Graupner vii c

[reddevil]

It's quite curious that we haven't heard anything about anybody dealing with GRAUPNER RTR VII C. As you all know, it comes as a surface runner, and by the information I've been able to gather, have no idea if there's room enough inside the dry hull to acommodate a ballast system. The truth is that nowdays the kit is aout of stock, and haven't found any forum with information ot this sub a all.
As there would be a chance for me to get one for Christmas, want to know in advance if it's possible to fit a diving system, cause if it's not, may be won't take it.
Anybody has news about it?

[redboat219]

How about Arkmodel's Type VII. Here'a link to RCG.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2285430

[Von Hilde]

I think they are way overpriced for what little you get. You have to read the fine print when they say "a" RTR kit The little 'a' stands for almost. The stand off detail is ok but not acurate. The Chinese hyped promos are a bit kookie, from the ones I looked at. The only thing that sparked my intrest was the scale, but thats not even correct. They say 1:48 but its closer to 1:46. If one was to re arm the model, and used 1:48 scale Tamaya guns or figgures they would be noticibly too large IMHO. just looking at the guts with the deck off I see about 10 bucks USD in stainless screw fasteners securing the unit to the hull. A bit much unless you were to toss in down the stairs or ram it into the sides or bottom of the concrete pool. Other than those reasons, I personally, like to buy stuff made in the USA as much as I can, just to help my homies and brothers out. From what I understand, they are having some delivery problems,and backorders as well. as they say in Rome " CAVEAT EMPTOR"

[Von Hilde]

How about Arkmodel's Type VII. Here'a link to RCG.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2285430

I was wondering about that kit. I havent heard of any thing about anyone that has got their hands on one, tho. There was some talk around here awhile back, of getting some to check out, in some secret bunker hollowed out of a mountain located somewhere on the east side of the US. But thats just heresay.

[type7]

Graupner's site says it is supposed to become available January 27th. I think it was supposed to be available in December but it has been pushed back. will sell for 891 euro over there. No real distributor in the U.S. but it might be something Loyalhanna might sell. Hard telling what it will cost here.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

To the best of my knowledge Arkmodel scanned the Revell of Germany kit, pooped out 3D printed masters to the desired scale, and pulled tooling off of those. If they did not secure Revell's permission here, then they are thieves. You steal a mans intellectual property, you have set fire to his house.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, please.

I know Feng visits here from time to time.

Feng: am I right or am I wrong? If I am wrong, I will make the correction right here. If I'm right, then shame on you, sir.

Waiting.

David Douglass Merriman lll

[redboat219]

Could be a clone of Graupner's kit.
As you know most companies nowadays outsource manufacturing overseas. Would be easy for someone to get access to the molds or even finished products and then sell them off as their own.

[Von Hilde]

To the best of my knowledge Arkmodel scanned the Revell of Germany kit, pooped out 3D printed masters to the desired scale, and pulled tooling off of those. If they did not secure Revell's permission here, then they are thieves. You steal a mans intellectual property, you have set fire to his house.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, please.

I know Feng visits here from time to time.

Feng: am I right or am I wrong? If I am wrong, I will make the correction right here. If I'm right, then shame on you, sir.

Waiting.

David Douglass Merriman lll

Im sugar coating my real feelings, Dave, about the Chinese and N Korean copyright infringments. Remember I swore to protect and defend from All Powers... dit dit dah dit....! My daddy, The Colonel, always said, "If you buy Chinese, you get Chinese!!" when I took apart an old wind up tin toy, to see what made it go. and saw the budwiser can insides. He got that from his WWII buddie General Douglass Macarthur. Those "old soldiers never die"... they just fade away"

[Subculture]

It's not as simple as having an object 3d scanned and then off to the printer. £D files tend to come out with heaps of errors, that need correcting, which would take hours and they still won't be as good as native file.

If they had a master 3D printed, they most likely created their own 3D CAD files from scratch, perhaps using the Revell kit as a guide.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I appreciate that Andy. I simplified my challenge to Feng to make the main point clear. The process (of electronically lofting measurements off a prototype and reducing that digital information to a workable CNC file) is involved. The act -- which may or may not constitute theft -- is not.

If you're off point as to my intent, I'll rephrase it -- as others also did not get my intent:

Did Feng use the Revell of Germany 1/72 Type-7 submarine kit as the primary 'document' off of which he produced tooling for Arkmodels 1/48 Type-7, commercially available, kit?

And, if Feng did so, did he secure Revell of Germany's permission?

It matters not a piffle how the lofting was done (classic pantograph, Molder's gauge, or laser-scanner). What matters to me -- and anyone else who expects compensation in this enterprise, and protection of physical and intellectual property -- is: has Revell of Germany been stolen from or not.

M

[reddevil]

I've also sent a message to ARKMODEL requesting info about their VII C. No answer yet, either about GRAUPNER's one...

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I've also sent a message to ARKMODEL requesting info about their VII C. No answer yet, either about GRAUPNER's one...

Thank you. We need a straight answer about this.

M

[Kazzer]

This is a hard one to deal with.

Revell is aware that Arkmodel's VII might be a copy of theirs.

It's very hard to deal with China and pay in advance for something that might take months to materialize. We had an 'arrangement' with them, and they were reasonable about shipping product, but I could see no future for us in promoting their stuff, only to find them selling to all and sundry. They don't seem to realise that this is a niche market and the pie is very small, chop it into small pieces and it becomes a waste of time.

I was particularly annoyed to discover they were going to a show in the USA and hadn't invited me, after trying really hard to pat everyone's fur down over lousy delivery times, non existent delivery times and a whole host of other hiccups. Obviously, they didn't need my help.

We've got other fish to fry, and I don't need the aggro. Just make sure you have redress, and don't pay for the thing up front, certainly no more than a 10% deposit, and don't release funds until you have a BOL or a Fedex Tracking number. If anyone else picks up the 'dealer ball' for Ark, make sure you pay them with a credit card, so you can call a charge-back if the goods don't turn up.

[Subculture]

I can see some subtle differences when doing an A-B comparison between the models e.g. plating lines around the saddle tank areas. The Engel Type VII looks very similar to a bigger Type VII too in my view.

Not sure how you go about establishing a copyright claim on what must be the most ubiquitous sub design in the world. I shouldn't think Revell would be worried anyway- the models are in completely different scale and price and will appeal to different modelmakers, so it's unlikely to affect sales of their kits.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I can see some subtle differences when doing an A-B comparison between the models e.g. plating lines around the saddle tank areas. The Engel Type VII looks very similar to a bigger Type VII too in my view.

Not sure how you go about establishing a copyright claim on what must be the most ubiquitous sub design in the world. I shouldn't think Revell would be worried anyway- the models are in completely different scale and price and will appeal to different modelmakers, so it's unlikely to affect sales of their kits.

Put the fire out while it only smokes. Or put the fire out later, when the second-floor is ablaze.

I've been ripped off. Don't like it. And I scream long and loud when I see it now.

M