Darin Bastedo

doesn't anyone actually have one of these bodies that he is accused of copying? I keep seeing pictures of his stuff from ebay. The only thing I can tell by these photos are that these are two similar model bodies. I could modify my own camaro body to fit the same chassis and it would come out looking very much like both of these. Does anyone actually have the Reliable resin body and one of theirs in the same place at the same time so they can be seen side by side?

I have some stuff coming from reliable resin that I ordered a few weeks back, I tell you what when I open the boxes I will shoot some pictures of what I got, just as it comes out of the box, and then we can all decide the quality of his current offerings and put this to rest. As for the accusations of of stolen work, like I said in the "Auction" thread, lets see some pictures that show definitive proof. tooling marks, product reciepts, etc. I'm really getting sick of people making accusations with no intent of showing proof, and this goes about accusing anyone. In the legal world nothing is real with out proof. You can see a guy standing over a dead body seconds after hearing the shot, but he can't be convicted without evidence. So show me the proof, put up or shut up. The next post I see that accuses anyone of anything better have iron clad proof, otherwise I'll have to believe that you are all full of "hot air", (for lack of a word would get me banned.)

That's Mr. Peabody to you. Mr. Hector Peabody, the dog in that cartoon, while smart enough to, never earned a Phd. Though he was the invetor of the WABAC Machine that he, and his pet boy Sherman used to travel time in. As a tribute to The catoon of our youths the writers of "Back To The Future" had Marty's arrival in the past be at the Peabody Farm. It was later revealed in the credits that Farmer Peabody's son was named Sherman.

put me down for at least a case of each.

This is a very rough Concept sketch of the project I have dubbed, "Brute Forza" This should give you a rough Idea what I'm shooting for.

those are going to be cool. I always liked the look of the sox & martin cars. I can't wait to see them finished.

Surprised? How? I hope not in a bad way.

Hey Ken, You are right, most resin casters just aren't good businessmen. a man's got to know his limitations. I've often been tempted to start up in the aftermaket parts business but I know I have niether the time or the patience to do it well so I never had. I just noticed that you are from N.E. kentucky how far are you from Kingsport TN?

Of all the things I've suggested, though The Yellow Fin Tuna steak with key lime seasoning, and a brew works the best. 8)

Ironicly I've had all that said to me by a car dealer. but this is apples and oranges. with full size cars there are regulations a legal recourse. with my full size car I called the state attourny generals office, and in no time my dealer was more than cooperative. but with a resin body there are no minimum quality regulatios, and the attourney general will send you to small claims court. a $50 dollar purchase is not worth my time or effort to get all worked up. I just say screw it, hop in the truck with my brother, play a round of disc golf, then head to our favorite resturant for a plate of med. rare yellow fin tuna steak with key lime seasoning, and a brew. then I head home toss the bad body in my bin of "stuff I'm gonna cut up for kitbashing" and work on my latest project.

This is the way I deal with a resin caster for the first time, and I suggest this method to any first time resin buyer. 1. I make a small order (one body or several small bits if they are a diorama or detail part caster) Basicly I spend only an amount I'm willing to loose. I've seen resin casters go out of business in the time it takes their press release to get published in a magazine. 2. If I actually get the part I look it over. If it is is of adequate quality for the price I paid, and it was delivered in my anticipated time frame, That caster gets passing marks, and goes into my "will buy from again" file. If not, I move on to step three... 3. I politely ask for refund or a suitable replacement. I make sure the caster knows what my issues with the part are, and ask if those issues can be resolved. If the caster makes good on the deal, I decide whether I think it was a one time error, or whether i think it may be an ongoing problem. and decide whether I want to buy from him again. If I don't get satisfaction from the caster I move on to step four... 4. I never order from him again. I get over it and I build something. I don't make a Voodoo doll of the man, and get out my exacto knife, and soldering iron, I don't start a smear campaign on the internet and I certainly don't bore my freinds for months (or years) complaining on how I got screwed. (though if the guy was a real jerk about it, I might stoop so low as to search for places to sign him up for dump truck loads of junk mail. :twisted: ) Needless to say all of us who have been in the hobby for a while have been screwed buy an aftermarket supplier from one time or another. Chances are it will happen again too. While you may be sick of it, you still gotta take it like a man. The only other choice is to yell scream stomp your feet, but in the end you won't feel any better the situation still won't be resolved, and you will have wasted time and energy that could be used in a more positive manner.

Good idea, is it possible to do sub-forums under one catagory? like; Aftermarket Resin Photoetch diorama stuff etc.

Thank's Jairus, You summed up my thoughts perfectly. The real telling thing about this thread is out of the nearly 1,000 member of this board, nobody jumped in the thread to say, "Yes I got the shaft by Reliable Resins" the only people who posted negatives were the poeople originally involved in the spam "auctions". I'm sure had this been a thread about AFX-n Resin and their difficulties of late, this thread would be packed full of posts. As Jairus said, I was looking for the truth, I investigated claims, asked for evidence, and based my conclusions on what I found. My mind is still open if someone has new evidence, but as far as I can see it's case closed for me.

I've tried during this thread to gain some perspective from both sides of the argument, and over the last few days this is what I've come up with; 1. There seems to be a total of about 6 People who have a beef with Don Thune / Reliable resins who are waging a campain to put him out of business. Outside of SLM and this thread there is almost no mention of dissatisfaction with reliable resins, or even mentions of the auctions on any of the other boards. 2. out side of those few people there are are some more who feel Don has copied their, or someone elses work It's possible he has but as yet i haven't seen difinitive proof of it other than a cople of photos that show similar, but different bodies. Verdict - inconclusive. 3. A still larger group think Don Thune is a jerk. Well there are people who think I'm a jerk too, not even counting ex-girlfriends. Having spoken to him a few times I can say his demeanor can be gruff. Verdict - Yeah he's probably offended some people but who hasn't? Don might need to tone down his attitude when talking with customers. 4. Two auctions featuring years old resin bodies contend that Don is making ######. The comet was rough, the dragster IMHO didn't look that bad, still two year old bodies don't nessesarily reflect the quality of his current offerings. Verdict - inconclusive Until I see a current sample myself. 5. Reliable Resin's ebay name Gott De Mottz has excellent feed back that despite what some contend is left out of fear, is too glowing to be coearced. If you aren't happy with something but but don't want to neg. them you say things like " got it in a timely fashion" or "everything was ok", not "Great product, Excellent packaging, Fast shipping, Highly recommended. AAAAA++++" or "Received item today! Great communication, great stuff! Packaging great! AAAA+" Verdict - The vast majority of his customers don't seem to have a problem with him. 6. when I visited SLM for the first time tonight one of the first threads I came accross involved further planning of other "auctions" and the bad mouthing of a fellow modeler from this board, Someone who I consider a friend, and who's modeling skills, opinions, and actions I've grown to respect over a number of years. The tone of the comments, the name calling, and the plotting I saw coupled with all the other evidence i've gathered leads me to believe that this is a case of sour grapes, nothing more. Verdict - You guys should go back to building models, stop posting spam auctions, Forget about Reliable Resin, and get on with your lives.

The Chezoom isn't the way to go, I have one and the suspension is almost toylike. for an accurate C4 suspension, about the only way to go is Monogram/Revell

I disagree, I would rather have a flawed offering, Case in point; http://www.eastcoastcarnews.com/1967%20For...on%20review.htm if you follow the link you will find a reveiw of a very flawed R&R 1967 Ford Wagon kit. This is a car that has great sentimental value to me, and given the availability of the base car in coupe form (very rare but available) I would have probably been tempted to scratch build a wagon conversion for it. But fixing the flaws in this resin is far easier, and cheaper to do. The base work is there but the details need some tweaking. You say you wouldn't want a flawed offereing. where do you draw the line? when Amt released it's 62 belair it was flawed, when Revell released their 69 Camaro it was flawed, these are a couple of really nice models that while flawed, still built up really nice on the shelf. I don't seek perfection, I look at any model kit resin or otherwise, as i would a rack full of evergreen plastic stock. It's raw matierial that I can use to turn into what I want.

RMR Resins has that kit I believe. I don't have contact info for them but they show up on ebay a lot

Considering that to many this seris of attack auctions and message board rants will be many modelers first impression of "straight line modelers" I would be very concerned over the reputation that group is getting. Negativity has driven me from a couple of boards lately, and while i have intrest in the subject, this current situation almost guarantees I won't be visiting SLM anytime soon.

do you have better pics of both of these bodies? after looking at these pictures I count at least a half dozen differences. if you have both bodies in question can you take some picture that would show a common detail that would show it was copied? If you don't have these bodies I'd be glad to order one of each of these and put the rumors to rest. do have contact info for cheez-cast? like i said in another post, I'm not joining camps, i just want to deal in facts, not speculation. as far as the mobs with pitch forks go, i see a half dozen angry people here, and almost no mention of it out side those few. I know of you from your ardvark models days and you have a sterling reputation, that ranks you up with Modelhaus, R&MoM and other leaders in the field. But I also have bought from Reliable Resins and while i don't rank him tops, he ranks better than most. so far from what i have seen so far this is just a small group of people who got together for some payback. if someone can show me different feel free.

If these guys were "intimidated" into good feed back why is it glowing praise, especially the recent ones? http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback It would appear there are a lot of happy customers. I'm not siding with the guy, but so far there seems to be a handfull of disgruntled customers and hundreds of happy ones. Even at my job, where we pride ourselves on customer service we've had customers we simply could satisfy. I'm not going to join a lynch mob because a couple of guys show me some pictures of a couple of bad resins. What I see in his feed back is one negative in the last 90 days, and that had to do with shipping time, not quality. when I see something like this on a message board I want to see evidence of a current issue with the company. I'm not taking sides or "Joining a camp" I just want to see something more than annecdotal evidence.

Why is it that you can say that Reliable Resin's stuff is all ######, when his ebay feedback is full of praise? Is it possible that this realy is a handfull of disgruntled customers with a vendetta? I have no afiliation with Don Thune other than he and I have done business and my dealings with him have been satisfactory. Having talked with him I know he can be gruff, and is not one to sugar coat what he thinks but the guy has 921 feedback that is 99% positive. you don't get that by habitually ripping people off. The current "auction" that is on ebay for the dragster, the product was bought 2 years ago. why wasn't this addressed then? I've been on various model message boards since 2001 and I've never heard about this problm until now. This has all the signs to me of a few people with a grudge, trying to make something out of nothing. You want to convice me that he is currently ripping people off, show me a body bought recently with a dated reciept (can be printed off his site when paying with paypal) or ebay transaction report, and pictures. So far all I have seen is two messed up resin castings and a whole bunch of heated debate. as far as the allegations of repopping other caster's stuff, I don't know enough about resin to spot that, But if some of the offended casters want to step up with proof that would be best. What I'm saying here is I want to see concrete evidence that there is an ongoing issue with Reliable resin and not just some old feud going on. With out that this whole thread is just one big pissing match, and has no meaning.

Looks pretty cool, cant wait to see how it comes out.

Let me know what shows you plan to hit and we'll hook up...I'll PM you with my Phone#

What part of western NC are you from?

Very Cool Marc, I wish i had a real one.