I know many of you are waiting for orders placed with me over the last few months, I hope this post will explain the reason for this and why I am not able to fill many orders in a timely manner. Many long term customers understand why this is and order their parts accordingly, however many new customers are not aware of what it takes to produce the vast amount of parts I offer and the time it requires to produce them.
Firstly all of the parts I offer are researched by myself to produce the most accurate parts I can make in 1:6 scale, 95% of them I make the masters for casting and produce the artwork for photo-etching. I currently have 500 cast parts and 374 photo-etched parts which make up most of the over 300 sets/items I offer in my catalog. A few parts are machine made by other companies.
It has taken me almost ten years to produce what I offer and there are companies plagiarizing my products and others for there own gain.
I do not see my delivery of products getting any quicker in the foreseeable future as the demand is high and my growing age is limiting the amount of time I can devote to production. I will not compromise the quality of my products for quick turn over. I therefore recommend you plan your orders accordingly for when you need the products for your builds and order well in advance to receive them on time. For small orders allow two months, for large orders up to four months.
Here are some facts and figures that I hope will explain why I am in this position and unable to improve it.
Orders received and delivered in 2012.
I started 2012 with around 50 outstanding orders. New orders received 191. Orders delivered 189. Outstanding orders at the end of 2012, 62. Products ordered in 2012, 1428.
The current 62 outstanding orders consist of 228 parts to be assembled and 279 parts as kits or parts not requiring assembly. As my average ability is to produce around 5 parts per day. (See below). I have over 3 months of work to complete these orders. Some of these orders will ship soon, others that I have just received may take up to three months. My point here is understand the time it takes to produce these parts. They do not grow on trees and I am not able to keep a stock in hand of all these parts. Place your orders well in advance of when you need them to allow me time to produce the quality of parts I am known for. If you cannot wait and need them quickly I will try to accommodate you. If I can't, don't place a order, I do not need the stress or constant e-mails asking how your order is doing, this just takes up my time checking the order and replying to the mail.
In January 2005 I started using a database for my invoicing. From 2003 until January 2005 I was using hand written invoices in which I have 321 orders. At this time my turn over of orders was less than a week. I only had around 70 products and about 150 customers , I now have over 300 products and 648 customers.
All products produced by 6th Scale Icons Inc., are produced in general by one person, I have tried using helpers, but it has not worked out. This work requires a person with knowledge of armor, modelling skills and dedication to producing quality parts. If you think you can help me, contact me as I want to pass on what I have learned over the past ten years and a very viable company that can grow in the right hands. I am 69 this year and do not know how much longer I will be able to produce parts and manage the company.
My best year was 2008 in which sales were $131,561.70. From January 2005 to December 2012 sales were over $700,000.00. That's not chump change. I must be doing something right and offering a good quality product that customers keep coming back for
Here is a chart showing orders and parts produced from 2005 to 2012.
This is a chart showing a few samples of the more popular parts.
These charts show the quantity of sets produced for the various tanks and AFV's, also the parts made to make up these sets.
Following are pictures of some of the masters made by me in brass, aluminum and plastic to produce the molds to make these parts. It has taken almost 10 years to produce all these master, many taking several hours. I say this here again, a certain company is plagiarizing many of these parts. You don't have to look far to find the culprit, the company is well known in the hobby.
This final picture is a sample of the artwork required to produce photo-etched parts, most of these require two sheets to produce the double sided etching required to make the parts. Each sheet is normally 6" x 12", some vary in size. I currently have 96 of these sheets, each sheet takes between 12 to 24 hours to produce with drawing the parts, setting them up on the sheet and producing in most cases a obverse and reverse side. This time does not include research and design time to make the parts work in 1:6 scale. Again some of these parts have been plagiarized.
The reason for this post is three fold. First to explain why I am not able to fill orders in a timely manner, second to bring to your attention that I may not be able to continue supply parts in the coming years, and finally to inform you of the fact that some of you may be buying plagiarized parts from a certain company that has a full web site that claims most of the products are his own, some of which are also advertised on ebay.
My final comments are, which I must stress, if you want to order my parts, please do so well in advance of when you need them. Only buy parts from original manufactures or recommended retailers . The list is a short one and those recommended can be found on most newsgroups. The main original manufactures are myself 6th Scale Icons USA, Armorpax UK. Panzerwerk USA, Tim Catton UK, Steve Winston UK and East Coast Armory USA. All of which produce excellent Tank and AFV accessories for this hobby. There are a few others not listed and I am sure you know who they are.
Support the guys that put the time into researching and making the parts that you need for your hobby and not the plagiarizers that steal from others hard work.
Regards
Mike