I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year but we are less than a week into it and it has already been marred by clear evidence of more recasting of Armorpax parts.
There has, for some considerable time now, been various statements from other customisers of infringements by Steel Dragons and Richard Tripp, up until now I have never been able to prove anything regarding my parts.
That changed this week with his latest website and ebay offerings of 20 ton jacks in resin or metal.
The offering shows an all resin jack which is clearly identified on the web as being mastered by me.
"We are offering two versions of this popular accessory crafted in either resin or white metal. This is a kit that requires some assembly with simple hand tools, sand paper and your choice of adhesive or epoxy. These items were originally designed by David Dibb and we are fortunate to have recently located a number of them for sale."
The issue comes in that I have only ever produced these with metal fittings. I have spent a number of hours looking at the photos and cannot prove they are resin although the casting flash would suggest they are. The proof came from the main Jack body. In reviewing the pictures a clear top seam can be seen and I have identified this on the pictures below. The Armorpax Jack body is cast from a single piece mould rather than a 2 piece mould and therefore has no top seam. The last 4 pictures show my castings and the moulds to show what I mean.
If anyone has a one of these and confirm the fittings are resin please let me know.
On the Steel Dragons site Richard claims that they are continuing to develop their own parts and move away from "Unreliable vendors", I pressume I am one of the unreliable vendors!!!!
His company profile also states he has a team of people as follows
"we do employ a number of highly skilled artisans who have been instrumental in fueling our growth and success. These talented individuals include resin and white metal casters, a photo etching specialist, a machinist, two electrical engineers ( I kid you not!), a number of dedicated craftsmen specializing in the fabrication of tools, clamps, accessories fashioned from brass, wood, white metal, resin etc,"
As the only photoetched parts I can see on his site are mine why would he need an etcher?????
Further more I can find nothing on his site that isn't produced by either myself, Steve Hoeger at Panzerwerks, Mike Stannard at Sixth Scale Icons, Tim Catton, Steve Winstone etc.. Why, if he is only offering parts created by us, would he need resin and metal casters?
I leave you to make up your own mind but if he is copying my Jack, why not everything else.
We had similar problems with Peddinghaus and a number of other German companies the other year.
I am filing an intellectual property breach with Ebay but have little I can do to stop him in the US. All I can ask is that you the customer stop supporting people like this. I have looked on his order status page and there are names I recognize.
If you continue to support these people all that will happen is the people with the actual talent, who create the originals, will stop supporting the hobby. Then all you will have is people offering old and tired copies and there will be no new parts.
I like most people am finding it more difficult to get through each month with the continuing rising prices and these people may just as well come and take the food straight off my kids plates.
This acceptance of intellectual property theft has to be stopped if you want us to keep doing what we do. The ulimate answer to this problem lies with you the customer. If you choose to continue supporting these people don't be surprised if we get fed up and jack it in.
Regards
Dave
SD has been doing this for years.
)!!