It was brought to my attention

[futurattraction]

that a resin caster who I’m not familiar with has started making copies of my Fairmont pro stock body. He has a closed group on Facebook. If you search WHISKEY RIDGE RESIN & DECALS you should find it. I haven’t seen any publicly accessible websites by that name. I’ve attached a picture of his copy of my body, just so you can see what it looks like as compared to mine. I just wanted to let anyone know, who might be interested. If you know of other modelers who you think would like to (or should) know, feel free to pass this info on. Thanks...

Scott

PS - If I have any updates I'll post it here.

[southpier]

I never understood how this works. do most guys who resincast make their initial part from raw materials? or are they modified kit parts, perhaps out of production, more detailed, or adjusted for a particular installation? and does that cross the legal line with the BIG Companies or are they just flying under the radar? I've seen some great parts, but also some I recognize the parental lineage.

[krassandbernie]

A lot of resin casters will either repop a vintage kit/body/ or part that is out of production (such as a lot of Modehaus' lineup of restoration parts); or they will mold/cast something they modified to make a specific year or body style available........like turning the '63 Galaxie 500XL hardtop into a '63 Galaxie 4 door sedan for example. There are others who completely scratch build something from raw materials...........like Evergreen sheet stock and body filler to make something that was never before available in kit form.......like Scott did here! There was nothing even close to using as a starting point so Scott spent many hours (years I believe) scratch building this Fairmont kit to make it available to the public and to recoup some of his hard earned money and time back so that he might possibly be able to offer something else after this.

[futurattraction]

Thanks for explaining Ed. Just for the fun of it, I'm attaching a couple of early development pics, so you (Joe) can see what it looked like early-on. I spent, if I recall, between 4-5 years and have hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in this body, so to have somebody unethical enough to copy it irks me to no end...

The grille has gone through numerous iterations since this was pic was taken.

Here is the final master before it was first cast. Body shells then went through several more stages of refinement before I was happy with how they looked.

[Chief Joseph]

I never understood how this works. do most guys who resincast make their initial part from raw materials? or are they modified kit parts, perhaps out of production, more detailed, or adjusted for a particular installation? and does that cross the legal line with the BIG Companies or are they just flying under the radar? I've seen some great parts, but also some I recognize the parental lineage.

It is ethical to take a kit part and make it more accurate or change it to represent a variant of some kind, as long as you don't undermine the original manufacturer's ability to sell the kit. For example, if you take a hood and add an intake snorkel to it, that's legitimate because the hood is of no use without the kit. But if you copy the wheels & tires out of a kit, then you've undercut the manufacturer-- instead of someone buying the kit to get those wheels and tires, they might buy recast copies instead. That is not fair to the manufacturer and is detrimental to the industry. It's doubly rotten when a recaster does it to a garage kit producer.

[Chief Joseph]

that a resin caster who I’m not familiar with has started making copies of my Fairmont pro stock body. He has a closed group on Facebook. If you search WHISKEY RIDGE RESIN & DECALS you should find it. I haven’t seen any publicly accessible websites by that name. I’ve attached a picture of his copy of my body, just so you can see what it looks like as compared to mine. I just wanted to let anyone know, who might be interested. If you know of other modelers who you think would like to (or should) know, feel free to pass this info on. Thanks...

Scott

PS - If I have any updates I'll post it here.

Hey guess what? The owner of that Facebook group has an account here: OLESHEP63. But he hasn't been here since September 24, 2012.

[futurattraction]

Interesting info, Joseph. Thanks for chiming in...

Scott

[southpier]

if I understand correctly, to do this on the "up & up", someone would need to do extensive research to determine if an independent part had already been manufactured as part of a kit. seems like the legwork might take as long as actually cranking out the actual part.

thanks for the in-progress photos of the Fairmont.

with all things considered, certainly doesn't sound like a business that turns a quick buck. makes one wonder how they can be sold so reasonably?

Edited July 25, 2014 by southpier

[mikemodeler]

if I understand correctly, to do this on the "up & up", someone would need to do extensive research to determine if an independent part had already been manufactured as part of a kit. seems like the legwork might take as long as actually cranking out the actual part.

thanks for the in-progress photos of the Fairmont.

with all things considered, certainly doesn't sound like a business that turns a quick buck. makes one wonder how they can be sold so reasonably?

Most resin casters do it for the hobby and aren't in it for big bucks. I would suspect that even the Modelhaus kits that run upwards of $100 have quite a bit of cost involved as they tend to be fairly complete and accurate, compared to a $15 body only from Jimmy Flintstone.

I am sure resin casters will jump in here but haven't about many of them taking luxury vacations or buying expensive cars as a result of the huge profits in their business, the ones I have met are model builders who do it to support their habit!

[futurattraction]

Joe - my motivation was I had a 1:1 Fairmont and looked into whether any kit manufacturers had made one as a kit or promo. All my research turned up a big "0".

At that point I challenged myself to see if I could do one. In retrospect, I bit off a whole lot more to chew than I'd ever imagined, but the goal to not quit, once I'd achieved some degree of success, i.e., actually having it look like what I wanted it to, and sharing pics online (which brought encouragement and interest from potential buyers) kept me going. I never had any intention of "profiting" from it - not in the truest sense of the word. Yes - I'm recouping some of my time and effort, but not much in the grand scheme of things. I'd have to sell thousands of them to do that, but I've gotten a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of receiving compliments about it's construction and the quality of the casting which, by the way, I didn't do. Ed Fluck (Drag City Casting) has cast all of my cream-colored bodies, hoods, grilles and taillight panels - and he does an outstanding job. I am going to have him do any other casting work for me. My goal is still to have a stock body Fairmont made. I'm about 99% done with it. There will be a revised Revell-based floor pan and custom interior side panels, with the donor being the new '90 Mustang LX- at least that's the current plan.

The galling part of this "theft", and that's what it is, is the greed and lack of respect that motivated it. To go off on a brief tangent, my wife just finished writing a book. She had to do lots of investigation, and it cost us to see a patent/copyright attorney, regarding copyright infringement to circumvent having somebody come back at her for supposed theft of old photos for her book. A law professor, well-versed in copyright law said that the laws were originally passed to encourage creativity but the litigious society we live in now-days has actually discouraged creativity because authors, writers, etc., are afraid they'll get sued for wronging someone, whether it's legitimate or not. In a similar vein, what motivation do I have to make other items beneficial to our hobby, if someone is going to steal my product/idea and profit from it?

MIke - you hit the nail on the head...

Edited July 25, 2014 by futurattraction

[Chief Joseph]

if I understand correctly, to do this on the "up & up", someone would need to do extensive research to determine if an independent part had already been manufactured as part of a kit. seems like the legwork might take as long as actually cranking out the actual part.

thanks for the in-progress photos of the Fairmont.

with all things considered, certainly doesn't sound like a business that turns a quick buck. makes one wonder how they can be sold so reasonably?

If you are scratchbuilding your own part, you can do whatever you want regardless of the availability of the same part in a kit somewhere. If you make it it's yours. The only way to make an easy profit with resin casting is to recast already-existing pieces-- there is no research, development, or time invested if you just open a kit and splash some rubber over the pieces. All the junk you see on eBay is pure recast kit parts, often complete with pin marks and mold seams. All people who legitimately sell resin parts will be willing to show you the master that they made (or had made) to prove that they are on the up & up. I'm sure if this bunghole who is recasting the Fairmont were challenged to show his master, he would come up with some lame excuse (it broke and I threw it away) and then go underground for a while. That's how recasters operate... they rely on a fairly ignorant portion of the consumer base to choose their inferior recast pieces purely based on price, and then when they are exposed they'll hide out for a while, but then start up again under a different name with maybe some different items. A guy named Mike Tait in Texas is a recaster of epic proportions and he has come and gone so many times over the past several years it's not even funny... he mainly deals in sci-fi stuff, but he'd probably do car stuff if there were a profit to be made.

[DirtModeler]

I understand the frustration. I've seen re-pops of my stuff showing up too. I was initially pretty mad, but just came to terms with it. Resin casters come and go, most of the people who buy from people who sell re-pops are going to get ripped off sooner or later. A lot of these businesses fold when it stops being fun. If you take a risk at buying a knock-off from someone to save a few bucks, you have to accept the consequences when the stream of excuses as to why your order hasn't shipped for six months starts coming.

People that are in the business for the long haul work hard to build a reputation as a solid and trusted entity. We give up our nights and weekends to make sure that orders are filled in a timely manner, and we don't sell what we don't have in stock. I would be leery of anyone who sells cast parts to order.

Legal proceedings against a re-pop caster is a waste of time and money.

Just ride on your reputation of trust and quality and time will sort out the rest.

I wouldn't even post about the person re-popping your stuff.. it just drives traffic to them, and it's free advertising for them.

Edited July 25, 2014 by DirtModeler

[futurattraction]

Thanks Michael. You make several points, all of which are very valid. As long as the quality and/or integrity of the "thief" doesn't get associated to me and my business, the best I can hope for is that the cream will rise to the top and the refuse will sink to the bottom...

[RANDY L]

Hi

thank you for pointing this out. The person who put in the time and effort

should reep the rewards.I Have some of your photoetch ,great stuff and when get your site up and running i will place

a orderfor some parts for projects

Thanks Randy Ludi

[futurattraction]

Thanks for your support, Randy. If you want to e-mail me, I can check and see if I have on-hand what you want... Whatever works for you.

Scott

[Steven Zimmerman]

I have been making masters for about 22 years, and have had some 60 plus car / truck bodies cast by reputable resin casters and offered to the public, along with 100 plus masters of seats, interior buckets, hoods, frames, etc. (Actually, I lost count years ago ) In almost all instances I am familiar with, the caster returns the master to the master builder, although not all. Most take a fresh casting from one of the first few produced, clean it up , and that becomes the 'new' master, thus starting with a freshly cast piece with no worries about deterioration of the original master. Therefore, a LOT of casters do NOT have the original master on hand. This has changed some, in the past few years, but a lot are still following that procedure, IMHO...........Steven Zimmerman

[Tom Jackson]

I just got my Fairmont from Scott! First class casting ! The master work is pretty awesome. If you want one buy with no worries!

[futurattraction]

Thank you very much Tom. I appreciate it...

[fractalign]

That is a real shame ! I have seen your Fairmont and having mastered and cast many bodies my self I know how frustrating it must feel to have some resin pirate come along and rip you off. Anyone who unknowingly buys one of these copies may be unaware that the version they are buying will be smaller than your own due to shrinkage. I am planning on releasing some of my own towards the end of the year and I am worried someone will do the same to me. Some of mine have literally years and hundreds of hours in them. We had a guy over here that was doing the same thing and thankfully he has gone out of business now. Hopefully all the guys on the forum will let everyone else know about this pirate.

Edited August 14, 2014 by fractalign

[futurattraction]

Thanks, so much, for your support, Robert. It is frustrating, but I'm going to go with DirtModeler's thought - the quality and reputation I am doing my best to build and live up to will come out ahead in the long run... and that ultimately, we'll all be rewarded, in measure, for what we've done in this life.

[bobthehobbyguy]

It is unfortunate that this happens. I also have had some interest in figure kits and a lot of artists stopped producing kits. The issue is that the recasts are never the same quality as the originals.

Shame on anyone that knowingly buys a recast.

Buyers need to support those who put the effort out to make good products.

[futurattraction]

Thanks Bob. You're right - we need to support those who are legitimately trying to do the right thing and make the hobby better - not the flip side of that...

[Trailer Trash Kustomz]

I just started casting about a year and a half ago. I've made most of my masters myself but have a partner now that does most of our body, cab, and bed masters. First off, whoever makes the master gets credit from me, because that is simple respect and the utmost salute to their talents. Second, making a master is tough enough, hut when you see your hard work being touted by someone else as their own - that's the ultimate disrespect in my eyes. Futurattraction, your master work is incredible to put it mildly brother! I can only hope to be as good of a caster as some of you in my due time ...

[Lownslow]

i put them on blast in the resin casting groups i couldn hold it in any longer.

[futurattraction]

Thanks Rusty. I appreciate your saying that. I've gained so much experience since I mastered my Fairmont that I would go about doing it much differently, now, but that's part of the fun of it.

Frank - Thanks for the support...