Review French Revolution Set by MMM

[Martin64]

Although I strongly support all positive notions about Gordon and his company, his excellent care for customers and the affordable prices I am quite surprised about the unwillingness of several members to answer to the topic of this review.
It is all about a kit that requires a considerable amount of adjustments by the customer. Even when the customer is getting the full support of Gordon`s customer service he will need to remove a lot of flash, add details etc. Some of the problems are related to the sculptor who is a great artist - no doubt but regularly misses to prepare the surface of his sculpts and remove tool marks for instance due to the amazing speed while creating his artworks. This time the anatomy of the figures is IMHO very good - that is not always the case...
Whoever feels to reply to this review should at best own a copy of this kit in question.
As this thread so far does not contain any personal insults or political topics I do not see any reason, why it should be closed or worse - deleted.
This sort of shutting down criticism will not help and I am sorry for Gordon that he feels that his reputation might suffer from this critique. I am sure that everybody who knows him will nevertheless continue to support him and his business. If the previous thread would not have been deleted everybody would be able to make up his own mind if the kit is worth a try or if the complaints were totally justified the way they were presented.

Cheers, Martin

Current status of my kit - I like it despite the shortcomings - thank you Gordon for making it happen!

 

[Ronaldo]

Apart from all the controversy relating to the kit something keeps flagging up . Resin does not do well in 54mm its a weight ratio thing especially with small parts , swords scabbards etc

Trying to cast artillery spoked wheels is just asking for trouble you need the weight of metal in a centrifugal casting machine to make it work .
If anything good comes out of this , Gordon realise the limitations of the medium

 

[Martin64]

Apart from all the controversy relating to the kit something keeps flagging up . Resin does not do well in 54mm its a weight ratio thing especially with small parts , swords scabbards etc

Trying to cast artillery spoked wheels is just asking for trouble you need the weight of metal in a centrifugal casting machine to make it work .
If anything good comes out of this , Gordon realise the limitations of the medium

I doubt that - have a look at all resin releases of other manufacturers like Avanpost, Castle Miniatures, Chronos Miniatures etc. The advantage of resin is that I was able to get all warped parts of this kit back into shape by using a hairdryer.

 

[Ronaldo]

I doubt that - have a look at all resin releases of other manufacturers like Avanpost, Castle Miniatures, Chronos Miniatures etc. The advantage of resin is that I was able to get all warped parts of this kit back into shape by using a hairdryer.

Quite so BUT that should not be necessary in this day and age of casting

 

[IronMike]

Apart from all the controversy relating to the kit something keeps flagging up . Resin does not do well in 54mm its a weight ratio thing especially with small parts , swords scabbards etc



Trying to cast artillery spoked wheels is just asking for trouble you need the weight of metal in a centrifugal casting machine to make it work .

If anything good comes out of this , Gordon realise the limitations of the medium

I produced 90mm ACW artillery pieces for years. Before I had them, Terry Worster did them, and before Terry Armand Bayardi. I also produce a 54mm Napoleon and plan to produce a Rev War 6lb'der. Weight was never an issue. If it was, no one ever made me aware of it. As a matter of fact I just did a crew for a piece that was built over 10 years ago. Small thin pieces would be another story. Sword blades in any scale always had the potential to warp even after years of curing. I was more concerned that small parts would be brittle and hard to handle.

 

[Ronaldo]

I produced 90mm ACW artillery pieces for years. Before I had them, Terry Worster did them, and before Terry Armand Bayardi. I also produce a 54mm Napoleon and plan to produce a Rev War 6lb'der. Weight was never an issue. If it was, no one ever made me aware of it. As a matter of fact I just did a crew for a piece that was built over 10 years ago. Small thin pieces would be another story. Sword blades in any scale always had the potential to warp even after years of curing. I was more concerned that small parts would be brittle and hard to handle.

All said and done where is the problem then , time after time I see very inferior casting especially from about 75 mm down , lots of air bubble pin holes and lack of detail .
Look back to Poste Militaire and the high quality of casting and to where we are now . Look what Metal models can do in 54 mm a lot of it to do with quality of material , perhaps thats where the resin problem lies.

 

[SRostoff]

Since English is not my native language I apologize for any turmoil or confusion being caused by using the wrong words or phrases
I want to make clear that my comment here will be "one-off" but since we ( me and my fellow-modeler friends ) followed this ( highly censored ) topic and the (even more highly censored) topic in the Figure News section with both interest and astonishment we thought it would be best to share our experience and our thoughts on the matter. Being a “one-off” I will not respond to any emails of PM’s nor will I make any other comment then this one posted here and now.

First off all Mr. Mitchell appears to be using this forum as a his “ web shop ”. Where regular Webshops provide the possibility of reviews in this case your forum is the only place for customers to place their reviews and comments. There’s no alternative and therefor even bad reviews have to be accepted without censorship and should never lead to discussions. If a seller does not want that to happen a forum should not be used as web shop by him.

Some of us have also experienced the quality of the Mitchell castings which were often rated as ‘poor” and everything that was mentioned here by Mr. Megroot was recognized which includes the fact that the quality of “replacement” was not much better than the original. We could not help laughing reading about the two replaced wheels that turned out to be two RIGHT wheels. I guess this says it all.
For this reason many of us have decided to avoid the process of disappointment, mail-discussions, replacements or refunds since it spoils the fun over and over again.

Customer Service is NOT about making the same mistakes over and over again and trying to remedy them afterwards. Customer Service is about providing clients with the best possible product at first delivery. Though it is nice Mr. Mitchell tries to “make it up with clients” by sending “replacements” this has nothing to do with great customer service. A good product does NOT need that much Customer Service over and over again. Remember, trust comes by foot but leaves on horseback. Mr. Mitchell states these comments are intended to “ruin his reputation”. A firm reputation is never ruined by one bad comment. If that’s the case one might wonder how solid it was in the first place.
Furthermore it takes a cause to ruin a reputation. Reputations do not ruin themselves.

The reactions of both Mr. Mitchell and his son when confronted with criticism sound familiar. Calling poor casted products “only for the advanced modeler” , pictures of the casting “vitriolic comments” and sending intimidating mails should not be tolerated by customers nor by forum moderators. Though internet-cache makes it easy to reproduce it ( just like the pictures from Mr.Megroot’s friend) re-posting this mail will have no use even if sending an email like this to a customer deprives the sender of its “privacy”-rights. It only shows a wrong attitude towards “customer service”.

As for “resin”, looking at the sharp and pristine castings from f.i Eastern Europe even in small scale it is not the material that causes the problem. It’s the quality of the molds and the attention given to this complex process.


We can only hope my comments and those of Mr. MeGroot and some others (who were brave enough to take a stand) might help future buyers in making the right decision and help moderators to do justice to opinions, even when they are not positive to “shareholders”. Any censorship intervening in any relevant opinion related to a topic on any forum and/or the subject should be unacceptable and thus being rejected by its members. It is with great astonishment to see this is accepted in, what's called the “Free Western World” so best stay away from the “nuclear button”.

 

[Martin64]

Reading through the still existing thread when the kit was announced https://www.planetfigure.com/thread...rew-carl-reid-mitches-military-models.212445/ I quote the last post by Marc on this one.

I'm looking at this again (maybe the hundred's time) , but I have to have a very long talk to WHTBO this evening. I admit, I can't resist it.
Marc

the explanation for the efforts of Marc and Hans to voice their critique seems to be a major disappointment when they opened the boxes of their kits - nothing else. They demand actions from Gordon beyond replacement and reimbursement that are close to redesigning his company and marketing concept which is IMHO an unrealistic demand but no conspiracy - just disappointment.

Quote from above:
"A firm reputation is never ruined by one bad comment" that is true and therefore Gordon has nothing to fear from this. Therefore nuke-buttons are not necessary either - they will just add to another conspiracy theory.
A situation all involved parties should best get over with it.

 

[Nap]

Hi everyone

This is a review which has attracted a lot of response ..only wish mine did!

.....anyway I FEEL ENOUGH HAS BEEN SAID ON THIS SO LETS DRAW A LINE UNDERNEATH IT

Use the PM option if you wish

Nap

 

[malc]

Have to say Martin, yours seems to have come out rather well.

So with a bit of effort it appears not to be a massive dud.

I read the whole of the first thread and it appeared to that there was Solutions offered but declined.

This thread I thought was going to be about the kit, some of the issues and how one could get around them.

However it seems to have descended a little or should I say reverted back to the first thread.

I appreciate this thread was meant as a criticism of the kit but some is not.

Please will no one take anything I have written here personally, it is just my thoughts as I have read what others have written in both threads.

No offence is give or implied to anyone.

 

[Tecumsea]

Well Mr Rostoff.......I love your idea of freedom to speak your mind on Planet, a truly democratic aspiration...of course you shoot yourself in the foot with refusing to comment further or engage in any Private mails....a question of read what I say, because I am right, and I will not engage in any discussion which may not agree with me.

Hopefully any future comments will be more constructive as Gordon doesn't need any lessons in customer service.

Keith

 

[Nap]

Well Mr Rostoff.......I love your idea of freedom to speak your mind on Planet, a truly democratic aspiration...of course you shoot yourself in the foot with refusing to comment further or engage in any Private mails....a question of read what I say, because I am right, and I will not engage in any discussion which may not agree with me.

Hopefully any future comments will be more constructive as Gordon doesn't need any lessons in customer service.

Keith

I have sent a PM to him , a new member since 20/4 ...asking him to introduce and tell us about himself properly in the Welcome Aboard part ...no reply as yet

Agree with your comment ref customer service

Nap

 

[Nap]

DRAW A LINE AND LETS MOVE BACK TO THE BENCH


READ THIS


THANK YOU

Nap

PS No Nuke button will be pressed but the THREAD is LOCKED