Wow......this sounds all to familiar to me too! Thank you for the post!!
Worth a read
- Thread starter MustangGTR1
- Start date
- Status
Oh dear. I just ordered some stuff from Scott at Atomic City. I hope things aren't going to go the way of my Pulse Rifle - 14 years nearly to the day since Steve Dymszo signed a contract, took my money, and still no sign of it...
Kits are ok at Atomic City. Unless it's the 1/32 Aires or Underwriters build ups, which are still in development for over 10 years, they're ready to go.
It's the larger 2001 models and kits that are taking a long time to develop. They'll be engineered perfectly by the time people get them! Don't worry about that.
Scott's trying to save his mortgage/house by selling kits and eventually catching up with the other stuff. He's determined to make it work.
It's the larger 2001 models and kits that are taking a long time to develop. They'll be engineered perfectly by the time people get them! Don't worry about that.
Scott's trying to save his mortgage/house by selling kits and eventually catching up with the other stuff. He's determined to make it work.
I realize everyone is upset with me, and I'm not sure where to begin with this, only to say I way over extended myself and fell into the same trap that a lot of garage kit makers do, thinking I could make something in a week or so, and not coming through, then not charging enough, then the money is gone, and then I have to take on new stuff to pay for the old. It was especially worse in my case since that was all I was doing for a living, so when it came to the electric being turned off, or taking on a new commission, I just did it. So I'm in a position now where I'm years behind on people's projects.
As for Max's post. Most of what Max sent me was unusable very grainy 3d printed material that was extremely low in resolution, a lot of you know this from when these projects started.
This was the majority of what was sent to me by Max, I just couldn't do anything with it. So at most I used it as a reference to scratchbuild one, and then not even then since they were 3d printed from a mesh he would take off other websites.
http://the-grey-ghost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/31kkting2.jpg
Those that were there when we were developing the Slave know this.
I basically had to rebuild everything, the few things I did use turned out ok, like the Slave body, but originally what was sent to me was total garbage, again, as some of you know that were there and saw the finished result. So, as a result of the things he sent me, I had to put hours and hours of work into, eventually in 90% of the cases just starting over on it when I could have scratch built it easier. Everything Max sent me I could have made myself, I have that ability, but I was trying to help him out and get him some money so he could pay for those expensive machines he bought, since his wife was complaining about how much he spent on them. I considered him a friend, so I didn't tell him his work wasn't up to molding standards. He would usually go on places like Sci Fi Meshes, download a mesh, then print it out and send it to me to make into some kind of kit. Well it didn't take long to realize it didn't work, so we would be on the phone for hours trying to come up with another plan, then another, then another, until eventually I was so far behind with these projects I couldn't see daylight.
The Defiant was ok, but the body shape was all wrong so I had to rebuild that, which wasn't Max's fault as the mesh was wrong and we didn't realize it until it was already made. That's another mesh that was downloaded from Sci Fi Meshes and was wrong.
Mustang, that kit you sent me completely warped out of shape because the resin was bad, you knew this, so I don't know why you're attacking me. I will post pictures of your shuttle to show people what it looks like. And I never said I didn't get them, they were delivered to my neighbor's house, also you sent me castings made with heavily tinted clear resin that's still weeping to this day, I noticed when you started selling them in the Junkyard you switched to regular resin. The castings were worthless.
Sovereignreplicas.com is not down, I had my domain with ATT/Yahoo, they split and Yahoo cancelled all the accounts that didn't sign the new user agreement, well I didn't get that email, or it was lost in the spam folder, so last month I go to check my email and the site was gone. I have now got it back, but there's still a problem with the email. If you want to email me you can at rda2012 at gmail.com
I haven't read the whole thread yet, I'm going to do that now, but all I can say is my absence was due mostly to try and work and get these projects that I've owed for years caught up the best I can. I haven't bailed on any of you and I will eventually come through, I'm very sorry for taking so long.
edit:
Max didn't just send me stuff to make into kits unsolicited, I asked him to, so I take responsibility for that, hoping something he sent me could be used, he did do a lot of work at his own expense, my mistake was not being honest with him to spare his feelings as I didn't have the heart to tell him his stuff was bad. If I could go back in time I would have just told him I can't do anything with this material for the most part and went on, that's my failing that I have a lot of trouble saying no to people. So I can understand why he's mad.
As for Max's post. Most of what Max sent me was unusable very grainy 3d printed material that was extremely low in resolution, a lot of you know this from when these projects started.
This was the majority of what was sent to me by Max, I just couldn't do anything with it. So at most I used it as a reference to scratchbuild one, and then not even then since they were 3d printed from a mesh he would take off other websites.
http://the-grey-ghost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/31kkting2.jpg
Those that were there when we were developing the Slave know this.
I basically had to rebuild everything, the few things I did use turned out ok, like the Slave body, but originally what was sent to me was total garbage, again, as some of you know that were there and saw the finished result. So, as a result of the things he sent me, I had to put hours and hours of work into, eventually in 90% of the cases just starting over on it when I could have scratch built it easier. Everything Max sent me I could have made myself, I have that ability, but I was trying to help him out and get him some money so he could pay for those expensive machines he bought, since his wife was complaining about how much he spent on them. I considered him a friend, so I didn't tell him his work wasn't up to molding standards. He would usually go on places like Sci Fi Meshes, download a mesh, then print it out and send it to me to make into some kind of kit. Well it didn't take long to realize it didn't work, so we would be on the phone for hours trying to come up with another plan, then another, then another, until eventually I was so far behind with these projects I couldn't see daylight.
The Defiant was ok, but the body shape was all wrong so I had to rebuild that, which wasn't Max's fault as the mesh was wrong and we didn't realize it until it was already made. That's another mesh that was downloaded from Sci Fi Meshes and was wrong.
Mustang, that kit you sent me completely warped out of shape because the resin was bad, you knew this, so I don't know why you're attacking me. I will post pictures of your shuttle to show people what it looks like. And I never said I didn't get them, they were delivered to my neighbor's house, also you sent me castings made with heavily tinted clear resin that's still weeping to this day, I noticed when you started selling them in the Junkyard you switched to regular resin. The castings were worthless.
Sovereignreplicas.com is not down, I had my domain with ATT/Yahoo, they split and Yahoo cancelled all the accounts that didn't sign the new user agreement, well I didn't get that email, or it was lost in the spam folder, so last month I go to check my email and the site was gone. I have now got it back, but there's still a problem with the email. If you want to email me you can at rda2012 at gmail.com
I haven't read the whole thread yet, I'm going to do that now, but all I can say is my absence was due mostly to try and work and get these projects that I've owed for years caught up the best I can. I haven't bailed on any of you and I will eventually come through, I'm very sorry for taking so long.
edit:
Max didn't just send me stuff to make into kits unsolicited, I asked him to, so I take responsibility for that, hoping something he sent me could be used, he did do a lot of work at his own expense, my mistake was not being honest with him to spare his feelings as I didn't have the heart to tell him his stuff was bad. If I could go back in time I would have just told him I can't do anything with this material for the most part and went on, that's my failing that I have a lot of trouble saying no to people. So I can understand why he's mad.
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Also, Max has decided to attack Dana in his post, which is unfair in the extreme as she has had nothing to do with any of this. She builds models too and posts them on her FB account just for fun, she sells nothing, it's her own personal projects. She has now deleted her account because of all of this. I find it completely horrible that he would attack her when it's me he has a problem with.
edit.
He has accused her of fronting my work on FB, that is another lie, she was posting pictures and videos of her own work as she molds and casts a lot of things and is very good at it. She is the one that does all the fiberglass castings of the masters, that's what she was posting, she never claimed she made the masters. She wasn't offering them for sale, just showing people what she does. In any event, she has taken all of that down now, at my request, due to the outright lies and slanders made by Max towards her. Which is a shame because a lot of people liked her videos on mold making and casting, but I think it's best for now.
edit.
He has accused her of fronting my work on FB, that is another lie, she was posting pictures and videos of her own work as she molds and casts a lot of things and is very good at it. She is the one that does all the fiberglass castings of the masters, that's what she was posting, she never claimed she made the masters. She wasn't offering them for sale, just showing people what she does. In any event, she has taken all of that down now, at my request, due to the outright lies and slanders made by Max towards her. Which is a shame because a lot of people liked her videos on mold making and casting, but I think it's best for now.
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I'm sorry about the Speeder, I will make it, I'm not going to rip you off. It's just hard for me to tell you when as I honestly don't know, I don't want to give you an exact date then it just comes and goes again.
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I know I owe you a canopy for the A Wing, we've had so much trouble with those, I probably should have sent them out vac formed.
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Another thing claimed by Max that is inaccurate - the Enterprise D is NOT in production, the ones out there were the first generation ones that were incomplete, sold years ago, it has since been retooled and the few people that got the originals had to finish the work themselves, which is to my shame. The kit is still being worked on. I still owe a few to people and I haven't stopped working on it. I have refunded a few people that paid for them, the rest have chosen to wait until it's done.
The Republic Star Destroyer diagrams he shows on his site, he forgets to mention that I drew the original diagrams, he redrew them for his machine to cut out, he makes it look like he did it all, and I did pay him for the plexiglass, but his time was going to be paid when it was built. I wasn't able to use what he sent me through no fault of his own due to all the holes he drilled in it to hold it down on the table for his machining process so I had new ones laser cut later. I don't deny I asked him to do it, the purpose of that build was going to sell it on ebay to try and get him some money and maybe to pay back some other people, I told him this when I asked him to do it.
The Republic Star Destroyer diagrams he shows on his site, he forgets to mention that I drew the original diagrams, he redrew them for his machine to cut out, he makes it look like he did it all, and I did pay him for the plexiglass, but his time was going to be paid when it was built. I wasn't able to use what he sent me through no fault of his own due to all the holes he drilled in it to hold it down on the table for his machining process so I had new ones laser cut later. I don't deny I asked him to do it, the purpose of that build was going to sell it on ebay to try and get him some money and maybe to pay back some other people, I told him this when I asked him to do it.
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Thanks for that insight. Much appreciated. Scott and I are in dialogue.
I paid Steve D $4,200 which was somewhat naive. Should have found and joined the RPF back then!
MustangGTR1
Sr Member
I never swapped resin and if they were worthless if you remember I offered to send new ones if you sent me the old ones in return. You seem to be the only one who has had trouble with them, sorry to say
MustangGTR1
Sr Member
I would still like to have all 4 of them back, and I will send you a RTS airbill, since you cant use them
re: http://www.therpf.com/f10/worth-read-205612/index2.html
Caveat: I'm a newbie here, I have no relationships with anyone either on RPF, or on this particular thread. I'm pretty much new to modelling, after a very long hiatus (25 years).
Well, I came across this thread, cos I was curious about the 1:650 scale Enterprise E - I was hoping to one day own one of those suckers. Well, Googling yesterday, I found Commander Max's blog post yesterday and read it with interest. Prior to this, I did not know REL was connected to Sovereign Replicas. I can say that a few months back, I had some interesting conversations about Sovereign Replicas with another person via EMail and I was warned to stay away - this particular person was not Max, but did tell me that they lost nearly 60k USD correcting problems with Enterprise D kits sourced from Sovereign Replicas, that were clearly in production via Sovereign Replicas, despite REL's post to the contrary. This particular person was extremely vehement in his dislike of Sovereign Replicas I might add - I will keep this person's name out of this though. This person had not gotten any compensation back from Sovereign Replicas and according to them, was out of pocket by aforementioned 60K USD.
Now, since I work in IT, I was curious to see the failure notice when trying to send an EMail to rel@sovereignreplicas.com. So, I've done some research and shall share that with the community, along with my notes...
Firstly, a WHOIS lookup on the sovereignreplicas.com domain name:
Macintosh:~ melkor$ whois sovereignreplicas.com
Whois Server Version 2.0
Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to InterNIC | The Internet's Network Information Center
for detailed information.
Domain Name: SOVEREIGNREPLICAS.COM
Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
Whois Server: whois.melbourneit.com
Referral URL: Melbourne IT
Name Server: YNS1.YAHOO.COM
Name Server: YNS2.YAHOO.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 10-feb-2014
Creation Date: 04-nov-2005
Expiration Date: 04-nov-2014
A few notes here...DNS hosting is with Yahoo. The domain registrar is also Melbourne IT, which is Australian based. I'm immediately suspicious as to why a US based individual would register a domain with an Australian domain registrar, especially one that is not cheap (background, I work for an ISP as a tech, my background is with domains, DNS and hosting). US domain registrars would be far cheaper than Melbourne IT. I also note that the registrant for the domain is Dana Long, and that privacy contacts have been enabled for EMail contacts. A PO Box is present and a phone number is published.
I then proceeded to do a "dig" (DNS lookup on UNIX like systems, replaces the RFC deprecated nslookup command) for "MX" records (Mail Xchanger records):
Macintosh:~ melkor$ dig mx @4.2.2.2 sovereignreplicas.com
; <<>> DiG 9.8.5-P1 <<>> mx @4.2.2.2 sovereignreplicas.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 14591
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;sovereignreplicas.com. IN MX
;; ANSWER SECTION:
sovereignreplicas.com. 120 IN MX 10 mx-biz.mail.am0.yahoodns.net.
So, let's test the mail setup:
Macintosh:~ melkor$ telnet mx-biz.mail.am0.yahoodns.net 25
Trying 63.250.193.253...
Connected to mx-biz.mail.am0.yahoodns.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mta1000.biz.mail.gq1.yahoo.com ESMTP ready
helo ecn.net.au
250 mta1000.biz.mail.gq1.yahoo.com
mail from: <dpastern@ecn.net.au>
250 sender <dpastern@ecn.net.au> ok
rcpt to: <rel@sovereignreplicas.com>
250 recipient <rel@sovereignreplicas.com> ok
data
354 go ahead
so, the address exists now. To test it further, I sent a test EMail from my own private account (I have nothing to hide, so I haven't hidden my address in the above transcript):
on my work mail routing server (well, one of them as we run a load balanced setup):
Jun 29 13:27:10 twbextmail2 qmail: 1404012430.761770 delivery 543899: success: 63.250.193.253_accepted_message./Remote_host_said:_250_ok_dirdel/
so, Yahoo's mail server has accepted the mail for delivery. I find it odd that REL was making a fuss about Yahoo cutting his website off (my guess is that he didn't pay for the web hosting with Yahoo and they terminated it) and that his EMail address wasn't working before, and that he's now using a GMail address. If his Yahoo based address is now working again, why has he chosen to not advise people that his original address is now working? I can only think that he wants to dis-associate himself with the old sovereign replicas name. Since I'm a curious person, my first question is why? Well, along comes Titan Models...
Titan models (titansciencefiction.com) (who REL & his wife Dana were also involved with) has disappeared too. Sadly, a WHOIS lookup (the domain is with Godaddy) hides the registrant name. I bet my *bottom* dollar it's Dana Long. Address & phone number contacts are different between the 2 domains. There is no MX record for this domain, and the A record goes nowhere. I've heard rumours (again, via Googling) that Paramount Pictures issued a cease & desist copyright infringement notice to Titan models and that is why they were closed down. I'm not a legal guy, so I have no idea how to chase that down and verify it.
I don't know anyone in this thread, I don't know REL, and I don't dislike the guy. I'm just a curious person, who's capable of doing a bit of investigation and wanted to add my thoughts to this thread. Whilst I would love a 1:650 scale Enterprise E, the warning bells are ringing heavily for me here, and as my late dad always said to me "if the warning bells are a ringing, walk away son".
mods: I haven't slandered anyone, all I've done is present facts. I can provide said Email trail to back up my comments.
As usual,caveat emptor
Dave
Caveat: I'm a newbie here, I have no relationships with anyone either on RPF, or on this particular thread. I'm pretty much new to modelling, after a very long hiatus (25 years).
Well, I came across this thread, cos I was curious about the 1:650 scale Enterprise E - I was hoping to one day own one of those suckers. Well, Googling yesterday, I found Commander Max's blog post yesterday and read it with interest. Prior to this, I did not know REL was connected to Sovereign Replicas. I can say that a few months back, I had some interesting conversations about Sovereign Replicas with another person via EMail and I was warned to stay away - this particular person was not Max, but did tell me that they lost nearly 60k USD correcting problems with Enterprise D kits sourced from Sovereign Replicas, that were clearly in production via Sovereign Replicas, despite REL's post to the contrary. This particular person was extremely vehement in his dislike of Sovereign Replicas I might add - I will keep this person's name out of this though. This person had not gotten any compensation back from Sovereign Replicas and according to them, was out of pocket by aforementioned 60K USD.
Now, since I work in IT, I was curious to see the failure notice when trying to send an EMail to rel@sovereignreplicas.com. So, I've done some research and shall share that with the community, along with my notes...
Firstly, a WHOIS lookup on the sovereignreplicas.com domain name:
Macintosh:~ melkor$ whois sovereignreplicas.com
Whois Server Version 2.0
Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to InterNIC | The Internet's Network Information Center
for detailed information.
Domain Name: SOVEREIGNREPLICAS.COM
Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
Whois Server: whois.melbourneit.com
Referral URL: Melbourne IT
Name Server: YNS1.YAHOO.COM
Name Server: YNS2.YAHOO.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 10-feb-2014
Creation Date: 04-nov-2005
Expiration Date: 04-nov-2014
A few notes here...DNS hosting is with Yahoo. The domain registrar is also Melbourne IT, which is Australian based. I'm immediately suspicious as to why a US based individual would register a domain with an Australian domain registrar, especially one that is not cheap (background, I work for an ISP as a tech, my background is with domains, DNS and hosting). US domain registrars would be far cheaper than Melbourne IT. I also note that the registrant for the domain is Dana Long, and that privacy contacts have been enabled for EMail contacts. A PO Box is present and a phone number is published.
I then proceeded to do a "dig" (DNS lookup on UNIX like systems, replaces the RFC deprecated nslookup command) for "MX" records (Mail Xchanger records):
Macintosh:~ melkor$ dig mx @4.2.2.2 sovereignreplicas.com
; <<>> DiG 9.8.5-P1 <<>> mx @4.2.2.2 sovereignreplicas.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 14591
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;sovereignreplicas.com. IN MX
;; ANSWER SECTION:
sovereignreplicas.com. 120 IN MX 10 mx-biz.mail.am0.yahoodns.net.
So, let's test the mail setup:
Macintosh:~ melkor$ telnet mx-biz.mail.am0.yahoodns.net 25
Trying 63.250.193.253...
Connected to mx-biz.mail.am0.yahoodns.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mta1000.biz.mail.gq1.yahoo.com ESMTP ready
helo ecn.net.au
250 mta1000.biz.mail.gq1.yahoo.com
mail from: <dpastern@ecn.net.au>
250 sender <dpastern@ecn.net.au> ok
rcpt to: <rel@sovereignreplicas.com>
250 recipient <rel@sovereignreplicas.com> ok
data
354 go ahead
so, the address exists now. To test it further, I sent a test EMail from my own private account (I have nothing to hide, so I haven't hidden my address in the above transcript):
on my work mail routing server (well, one of them as we run a load balanced setup):
Jun 29 13:27:10 twbextmail2 qmail: 1404012430.761770 delivery 543899: success: 63.250.193.253_accepted_message./Remote_host_said:_250_ok_dirdel/
so, Yahoo's mail server has accepted the mail for delivery. I find it odd that REL was making a fuss about Yahoo cutting his website off (my guess is that he didn't pay for the web hosting with Yahoo and they terminated it) and that his EMail address wasn't working before, and that he's now using a GMail address. If his Yahoo based address is now working again, why has he chosen to not advise people that his original address is now working? I can only think that he wants to dis-associate himself with the old sovereign replicas name. Since I'm a curious person, my first question is why? Well, along comes Titan Models...
Titan models (titansciencefiction.com) (who REL & his wife Dana were also involved with) has disappeared too. Sadly, a WHOIS lookup (the domain is with Godaddy) hides the registrant name. I bet my *bottom* dollar it's Dana Long. Address & phone number contacts are different between the 2 domains. There is no MX record for this domain, and the A record goes nowhere. I've heard rumours (again, via Googling) that Paramount Pictures issued a cease & desist copyright infringement notice to Titan models and that is why they were closed down. I'm not a legal guy, so I have no idea how to chase that down and verify it.
I don't know anyone in this thread, I don't know REL, and I don't dislike the guy. I'm just a curious person, who's capable of doing a bit of investigation and wanted to add my thoughts to this thread. Whilst I would love a 1:650 scale Enterprise E, the warning bells are ringing heavily for me here, and as my late dad always said to me "if the warning bells are a ringing, walk away son".
mods: I haven't slandered anyone, all I've done is present facts. I can provide said Email trail to back up my comments.
As usual,caveat emptor
Dave
MustangGTR1
Sr Member
Dave I think you did just fine. I had heard Titan was having troubles with producing the kits. Or at least that is what I was told, not for sure. Plus the prices were way out of the ball park for most. I have one of the E-E
I will also say after I started this thread, REL made good on what he owed me, but have not heard back from him since.
I will also say after I started this thread, REL made good on what he owed me, but have not heard back from him since.
- Status
