captain america

Opus, you're wasting your breath with Happy: he posts the same type of lame comments on other forums. Most members just snicker at him behind his back or in PM, I prefer to do it out in the open. Much more satisfying.

Probably just a glitch. Hopefully Rob'll get that back up & running soon. Also, for all those who've ordered, your kits have been shipped out. ETA: 10 business days.

Indeed, I think that the devil may very well be in the details and the interpretation of the law in this case. However, one cannot ignore the fact that model manufacturers have been producing "license-free" models for decades, and have never been sued for doing so. All of a sudden, manufacturers start clammering for royalties... I may not be a lawyer, but even I can see that this sets a clear precedent whereby the aerospace manufacturers basically "let this slide" all this time, and are now almost arbitrarily trying to extort model manufacturers for money. If anything the aerospace community would have a hard time justifying this new policy in court. Agreed, model companies may need to pay royalties to the Ae manufacturers for using their trademarked company name, but honestly, the model companies can just leave that off the box, and I'll happily buy the product anyway.

I think this is just a sack of sh*t, personally. Military hardware is commissioned by, and paid for by the government (the people), and thus is owned by the people. The stuff is all public domain. If anything, the only aircraft that the companies may be able to get royalties for are commercial airliners, which are privately-owned.

Hi guys. I just wanted to say thank you to all of you. This has been far more insightful & informative than you could immagine. The good thing is that I think we've honed our approach strategy to where we now have a really good direction. THe bad news is that we may yet be up to our collective armpits in legal forms

...And I demand a first run Hi Neova. Actually, the kit as is was designed without poseable joints for stability's sake & price control, but as per Fulcy's earlier posting in the thread, Yellow Submarine's acrylic ball-joints look like they'd be a perfect supplement to anyone who'd like to make the kit poseable.

Selling out the intended run of 50, and hopefully demand for a second run.

Hi Bsu. Thanks for the link! I'm really surprised to find yet another arms manufacturer here in Canada. JS: Definitely a money thing. We need the proper $$ to get the prototype built, tested, and if possible, patented. I think that if we can just get it built & tested/proven, geting a manufacturer or an investment firm to commit wil be infinitely easier. Right now, the 9mm is about 60% done in cad, and my engineer has assured me that he can at least do partial loads testing virtually; maybe even fully. The thing is, knowing that it won't blow up is one thing, but you still need a real working unit to assess whether or not it shoots worth snot The way I see it, a one-off might cost as much as 10G, then of course you have the testing, for which the costs are as yet unknown. As for patents, we have 4, maybe 5 concepts just on the 9mm that can be patented, and at roughly $30k per patent, it adds up real fast. I think I really just need to win the lottery.

Hi JS. I'd discussed the idea of approaching existing firearms manufacturers with my associates. It's technically the easiest route, save for one big problem: as it stands now, we have technology concepts which have yet to be proven 100% effective, since they have only been mocked-up with polymers and not test-fired metal prototypes, and because of that, it's much more difficult to sell a design or a concept because it's "unproven". Companies either wouldn't take us seriously, or would offer probably little more than minimal compensation if anything. Second, because the designs aren't yet patented (because they have yet to be proven viable), I'm extremely weary of sending out prototypes or diagrams to any large firms. I always have ANYONE who looks at our stuff sign NDAs of course, but after reading about what happened to Dan Coonan, I think my concerns are somewhat justified.

Hi Godzilla. A gatling gun and a longer grenade launcher (with removeable cover) would be part of a detail upgrade kit that could be made available provided that the base model sells well.

Hi Bsu. Sadly, yeah, with a 3" barrel, my autoloader won't be available in Canada anytime soon, but maybe a longer barreled, polymer variant will, who knows. As per what JS Arclight stated above, you're correct: I'm very much aiming at the US market, and if anything I'd like to be able to manufacture in the US as well; loads simpler than having to haul stuff across the boarder ( though Para ord. seems to manage somehow.) Prototypes: you bet! The concepts all go to the 3-d stage, and I have almost fully-functional resin prototypes of the 9mm, and am working on the .357 wheelgun as we speak. Basically, I toiled-away to make sure that the safety, slide release, mag release & trigger system all work just as they would on a real firearm; I just had to use softer springs to accomodate the weaker plastic. From there, my engineer takes the plastic prototypes and retro-engineers them to get all the proper tolerances, and thus provides proper CAD software that can be input into a CNC for machining into metal. If anything, we really did our homework to ensure that the design is valid and that we have proof-of-concept for the new trigger & other systems. In a nutshell, before anything else, we'd be looking for a "strategic partner" of sorts who would be able to help us take our concepts to the firing prototype stage, and we're fully prepared to dazzle them with our fancy little prototypes.

Do tell... All in due time. First, everything'll have to be effectively prototyped and evaluated, then patented before I can divulge any secrets... Hence the search for venture capital. What I CAN tell you for the time being is that our 9mm auto is in the cad design phase, and while being under 5.7" long and less than 1" thick across the grip, has a trigger with a 1911-style pull, but is fully DAO and has second-strike capability.

Hi Godzilla. The eye pods are separate, molded in white, with the three "eye" camera indentations pre-drilled. Would you expect any less from me? As for your PM, Rob can help you with shipping issues.

Well there are at least 2, maybe 3 different kits on the drawing board for the next release. I'll have to confer with Monkey-sama to see which one we'll tackle next. It won't be for a while though, since the Tachi will be keeping me quite busy. Be warned, though. 2 of the 3 projects are Macross items

Since a similar 70-part, all molded-in-color free-pose LIMITED resin kit would easily run you double that much from a japanese GK firm. The $75.00 price tag is only good for another 3 weeks anyway, then the price jumps to $100, which is more reasonnable for all the ungodly hours I'm putting on this project.

LoL! Actually, I love wheelguns. I'm currently prototyping one as we speak... Hopefully you'll get to see it one day: If you think Matebas are radical you ain't seen nothin' yet

Actually, as was said above, there's absolutely nothing you can do if your resin part is "sweating", you'll litterally need a new part. This reaction is most likely from improper mixing of the 2 catalytic components; it's quite litterally "sweating out" chemicals and will eventually break-down. When the resin is mixed properly however, there's no worry. As for painting, you can paint over resin with anything: lacquer, enamel or acrylic, don't even need primer. As for vinyl kits: acrylic ONLY. Any other type of paint/solvent will react with the vinyl and remain permanently sticky.

Thanks Bsu, that's right up my alley. Looks like they have a lot of gripes against customs too; just my kind of people! LoL

Apparently the only idiot here is YOU, since you completely fail to grasp the power of innovation,design, and the entrepreneurial spirit. You seem to take for granted what was invented by others over centuries, but if, by your own logic, people could design their own firing systems and weapons, why don't they? Why don't they start their own arms firm and market their creations? And by that standard, if people thought that guns are just there to "deliver a bullet" plain and simple with no need for innovation, there would never have been any semi-autos, no polymer Glocks, no HK P7 or VP-70, no Kahrs or even Mateba revolvers & DAO triggers. We'd all still be toting single action wheelguns. Basically, what you're saying is that you have NO clue where to get any venture-capital.

Now THAT looks like it would work perfectly! If anything, that would be the perfect modification for a little bugger like this.

very little. Guns designs are very old and any machinist can design and make one if he wanted to and go to federal jail if living in the US..... and has the tools to do it. Considering Guns are hundreds of years old and the design hasn't have a major design change yet (Still shooting a metal spit wad down a tube). Now if some super evil villian made a airsoft gun so powerful that it can shoot a 223(556) at the same speed as gun powder would now that would be insane. basicly that would be a true caseless gun. I'm not talking about modifying existing weapons in a little back-room, I mean new, LEGITIMATE firearms concepts designed/manufactured from scratch. Safer, more accurate , more compact, etc... not talking about modding weps you can easily design your own and make it if you have the tools and materials for it. You skill depends on how good it is in quality. for example Philipino guns made by gunsmiths work ok but don't last long cuz they not very durable. but its cheap. ...It's like trying to argue with a stoned teenager ...

very little. Guns designs are very old and any machinist can design and make one if he wanted to and go to federal jail if living in the US..... and has the tools to do it. Considering Guns are hundreds of years old and the design hasn't have a major design change yet (Still shooting a metal spit wad down a tube). Now if some super evil villian made a airsoft gun so powerful that it can shoot a 223(556) at the same speed as gun powder would now that would be insane. basicly that would be a true caseless gun. I'm not talking about modifying existing weapons in a little back-room, I mean new, LEGITIMATE firearms concepts designed/manufactured from scratch. Safer, more accurate , more compact, etc...

no more difficult than hollowing out the main thigh socket and plugging a B-Joint in there; essentially, quite easy. However, I'd advise against it since I don't think that PVC ball-joints will cope very well with the weight of the model. Not so much that it'll fall on its back, but rather the feet will tend to want to spread-out while the knees'll buckle inward, causing it to fall flat on its "belly".

In the vein of "gun talk" but slightly off-topic... Theoretically, where would one go to find financing to develop new firearms designs? If it's too sensitive a topic to discuss here, please feel free to send me a PM anyone.

As per what I stated in the first post (above), there are no balance issues with the model whatsoever. I had built it with a slight foreward slant (see side pic above) as a precaution to prevent it from falling on its a$$, but it seems it wasn't necessary at all, as the center of gravity is well foreward of the rear legs. If anything, the builder has a very wide lattitude of posing possibilities, and for what it's worth, the parts are pre-molded in their proper colors, meaning that there's pretty much no masking needed to paint it, and even if you want to just display it in dry-fit prior to painting, it'll still look nifty