Rich, you don't need to thank me its your right to have a place here just do what you can and resolve as much as you can with genuine commitment and concern for the people at the other end, the more info you give out to people be it good or bad news keeps them from swaying the wrong way re your trust, trust is everything, when its gone its gone....keep your chin up and work harder than you did to get in this situation and it'll come good.
I've not been around a long time in this hobby like yourself and Steve N and a small group of real friends like he who shall not be named and Julien, Mike etc. I'm learning whats right and wrong with this hobby as I go and I can pin it down to 2 things. Its a slight de rail but relevant to your situation I feel, so worth saying.
The first thing that destroys this hobby for people is when it becomes a financial income, if your not self reliant and this (hobby) becomes your income then your either doomed or driven mad...... The ONLY exception to this rule I can see is F&M models, from my own experience and what I know I think F&M succeeded where many others failed, I don't meen failed finically I mean failed morally and Failed ego wise and failed because they are having to grab at info from all over the world and grab it without permission sometimes and other times trade it to gain so they can gain more etc etc etc. There is only ever one result to this and its endemic in this that suffer from it, its anger.... the loss of control over their own outcome creates anger and bitterness to those that are holding them back in small way.... The protection of whats their's over the reality that they most likely never created it in the first place or found it or made it from their own knowledge !!!! This is not a rant about individuals its a fact thats becoming clearer and clearer and clearer to me and its the money and the anger it breeds that are the criminals in this hobby....a hobby its not if there is profit to be gained.....
I've felt the anger recently and been so angry with people it turned my stomach and I was not even in it for profit, the anger is because I can not control my own work, I lost the ability to be as rational through anger..... now if I times that by multiple projects then it would burn me up.....
The long shot is if we deal with people that want an income from this hobby then we have to guarded and careful or care free!!!! I'm choosing to be care free now as am sticking to what I know best, genuine friendship and sharing in that circle, if that circle isn't self reliant then I'm care free if the results aren't there.....I have been burnt and I've been a bad boy myself but only with a genuine desire to protect whats mine.......
I only mentioned Steve as he has had similar problems hence a huge long sticky thread, this is not directed at anyone but just an observation about what happens when your not self reliant and want an income from it....... Hobby + Income = Bad things
So do me a favour, when you do resolve all this, just make it a hobby again and you will enjoy it once more........