Recently there was a thread about a good experience that an RPF member
had with Shadow Dale Creations:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=26524&highlight=ShadowDale
Here is a different story which I will attempt to tell with a minimum of commentary.
In September 2006 I paid Shadow Dale to make a KOTOR Mandalore style helmet
as discussed in this thread:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=9203&highlight=Mandalorian
10 months later the helmet was shipped to me and arrived at my house
on ~9 July 2007. Unfortunately there were problems with the paint in
one area as seen in this picture:
When I contacted Shadow Dale they apologized and offered to fix the paint
and paid for me to ship the helmet back. I did so and they sent it back to me
about a month later - it got back to me on August 14. This time the paint looked
worse in the same area and some of the red paint had lifted off, stuck to the bubble
wrap used for packing, and then got stuck to an adjacent area as seen in this picture:
When informed of this problem Shadow Dale claimed that the problem
with the paint was not their fault and thought it might have happened during
shipping due to excessive heat in e.g. the postal delivery truck. This explanation
seems unlikely to be correct because of the way the paint went bad in
the same place as the first time, and also because nowhere else had
the paint been lifted off from the helmet surface. Shadow Dale implied that they
would pay for me to get the helmet repainted and asked me for an estimate of a reasonable
amount. I contacted a well-known helmet maker who gave me an estimate of $75 with
the assumption that the resin in the problem area was weeping, which was
causing the paint to go bad, and would need to be fixed before the helmet
could be repainted. Shadow Dale responded by saying that "$20 was what you paid
for the paint job or the helmet would have been shipped off unpainted." This is
not true - the original price that I paid was for the helmet painted with one color.
I later paid an extra $20 to add a second color to the paint job to make it the same as the
one received by GroundsKeeperWillie. Shadow Dale have not yet offered any amount,
not even $20, to have the paint fixed.
So now, about 11 months after sending payment, I have a KOTOR Mandalore helmet
with a poor paint job and a possible bad resin area.
had with Shadow Dale Creations:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=26524&highlight=ShadowDale
Here is a different story which I will attempt to tell with a minimum of commentary.
In September 2006 I paid Shadow Dale to make a KOTOR Mandalore style helmet
as discussed in this thread:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=9203&highlight=Mandalorian
10 months later the helmet was shipped to me and arrived at my house
on ~9 July 2007. Unfortunately there were problems with the paint in
one area as seen in this picture:
When I contacted Shadow Dale they apologized and offered to fix the paint
and paid for me to ship the helmet back. I did so and they sent it back to me
about a month later - it got back to me on August 14. This time the paint looked
worse in the same area and some of the red paint had lifted off, stuck to the bubble
wrap used for packing, and then got stuck to an adjacent area as seen in this picture:
When informed of this problem Shadow Dale claimed that the problem
with the paint was not their fault and thought it might have happened during
shipping due to excessive heat in e.g. the postal delivery truck. This explanation
seems unlikely to be correct because of the way the paint went bad in
the same place as the first time, and also because nowhere else had
the paint been lifted off from the helmet surface. Shadow Dale implied that they
would pay for me to get the helmet repainted and asked me for an estimate of a reasonable
amount. I contacted a well-known helmet maker who gave me an estimate of $75 with
the assumption that the resin in the problem area was weeping, which was
causing the paint to go bad, and would need to be fixed before the helmet
could be repainted. Shadow Dale responded by saying that "$20 was what you paid
for the paint job or the helmet would have been shipped off unpainted." This is
not true - the original price that I paid was for the helmet painted with one color.
I later paid an extra $20 to add a second color to the paint job to make it the same as the
one received by GroundsKeeperWillie. Shadow Dale have not yet offered any amount,
not even $20, to have the paint fixed.
So now, about 11 months after sending payment, I have a KOTOR Mandalore helmet
with a poor paint job and a possible bad resin area.
