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1/48 - Grumman F-14A/B & D Tomcat by AvantGarde Model Kits (AMK) - F-14D released


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I wouldn’t normally do this but because you have all been so patient and steady with AMK I will let you know at least some of the background of 2016 and 2017.

 

I was forced to retire from a very long and successful career in the police due to illness. This illness has now been diagnosed as AOSD - Adult Onset Still’s Disease.

Unluckily for me there is no cure and very little management except for pain killers and steroids. 

 

Hospitalised numerous times last (and this) year with varying degrees of heart, kidney and liver failure which miraculously got better overnight. Literally, overnight.

Par Example, I was at St Georges hospital, Tooting, for a Heart Pacemaker operation (at 40 years old) and whilst on the table my symptoms disappeared. The surgeon stopped the procedure and I was sent back to the ward. Next day I was discharged.

Honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

 

Those of you who frequent these boards and know me already know all of this and to those I want to say thank you for keeping my private life out of the boards and for your support. You know who you are guys, thanks for the visits and the messages.

 

So, when I feel well I am ok. When I feel grotty I go down hill fast.

 

Not looking for sympathy so please don’t feel as though you need to say anything at all. I just want you to know why I (and AMK to a lesser degree) have been absent and unreliable here and elsewhere. My decision making process was not the best and I will probably still make some errors here and there.

At least if you know why then you have some insight.

 

Again, I am not looking for plaudits or sympathy. Just an honest overview for you to make your own mind up.

 

I hope this goes some way to explain what’s been going on.

 

Mike and Admin - if you think this is uncalled for then please delete as you see fit. This is just an attempt at explanation.

 

Cheers.

Edited by Martin @ AMK Hobby
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25 minutes ago, Martin @ AMK Hobby said:

I wouldn’t normally do this but because you have all been so patient and steady with AMK I will let you know at least some of the background of 2016 and 2017.

 

I was forced to retire from a very long and successful career in the police due to illness. This illness has now been diagnosed as AOSD - Adult Onset Still’s Disease.

Unluckily for me there is no cure and very little management except for pain killers and steroids. 

 

Hospitalised numerous times last (and this) year with varying degrees of heart, kidney and liver failure which miraculously got better overnight. Literally, overnight.

Par Example, I was at St Georges hospital, Tooting, for a Heart Pacemaker operation (at 40 years old) and whilst on the table my symptoms disappeared. The surgeon stopped the procedure and I was sent back to the ward. Next day I was discharged.

Honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

 

Those of you who frequent these boards and know me already know all of this and to those I want to say thank you for keeping my private life out of the boards and for your support. You know who you are guys, thanks for the visits and the messages.

 

So, when I feel well I am ok. When I feel grotty I go down hill fast.

 

Not looking for sympathy so please don’t feel as though you need to say anything at all. I just want you to know why I (and AMK to a lesser degree) have been absent and unreliable here and elsewhere. My decision making process was not the best and I will probably still make some errors here and there.

At least if you know why then you have some insight.

 

Again, I am not looking for plaudits or sympathy. Just an honest overview for you to make your own mind up.

 

I hope this goes some way to explain what’s been going on.

 

Mike and Admin - if you think this is uncalled for then please delete as you see fit. This is just an attempt at explanation.

 

Cheers.

Martin, I wish you all the best. Thank you and everyone at AMK for all you are doing.

 

James

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1 hour ago, Martin @ AMK Hobby said:

 

Mike and Admin - if you think this is uncalled for then please delete as you see fit. This is just an attempt at explanation.

Not at all Martin. I'll have to look your illness up, but it sounds infuriating as well as 'oribble. You have my sympathies - you don't miss your health til it does one on you. Can't recommend it :fraidnot:

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1 hour ago, Martin @ AMK Hobby said:


Hannants collected the Kfirs some weeks ago and so they should be well on the way. I don’t know where exactly but as you probably know the container ship takes an age.

 

From the Far East about 25 days, then they have to clear customs and get to Hannants.

 

Sorry to hear of your health issues, I knw a couple of people now with long term health problems and it is not great to live with so I wish the best for you in that respect.

 

Julien

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All the best Martin. This past year has been a tough one for me, although for very different reasons that I will not go into on this thread. Hope the medications you are on help you manage the disease so that 1:1 scale version of you can function. For me and I am sure for 99.9999% of folks on this board, somebody's health is far more important that a model kit. 

Edited by March
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Martin, like the rest of the people here, I just want to wish you all the best regarding your health and well being and don´t worry, we will all wait patiently for what will for sure be an outstanding F-14 kit! I hope to see you at Telford.

 

Cheers,

Bruno

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1 hour ago, Martin @ AMK Hobby said:

Thanks everyone. Really hoping (and expecting) to be at Telford again this year. I must spend more time with you all instead of running around vendors.

 

Telford is all about running round :frantic: buying stuff!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Source: https://www.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/photos/a.524746031023562.1073741853.279694855528682/856530691178426/?type=3&permPage=1

 

Quote

Hi everyone. F-14D 1/48 is coming along very nicely.
We are working towards a release date of December 2017. We are working tirelessly to make sure that the December release is real and achieved.
Things do happen, but we are trying to minimise any issues before they arise to make sure we complete this.
Stay faithful and be rewarded 1f642.png:)
You should know us by now and that we love to reward modellers with surprises and we will always keep to our promise of “Quality, Fair Price and Easy to Build”.

 

Aucun texte alternatif disponible.

 

V.P.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Source: https://www.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/posts/895281170636711

 

Quote

******About TOMCAT PROGRESS******

Hi, All,
Here now is already December in China. We know you all are expecting us to release Tomcat in December. At the moment right now, we can confirm that, we may not be able to reach this goal. We apology for disappointing you all guys!
We had been trying hard to produce faster, but unfortunately, because of various reasons (mainly technical reasons), we are unable to reach the goal to release Tomcat in December.
In the past months, we got lots of questions about Tomcat in Facebook and forums worldwide. We list some words below to answer you questions:
1. We didn't have enough preorder of 5K pcs.
2. Even so, we had been trying hard to produce faster and hope to release in December. Yes! Mold making is in progress, as you all can see the pictures of Tomcat wing molds.
3. Unfortunately, we (a small and new model company) cannot make it as fast as we expected because of various reasons like, the contents of the kit we designed, existing workload in the factory, difficulties to train suppliers to achieve our quality level, some technical problem and design changes, etc. Some design changes of the assembly of intake doors to control air flow of intake, for example, caused us lots of work. But still, we will change to make sure it is EASY TO BUILD. The 3D pictures is showing the status of the doors to control air flow for subsonic, transsonic and supersonic speed.
4. And still, we will keep our paces as fast we can to release this Tomcat kit as fast as possible.
5. From all the comments all around, we can feel, most of you all modelers, are supporting us and expecting us to make it as good as we can, even it is a bit late.
6. To thank you all for supporting us, we will have a missile set (See next post) release earlier or the same time as Tomcat, and it will be GIFT to those who preordered our Tomcat.

Thank you very much for your support again! And we will try to produce kits as good and easy to build as we can!

Cheers!

Sio

 

Aucun texte alternatif disponible.

 

V.P.

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Regarding the 5k target, I would love to have pre-ordered a couple of tomcats.....but as I remember there was no UK retailer in the published "official"  list of retailers. I have nonetheless since been able to pre order one from Hannants, who weren't on that list. I  wonder if AMK have counted the Hannants pre-orders. 

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I would be delighted to stock more AMK kits but the lack of a UK Distributor who will deal with online model stores is a big issue. I've previously had to resort to import AMK kits into the UK myself and take the hit but the way the £ has gone against the € the small margin I was able to make has all but disappeared so I doubt I'll be able to stock the F-14 when it does appear.

 

Duncan B

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11 hours ago, t15dja said:

Regarding the 5k target, I would love to have pre-ordered a couple of tomcats.....but as I remember there was no UK retailer in the published "official"  list of retailers. I have nonetheless since been able to pre order one from Hannants, who weren't on that list. I  wonder if AMK have counted the Hannants pre-orders. 

 

Same here. There was a local online store which offered the pre-order option (which was a must to avoid hefty import taxes), but then they dropped out of the program due to 'AMK suddenly changing some of the conditions' or whatever.

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Still waiting patiently for this one, and from what we've seen so far it certainly looks like it'll be worth the wait.

 

Quote

To thank you all for supporting us, we will have a missile set (See next post) release earlier or the same time as Tomcat, and it will be GIFT to those who preordered our Tomcat.

 

Sounds a little like they'll be doing a hasegawa and releasing it sans-ordinance though, which will be a huge shame, even the big-T backtracked on that idea with they're F-14 release. 

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34 minutes ago, DannyB said:

Still waiting patiently for this one, and from what we've seen so far it certainly looks like it'll be worth the wait.

 

Sounds a little like they'll be doing a hasegawa and releasing it sans-ordinance though, which will be a huge shame, even the big-T backtracked on that idea with they're F-14 release. 

 

If you read through the comments on the Facebok post you'll find Sio has responded to one of them as below:

 

Avantgarde Model Kits In the Tomcat box, there will be 9 weapons included. In addition, we send an extra missile set to those who preordered our Tomcat. Thank you for you support! Sio

 

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, AntPhillips said:

 

If you read through the comments on the Facebok post you'll find Sio has responded to one of them as below:

 

Avantgarde Model Kits In the Tomcat box, there will be 9 weapons included. In addition, we send an extra missile set to those who preordered our Tomcat. Thank you for you support! Sio

 

 

 

That's definitely good news. It's going to be a fair size box of plastic! 

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