.

There was also a husband and wife team there from Xtreme Scale Detail and they had product from many other resin companies, including some of Scott's products from Futrattraction. They proudly displayed the brands and didn't try to pass anything off as theirs and I commend them for it. In fact, I think it is better to have others' items for sale like they did because if you are looking for a specific part from a supplier, they make it easier to have available in one place.

It's unfortunate that some people feel the need to copy someone else's hard work and then try to defend it. The best thing we can do as a community is to not support those companies and let them suffer the consequences of their actions.

[Steven Zimmerman]

I have had dealings with Shep, and , although he may be a little outspoken, he' an OK guy. He bought resin from a dealer, who assured him he mastered them himself; Is Shep supposed to spend hours scouring the internet looking for other similar products ," just in case "....? He did exactly what I, and many others in the same situation,, would have done. I disagree with his remark about contact FORD , but some here accused him of copying someone's products, which he did not....How would YOU have responded, given the same situation ? Think about that long and hard, before you judge.....Has anyone actually compared the two bodies in question , side by side, to see if they are direct copies ? I understand where Scott is coming from, he has every right to be upset, if someone is capitalizing on his hard work, but do we know they are copies ?

[Mike Kucaba]

As this and other forums have shown,there are plenty of competent modelers who do extremely incredible work. It would not be beyond the possibility that someone else could have scratchbuilt/kitbashed a Ford Fairmont body. A while back,someone on this very forum created a reasonably competent Fairmont from a '65 GTO.

[futurattraction]

I have had dealings with Shep, and , although he may be a little outspoken, he' an OK guy. He bought resin from a dealer, who assured him he mastered them himself; Is Shep supposed to spend hours scouring the internet looking for other similar products ," just in case "....? He did exactly what I, and many others in the same situation,, would have done. I disagree with his remark about contact FORD , but some here accused him of copying someone's products, which he did not....How would YOU have responded, given the same situation ? Think about that long and hard, before you judge.....Has anyone actually compared the two bodies in question , side by side, to see if they are direct copies ? I understand where Scott is coming from, he has every right to be upset, if someone is capitalizing on his hard work, but do we know they are copies ?

Google “resin Fairmont” or “resin Fairmont body". I’ve posted on at least a half dozen boards over the last 6-8 years documenting its development and construction. I’ve worked with two casters, and there have been numerous iterations, so there are different versions of images you'll see. The first bodies were gray. The current ones are tan. There’s lots of info out there that dates back to 2005, much of which can be found in less than a minute’s time...

As an aside, Fred Perez was the one who did the marvelous job of constructing a Fairmont out of a '65 GTO. Pics of his Fairmont will also come up when looking at Fairmont images.

Edited August 27, 2014 by futurattraction

[phantomw]

About 5 moths or so I saw a guy selling Fairmont and 68 Mustang grande and he was from Australia, I'm trying to find the pm I send him,

[Bob Ellis]

Pretty interesting; that you could make a Fairmont out of a '65 GTO. I checked out the photos.

[Mike Kucaba]

Pretty interesting; that you could make a Fairmont out of a '65 GTO. I checked out the photos.

I guess that was my point. Nobody has the rights to creativity as this hobby's various forums has shown.

It still doesn't give a pass to outright copying though.

[1320wayne]

Just to shed some extra light on the subject, I joined Sheps closed Facebook group and directly asked him where he got the Fairmont body from and he stated that he had the body mastered specifically for him by a good friend. That pretty much contradicts his statement made above. Plus, his attitude towards others is not very business friendly. Just saying, there's some credibility issues there.

[krassandbernie]

How is this for food for thought..............want to clear this whole mess up? Why didn't Shep offer to post up a handful of CLEAR photos of the body he is making available? Since Scott and I are the most familiar with the body he mastered (and I cast) I am sure one of us would quickly point out if it was indeed different......and neither one of us would have anything to prove by saying it was a direct copy if it wasn't. Scott's work stands on it's own.......as does mine I suppose. I surely would not lay claim to work that did not come from my own hands. I don't know Shep; but anyone thinking they were the accused would surely want to clear his name........especially on a forum such as this; which gets enough 'flow' to possibly hurt his business and credibility.............and prove their innocence.

[Mike Kucaba]

"How is this for food for thought..............want to clear this whole mess up? Why didn't Shep offer to post up a handful of CLEAR photos of the body he is making available?"

How is this? Maybe he feels he has nothing to prove?

"Since Scott and I are the most familiar with the body he mastered (and I cast) I am sure one of us would quickly point out if it was indeed different."

You are kidding, right? The person that created the item and the person that casts the item are going to be impartial?

The only one that started this "mess" is Scott ,by showing a photo, and making an accusation.

Scott got some good advice early on about the disappointment of someone possibly copying his work.

Since Scott and I are the most familiar with the body he mastered (and I cast) I am sure one of us would quickly point out if it was indeed different..

[krassandbernie]

Come on Mike..........if Shep felt he had nothing to prove he would not have piped up here to begin with. If he is indeed selling a Fairmont body that was mastered by someone else neither Scott nor I would really care..........it's a free market in that respect. I mastered a stock roof '33 Willys coupe years ago; and there were one or two mastered by other resin casters prior to me coming out with mine; and one after mine. This just gives modelers more choice on accuracy and cost. What hurts business for each of us is when our work is copied. You obviously do not know Scott or I as well as I thought you did.........we would be nothing but impartial here. For someone who has nothing to worry about Shep sure has ducked and weaved here instead of addressing it head on and proving he did nothing shady. Even if the body he is offering turned out to be a direct copy that 'his resin caster' stole without his knowledge you'd think he would want to cut ties with a person like that after finding this out...........but, hey, that's just me! LOL!

Edited August 31, 2014 by krassandbernie

[DirtModeler]

I just wanted to pipe in that i think it's cool everyone pooling together against a rip caster.

I had a much different experience, which is why i've been silent on those who are copying my stuff.

On a facebook group, someone had posted photos of my work and where he'd gotten it.. and someone posted "that's awesome!, i'm going to make resin copies of it!"... and the thread continued.. not a single person piping up and calling them out on it.. (i didn't say anything because i wanted to see where the thread would go)

Low and behold a few weeks later, that same person loudly proclaiming they were going to copy my part.. has a freshly cast copy of it.. and now they are selling them.

the thing that bums me out? Is that people heap on the compliments on the poorly cast copy being used, and few even mention the original that the copy was made from.

It makes me wonder why i would ever want to invest that kind of time and money again to make something else that is just going to be copied and thrown aside?

I don't really feel like being the R&D division for rip casters.

It played a big part in me abandoning R&D for anything new in 1:24th that was castable.. and switching to full kits in 1:64 at a price point that even a rip caster would lose money on.

Edited August 31, 2014 by DirtModeler

[Lownslow]

I just wanted to pipe in that i think it's cool everyone pooling together against a rip caster.

I had a much different experience, which is why i've been silent on those who are copying my stuff.

On a facebook group, someone had posted photos of my work and where he'd gotten it.. and someone posted "that's awesome!, i'm going to make resin copies of it!"... and the thread continued.. not a single person piping up and calling them out on it.. (i didn't say anything because i wanted to see where the thread would go)

Low and behold a few weeks later, that same person loudly proclaiming they were going to copy my part.. has a freshly cast copy of it.. and now they are selling them.

the thing that bums me out? Is that people heap on the compliments on the poorly cast copy being used, and few even mention the original that the copy was made from.

It makes me wonder why i would ever want to invest that kind of time and money again to make something else that is just going to be copied and thrown aside?

I don't really feel like being the R&D division for rip casters.

It played a big part in me abandoning R&D for anything new in 1:24th that was castable.. and switching to full kits in 1:64 at a price point that even a rip caster would lose money on.

its kind of the reason i have 1:18 where im at its a open market and little to no rip offs and where there is a rip off people will get called out on it.

[English Jules]

I just wanted to pipe in that i think it's cool everyone pooling together against a rip caster.

I had a much different experience, which is why i've been silent on those who are copying my stuff.

On a facebook group, someone had posted photos of my work and where he'd gotten it.. and someone posted "that's awesome!, i'm going to make resin copies of it!"... and the thread continued.. not a single person piping up and calling them out on it.. (i didn't say anything because i wanted to see where the thread would go)

Low and behold a few weeks later, that same person loudly proclaiming they were going to copy my part.. has a freshly cast copy of it.. and now they are selling them.

the thing that bums me out? Is that people heap on the compliments on the poorly cast copy being used, and few even mention the original that the copy was made from.

It makes me wonder why i would ever want to invest that kind of time and money again to make something else that is just going to be copied and thrown aside?

I don't really feel like being the R&D division for rip casters.

It played a big part in me abandoning R&D for anything new in 1:24th that was castable.. and switching to full kits in 1:64 at a price point that even a rip caster would lose money on.

bollocks man thats not good. cant believe one didnt stand up for you the orig guy whos work it was.

Im planning on doing some masters for resin trash and household junk, and dumpsters, lots of measurements, work, rework, and more work to get them good enough to offer. i would be really angry if someone just did copies from my work and sold them

[sebivens]

Sorry to hear of this thief & hope Karma strikes them hard...thank you for letting me know who it was, I actually was considering purchasing another item from them but will take my business else where cause of this

[agmaciej]

Scott- I called Shep Shepperd out on his Whiskey Ridge Resin & decals FB page, and he came up with three different stories to how he came to have the Fairmonts- first, he stated he bought twenty (not fifty as he first claimed here) of the bodies from a caster in Australia but couldn't think of the guys name, the he stated he bought them from a caster in Georgia, then changed that story to he bought them (again, 20 of them) in a collection from 'somebody'. At that point, his FB partner-in-crime Mike Coleman, who co-owns the FB page, chimed in with a long diatribe about the fact "they" don't cast anything but only sell resin cast by others. What followed from the two of them was the standard "hey, anybody could have made the master, what have YOU cast," and then a few choice homophobic and body-orifice comments. At that point, MC booted me from his page, so I don't know what transpired afterward. I did receive quite a few pm's supporting my comments, including from two other resin casters whose products WR was selling as their own.

FWIW, I don't think they will be around for long as comments on other FB and modeling sites seem to be 95% against their practices. They publicly acknowledge that they don't care where their stuff comes from, and plan to continue selling to "their 2000 customers" and to hell with everyone else. The idscussion carried over to the FB Scale Resin page, but ended up getting deleted.

Edited September 12, 2014 by agmaciej

[Gothicz House Of Kustomz]

Wow, I do stock and kustom decal work, and am at the moment building a kustom '65 Impala for the slot car world, my MAIN, client is friends with said person, now I have already talked to a caster who is a friend, and has a biz, anyway, my main client, wants me to send the body to said person, after reading all this, which I'm glad I did, I'm now having second thoughts. wow, not trying to sarcastic, but thank you for this post, and I'm GLAD I took the time to read this, once again thank you.

[Bob Ellis]

This discussion is similar to that I remember during my model railroading days. In that case,metal castings were copied. And lots of them too. Even were sold to other people producing kits that may have known they were pirated, or didn't care because the price was cheaper than the people that mastered the pattern.

The end of the story is that it represented enough money for one kit manufacturer to hire lawyers, sue for cease and decist, and monetary damages. It cost a lot of money and in the end it may not be worth it.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Bob Ellis

[Mike Kucaba]

How does one get to the FB Scale Resin page. I recently joined FB and really don't know my way around it(nothing new ) ?

[fantacmet]

I've seen Whiskey Ridge mentioned alot popularly in another magazine devoted to Scale Model Cars that shall go nameless, that I've had numerous issues with the editor so I don't go there anymore. Though sometimes I will create a new account, post up, and then "let it slip" who I am and then he bans me again. Totally flies off the handle it's funny. Anyhow seems like WR is just about right for that market on there.

I have a question however. Is this Fairmont body only? Is the body itself stock? I would love to make a basically Stock Fairmont, and oen as a street rod. Mustang Chassis from Fox Body would be the same underneath so it'd be easy as pie. If it's body only, the interior might be tough though.

Edited September 13, 2014 by fantacmet

[Maindrian Pace]

Threads like this help get the word out; There will be no joy in ripping someone else's work off.

-MJS