This page will offer Dave's comments on a variety

of topics related to Diels Engineering, Inc., models,

and/or other topics he wants to comment on.

E-Mail your comments to:
dielsengr@buckeye-express.com

May 19, 2012

Hi gang,

Well we are 2/3 of the way through spring and around here the

weather has been a bit dry. Have been spending a lot of time on

yard work at our two houses. Hope the old one sells soon so I can

have more time to work on new model airplane projects.

Current product updates now have the Kit # 38 TBF Avenger as out

of stock until later this year. Have only one P-47 left until it will be out

of stock until later this year also. Click here for more updates.

Only a couple of you may have known about my problems with losing

my kit box manufacturer. They went out of business a year ago and

I have been using up stock of boxes since then. Well, I couldn't find

a supplier that would produce small quantities at prices that would

not force me to raise kit prices. The last thing I needed was to raise

prices this time in this economy. I was ready to go to plastic bags

instead of boxes but that idea did not seem to go well with several

good customers so I did an extensive search and found a new supplier

that could make the quantities I needed at a price that is only slightly

more than I paid at the old place and I won't have to raise any prices

because of boxes. So now I have my new boxes and packed my first

batch of kits. Also the new boxes take up a lot less storage space than

the old ones.

We are planning on going the the FAC Nats this year in Geneseo, NY.

So if you are going look for us on the field on Thursday and Friday. We

won't have a Vendors table at the judging this year.

All for now.

Dave

April 16, 2012

Hi Gang,

I have just finished doing a few updates to the site. The F4F Wildcat,

Ki-43 Oscar, and SB2U Vindicatior and now out of stock indefinitely.

Avengers, P-40's, and P-47"s are in short supply. See Current Product

news page for more info. Also see the Special Offers page for info on

monthly sales this spring.

Have a great Spring.

Dave

February 11, 2012

Hi Gang,

Just a quick not to let you all know that I have added a short kit to

the list of short kits. It is short kit SK-6, 4 in 1 Peanut short kits.

This kit brings back the old Kit # 6 in short kit form. 4 short kits are

combined into one package. Peanut scale kits of the Brewster F2A

Buffalo, the Vultee P-66 Vanguard, the Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden, and

the Bloch MB-152 WW2 Fighters. I had an inquiry from a customer

back in December about printwood for these old kits. After searching

my shelves I found my printing plates for the wood and decided to

make up a few kits in case anyone else wanted some. Price is $30 for

the 4 in 1 short kit plus shipping and handling. You get plans, printwood,

instructions, and canopies. See the new products page for details.

Thanks,

Dave

February 10, 2012

Hi Gang,

It seems these days that every time I fire up my computer there is a

wonderful(??) new thing that absolutely turns my screen time into a

time wasting experience. On none seems to be more of a constant

source of agrivation than the Apple iPod my wife gave me for Christmas

a couple years ago. Up until the time I had to change my email address

due to my ISP suspending operations it worked pretty good. But in the

process of trying to change my email address in the iPod I seem to now

have lost the ability to update the apps on it which seem to need updating

so often that I wonder why they didn't get them right the first time. So now

I have about 36 or more of them that need updating that I can't access because

in the process of changing the email address the password got screwed up.

Not to mention the fact that the menus seem to purposely hidden so anyone

over 70 is barred from ever figuring them out.

The next great time waster is Facebook which I have not been able to figure

out because nothing on it makes sense to me. So I very seldom go on it as

I find it the biggest bunch of crap ever invented. Why the hell would I want to be

friends with the friends of someone I barely know. And what the hell is the "Wall"?

Can't they just use email? And why do I need to know the most intimate details

of Cindy Mae's obsession with the rock idol Elmo Buttcrack?

And then there is Twitter. I'm not on twitter. I figured out early on its a way the

government sucks in everyone into ignoring everything they are doing to

screw us up. Who needs to know how many times Baby Huey needs changing

and what his crap looks like.

So today I just thought I'd vent a little and waste my time writing my vent on

this horribly bad imitation of a blog, whatever a blog is, knowing that at best

only I will be the reader of it, or maybe not as its not worth the time it will waste.

Cheers,

Dave

January 14, 2012

Hi Gang,

I have just posted several updates on the Current Product News page.

The F4U Corsair kit #12 is now out of stock indefinitely. I have no plans

to put this one back in stock at this time. Several other kits are in the 2

or 3 left catagory and several short kits are out of stock indefinitely also

along with printwood for those kits.

Most of these kits have not been selling enough in recent years to

justify buying more materials to keep them in stock. So check out the

list and if you have been wanting to get one of the older kits on the list

you better grab it now before its gone possibly for good.

Last December I was notified by my ISP that they were closing up their

business in Ohio and I would no longer be able to use my their email

service. So now I have the new email address listed at the top of this

page. Since that time I have been hurriedly trying to go to all the places

I do business with or change the address. What a mess. I am amazed

at the number of places I have had to make that change with. I am also

amazed at how difficult some places are to find how to make those

changes. I must have spent on average at least 1 or 2 hours per day

trying to get stuff straightened out.

As most of you know who have read this we are having a January sale.

25% off all in-stock items in our line. Since I realize only a handful might

read this I will give and additional 5% off to anyone who tells me they

have read this paragraph. Sorry no discount on the shipping and handling.

The Post Office is raising their rates again.

Last year I put Kit #12 back in stock because I got enough commitment orders

to make it worth it to restock it. I will do that for some of the other out of

stock kits if enough of you want me to do it. The deal I made then was the

price would be discounted to the ones who commited to purchase the kits

when they were ready. I have noticed that recently the F7F Tigercat was

legal to qualify for WW2 Flying Aces Club Events when it was discovered

it actually flew missions in the Pacific just before the war ended. The Tigercat

has been a good seller so if enough of you want one I and I get commitments for

25 kits, I will go ahead and get more materials. Just let me know at

dielsengr@buckeye-express.com

That's all for now,

Dave

June 7, 2011

Hi Gang,

Check out the laser cut kit page. My old printwood SBD Dauntless

kit is now a laser cut kit. Same basic kit except with laser cut parts

instead of printwood. Also removed the 1/32 thick formers and ribs

and replaced them with 1/16 thick parts. Many found the 1/32 parts

too thin and fragile. Also replaced some of the keel and side

longeron parts with laminated parts for added strength.

Look for another one or two kits this summer and perhaps a couple

more later this year.

Yes, the laser cut kits are a bit more but makes a big savings in time

to build.

Hellcat kits are back in stock. This will probably be the last run for that

kit for a while so get them while you can.

Thanks for your continued support,

Dave

May 26, 2011

Hi Gang,

Well we are almost all settled into our new home and I have been

busy unpacking and getting organized. Our old home has not sold

yet and we are now taking care of two houses 78 miles apart. Lucky

me. I get to mow two yards.

I am happy to announce that in the midst of all the moving and

unpacking I have been able to put the Hellcat Kit #12 back into

production. Enough of you wanted it and made commitments for

buying one that I just finished a new production run today and

as of now it is back in stock.

I have also been working on converting several out of stock kits

to future laser cut kits. I am now announcing that the SBD Dauntless

kit is now a laser cut kit and will be in stock in early June, 2011.

The price will be $42.95. I will post the info in the kits section when

it is ready.

All for now,

Dave

February 15, 2011

WE HAVE MOVED

Hi Gang,

Well, as you may have seen on the Home page we have moved.

It has been in the works since July 4, 2010 when we found a new

home during a visit to my daughter's for a cookout. We went for

a burger and bought a house.

After I retired about 5 years ago my wife and I wanted to move

back into the Toledo, Ohio area where we have family. Also we

wanted to downsize into a ranch style house from two story so

we can save our knees and ankles. The new home solves both

problems and barring any unforseen circumstances we hope

this will indeed be our last move.

After buying the new home we put our old home up for sale.

As of now we have had no takers on the old house which has

allowed us to gradually move most of out personal things and

about 90 % of the business over the last 6 months. I now have

99% of the business moved and now operating in our Oregon,

Ohio (Eastern suburb of Toledo) location.

Even though we are now in a different place we still will keep

the Amherst post office box for a few more months or until the

old house sells. I will be making new address announcements

in adds in Flying Models and over the Yahoo Groups very soon.

All the moving activities have taken a toll. I have had to put on

hold some new projects just due to making so many trips the 78

miles (one way) back and forth and staying in both places at

times. We still split time between the two houses maintaining

the old house for the occasional open houses for our realtor.

Here at the new location I am still trying to organize the basement.

I have some basic things in semi-permanent placement. But it will

take probably 6 more months to get the thing set up for efficient

operation.

I have discovered things I had forgotten about and some boxes

that hadn't been opened since our last move 18 years ago. No

major surprises but I will be going through boxes and plastic bins

for a long time and probably throwing away some of those things

I just had to save for future use. At age 69 the future is now. So

I intend to put items I no longer need on the misc for sale page

as I find them. It is also amazing how many tools I have found in

various places around the old house.

So what can you expect from me in 2011. Well I have taken what

spare time I have had to work on converting several out of stock

kits into laser cut kits. Because of the continuing downturn in the

economy (No the recession is not over yet) I can only afford to do

one at a time so don't expect too much too soon.

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Let me know how you

feel.

Dave

January 5, 2011

Hi Gang,

Happy New Year to you and yours.

Thanks to all of you who supported us in 2010. As most of

your know the economy has not been so great the past two

or three years and from what I can get from various sources

the hobby industry has taken its lumps. You may have noticed

by now that a lot of suppliers are having or had sales to move

their merchandise. You may also have noticed that we have

had a string of monthly sales. They have been well received

so I have decided to continue them a while longer. For us

things have picked up a bit and hopefully the trend will

continue throughout 2011.

The slow economy has caused us to cut back on some

new projects. But I am hopeful that we can go ahead with

some new things and perhaps bring back a couple out of

stock kits in 2011.

Keep on watching our ads in Flying Models magazine and

my postings to the various Yahoo free flight groups for

the latest info.

On the personal side of things 2010 was a very busy, stress

filled, surprising, roller coaster ride of a year. Suffice to say

many changes took place this past year that were not planned.

I will comment on these hopefully later on in the year. Let's just

say we have gone through some things that have changed our

lives unexpectedly we think for the better. Only time will tell.

That's all for now. If you have any comments or questions let me

know at dielsengr@kellnet.com.

Dave Diels 

August 27, 2010

Hi All,

Just a note to let you know to check the current in stock list.

The F7F tigercat is now out of stock in both complete and

short kits. It will be out of stock indefinitely.

The Ryan Navion kit and short kits are also out of stock

indefinitely.

I am also short of stock for the F8F kit, the F3F kit and the

BF2C-1 kits. If you want one now better order soon. When

they are gone they will not be back in stock until late next

year at the earliest.

Also, check out the misc for sale page. I have posted some

more magazines that I have found in cleaning out my basement.

I am still working on pricing for the Air Progress mags that

date back to 1955. But if you are interested email me at

dielsengr@kellnet.com. One batch has sold already.

All for now. 

Dave 

July 21, 2010

Hi All,
We got back from the Flying Aces Nats at Geneseo, NY late

Monday afternoon. Had a great time meeting old friends and

making new friends. We got there the previous Tuesday (July 13)

so we could be there at the opening of the judging to set up our

vendors table. We haven't been to Geneseo in about 4 years

due to various personal cirvumstances which a couple times

jumped up and bit us in the hind quarters just before we were

going to leave. So this was a real nice treat for us to get

reaquainted with many of you.

So we thank you for stopping by and saying hello and also

for the occasional purchase of bargain prices Diels' goodies.

We setup at the field on Thursday and Saturday, taking

Friday off to rest up from the full day at the field. We aren't

you and spry anymore. Mark and Jim our neighboring popup

friends helped us set up our Easy Open Popup(Not that easy)

and took care of it for us when we were not at the field. It is

so nice to have such a friendly group around.

Attendance was done from the last time we were there and

I guess it was do to the economy. One would hope that the

economy will rebound and attendance increase next year.

But I'm not holding my breath on that.

For Diels Engineering, Inc., we learned that our new line of

shorts kits were very popular. We brought about 2 of each

one in our line and sold out of quite a few of them. Our

complete kits although discounted almost 1/3 off list price

just for the contest were not as popular. So I now have

enough stock left to tide me over for the next year or so.

The next time I go I will not bring as much stuff. We also l

earned that the new laser kits are the way to go in the future.

So I will plan to add 3 or 4 more by next summer. 

You will note that I did not cover any of the events. That's

because this was primarily a selling event for us. I did hope

to finish a plane to fly but didn't get it ready in time to bring

it. The closest I got to flying my models was the windy gusts

that blew the short kits off our table on Saturday. I oould say

I flew about 20 planes all at one time that all totaled about 1

second in the air for a distance of about 3 feet for an DOT

(Drop off table) launch.

All in all it was a busy and fun time.

Dave Diels

April 19, 2010

Hi Gang,

They say time flies when you are having fun. I don't know

about the fun part but time has sure been flying by.

First on the agenda tonight is the in stock report. I just the

other day ran out of printwood for the Zero Kit #18. So as

of now I have 3 or 4 kits left in stock. The SK-18 and PW-18

are now out of stock indefinitely. So if you want one of the

kits better order it soon or forever hold your piece.

Also, Kit # 26, the BF2C-1 Biplane kit is down to only a couple

left in stock. It will be out of stock indefinitely when they are

sold out.

On the new product front I will probably have a laser cut version

of the Ki-44 Tojo and Hawker Typhoon kits available this summer.

Prototypes are being evaluated and although some changes

will be made so far the laser cut parts look real good.

I am also back to working on two new kits. Actually had laser

cut  wood cut to build one of the prototypes and although I will

be making changes to some of the parts this sure has made

building it easy. Hope to announce them this fall.

Now I need some feedback from you modelers. I have been

taking some kits out of production due to running out of decals.

I just do not have the funds to order 200 sets of decals when

sales of the kits is only a dozen or two a year. I experimented

with making plain paper color copies of the Hawker Typhoon

and letting my volunteer builders use them on the laser cut

prototypes. The results look real good, however, since no

currently available affordable printer prints white ink the plain

paper decals will not have white serial numbers or any small

numbers in any color that are so small they can't be cut out.

So here is where I need comments from you the buyer. Can

you do without water slide decals and live with plain paper

color copies of national insignias and possibly non white letters

and numbers large enough to be easily cut out?

I know some other manufacturers have started using these

paper "decals". Let me know what you think.

On the subject of decals I have had questions concerning

decals that are hard to apply and break easily. I know the

decals are very thin and even with a clear coat applied by

the manufacturer they need TLC. So I am suggesting that

if you have had problems with them or are getting ready to

use them give them a coat of clear Krylon spray or a coating

of Future floor wax before using them.

Probably two or three of you are wondering what effect the

weak economy has had of my business. Well, it has been a

bit slow but the new laser cut kits have been selling well. Also

althought I did not want to let some of the kits go out of stock

it has helped by not having to purchased 50 sets of parts for

kits that only sell 10 or less a year of the older kits. If the buyers

will accept plain paper color copies instead of water slide decals

I will be able to put the Typhoon and Devastator back into

production real soon since I can print them myself, and also

reduce the kit price in the process.

Well that's all for now. I hope to make another announcement

within the next week or so. So watch the Yahoo groups for news.

Thanks for your support,

Dave Diels

January 19, 2010

Hi Gang,

Well, the year end sale is over and I'd like to thank all who

participated.

Sales of the new laser cut kits is going well. I am now working

on a couple more conversions. The next one will be the

Hawker Typhoon which will hopefully be in production sometime

in April.

Dave

January 2, 2010

Hi Gang,

Happy New Year. From our family to yours we wish you a

very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. We also

wish to thank you all for your support either through your

purchases or comments and suggestions. I read all your

letters, notes and e-mails, and have used many of your

photos not only on this web page but also some in various

magazine ads over the years. You guys and gals are the

best.

This short update is to point out that you still have a week

or so to take advantage ot the year end sale. See the home

page for a link to the special offers page.

Also, the Tojo kit #37 is now out of stock. I hope to have it

back in stock sometime in the Spring 2010 time frame. I am

making some revisions to it at the present time.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Dave 

December 14, 2009

Hi Gang,

First let me wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and

Healthy New Year. Thanks for your support this past year. It has

been a year of ups and downs but lets hope next year sees us

through the economic recession.

I have finally got my supply of new laser cut wood for the Nakajima

Kate kit and the kit is now in stock. Click here for details. I still have

to post some pics of the prototype of the laser cut kit which I will do

later. It has proven to be a relatively easy conversion from the printwood

version but has also elimininated some of the 1/32 ribs and formers

and replaced them with 1/16 thick material. This is a change I have

been making as conversions are done at the request of several who

have had problems working with the thinner wood parts.

I am now back to working on two new kits hoping to get them ready

for production by late spring 2010. I have had these in the works for

many months but frankly had a mental block on several of the details

and had to back away from them for a while. I got back to them recently

and something finally clicked and I'm finally making some headway on

them. If all goes well I will be able to make an announcement in late

Feb or early March.

My current sale continues until January 11, 2010 so take advantage of

it if you wish to get some good deals from Diels.

All for now,

Dave

November 10, 2009

Hi Gang,

Well as they say "Stuff happens". I just finished this update of my

blog and when I told it to update I lost my connection and lost the

whole update. Now I have to rely on my lousy memory to somehow

rewrite it.

First of all some product stock updates. Kits #8 and #12 the TBD

and F6F kits are now out of stock. I expect them to be back in stock

sometime next year. The reason it will take a while is that I want to

make some changes and it will take some time.

For those who have been meditating over when or if to order I am

down to about a half dozen kits on several items. So I suggest yo

order ones you want to pick up to make sure you get them. I don't

reorder until I am out of stock and some slow sellers will now be

reordered right away.

So to encourage you to buy something I had decided to have a

Year End/Holiday sale. The sale ad will be out in my Flying Models

December 2009 ad. Since I don't know when that issue hits the

stands or your mailbox I am starting it now. Details will be found

on the Special Offers page. Click here for sale details.

Sales of the new laser kit #41-LC have been encouraging. So,

I can announce now that the prototype laser cut Kate Kit # 35-LC

has been completed and I have ordered the initial quantity of wood

for my first production run which I expect will be in early December.

I will let you know when the kit is ready to ship.

I have also updated the product listing pages for kits, short kits,

decals and printwood to note what items are currently out of stock.

Click the titles to go directly to the pages.

Well that's it for this update. Let me know if you have any

comments, suggestions, photos, or questions. Remember you

can limit your exposure to the flu by staying home and building

a Diels kit.

Stay well and thanks for your support,

Dave

August 31, 2009

8:18 PM EDT

Hi Gang,

Well, the Summer Sale has come to an end and I just wanted to

say thank you to all of you who took advantage of it. Your support

is greatly appreciated. Perhaps some of you missed out on it

because you didn't know about it Well I mentioned it here on this

web site, as well as sending several messages to the various

Yahoo free flight groups over the course of the past three months,

and had to monthly ads in Flying Models magazine. That should

have covered most modelers. But then as I was taught in Officer

Basic School back in 1964 there is always at least 10% who don't

get the word. I have a sizeable mailing list that I mostly use for

notifying regular customers about new product announcements

but with postage rates as high as they are I decided not to do a

snail mailing about the sale. But I usually offer special pricing

to those who order the new kits when they come out and give

them discounts on the other stuff when they buy the new kits.

I know many of those on the mailing list are not into computers

so they will get their chance later.

Some of you are probably wondering how my sale went. Well,

it was pretty good. I had a lot of first time customers and also

heard from a lot of you who have been with me from the start.

Considering how the economy in the U.S. has been I think it

went pretty good. But being human, I am never satisfied. So

I will be thinking of ways to stir up interest in my stuff.

Which brings me to the next new line of kits I am introducing.

Well, maybe not to new subjects but new laser cut wood  parts.

I have been experimenting with laser cut parts over the last

couple years. Finally, the first kit is out. It is kit # 41-LC, the

Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden. Yes, that is the old Kit #41 upgraded

to laser cut parts and a few other changes. I have teamed up

with a new laser cutter and after working out at least most

of the bugs (I would have said all the bugs are out of it, but

I know that would have come back and bit me in the butt) I

have gotten a supply of parts and produced the first kits. The

Ad appeared in the September issue of Flying Models and

will also be in the October issue. As most of you know laser

cutting is more expensive that printwood to make so the

price is higher per kit than the original printwood kit. Also

for the time being I am only selling the laser kits directly and

not through dealers until I get a feel for final costing.

About now you are probably wondering why I picked the

J2M3 for my first kit. Fair enough question. Because I ran

out of printwood and still wanted to keep the kit in my

line but didn't want to have to order a 10 year supply of

parts. With laser cutting I can order 10 or 50 sets of parts

for the same price per set of parts.

So my plans if sales of the J2M3 are successful to add

other kits to the laser cut series. Not banking on just that

one kit I plan at least 2 or 3 others in the upcoming months

and probably will make a couple totally new kits laser cut

also. So stay tuned for future releases.

That's it for now. If you have any suggestions let me know.

Dave

June 25, 2009

Hi Gang,

Well, the Sale started the end of April is still going on. Except now

I have decided to call it my Summer Sale and end it on August 31,

2009. I decided to advertise it in the July and August issues of

Flying Models magazine and had to extend it to the end of August

so I could get more exposure in the magazine.

The sale has been going fairly well and has resulted in some new

customers and also has resulted in one more kit on the out of stock

list, Kit #35, Nakajima B5N2 Kate kit. Also, short kits have been

selling well.

I have finally returned to work on my next two kit subjects. I am

building a prototype for the first one now and working on finishing

the prototype drawings. I hope to get these new kits out by the

end of the year if all goes well.

Well that's all for now. Hope you are all doing well in this erratic

economy.

Good Flying,

Dave

April 28, 2009

Hello Fellow Aero Modelers,

In light of the recent recession I am announcing a 30% Off sale

on everything except only 25% off on short kits and printwood sets.

You can check the Special Offers Page for details and the Current

Product News page for items in short supply or out of stock.

You can call it anything you want such as Recession Sale, or Spring

Clearance Sale, or Economic Stimulus Sale, but I call it a special sale.

Truth is a sale is a sale for one main reason, to raise cash and reduce

inventory.

Right now in order for me to come out with new products I need to

generate income to pay for the new product development. I am about

60% along on two new kits but will not commit to them until I have

adequate funds for initial production. The economy under normal

conditions provides these funds but Customer orders have been

drastically reduced. So I am having a sale to generate some much

needed cash. Dealer and Distributor orders have also ground to a

halt so right now I'm in neutral on the uphill slope of a mountain.

The sale is for a limited time only and I think you will find the sale

prices attractive. I am in short supply of a couple kits and a couple'

are already out of stock. Since I will not be ordering materials as

I run out of stock on various kits I suggest you get your orders in

soon before the stock runs out. I do not intend to reorder parts for

out of stock items until this recession is over and as I have said

elsewhere that may not happen until a certain hot spot freezes over.

The sale will last for at least the next few weeks.

Thanks in advance for your support, and as always your comments

are welcome.

Dave Diels

President

January 19, 2009

Hi Gang,

Good news. The Shinden Kit #10 and Short Kit SK-10 are now back

in stock. Got the new supply of parts in last Friday.

Not much other news right now. Trying to stay warm and dodge snow

drifts.

Dave

January 5, 2009

Happy New Year to you all,

We are back in operation after taking some time off for Christmas

and getting at least a start on inventory and taxes.

As for current product news I have ordered parts for the Shinden

Kit # 10. They should be in sometime this month or early Feb.

Check the current products page for status of kits which are in

short supply or out of stock.

As for new products I am currently working on two new kits for

my next combination kit offering. I hope to make the announcement

sometime in March. I will post the announcement on this website

and on the various Yahoo free flight groups.

That's it for now,

Dave

December 13, 2008

Hi All,

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year

to you and yours.

We are shutting down on the 15th for the rest of the year as

explained in my November 22 message. We will be back

open for business on January 5, 2009. Any orders placed

between December 15th and January 5 will be processed

after January 5th. As I mentioned we will be doing inventory

(work), getting ready to do our taxes(more work), and

spending time with our family for the Holidays(priceless).

Thanks to all of you for your support during this past year

and in fact for all the past years.

Dave Diels

November 22, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving to all,

To celebrate the season I am having a 25% off sale. This

applies to all theregular items in my line including kits, short

kits, plans, canopies, printwood and decals. The catch is its

only for two weeks. Take 25% off the list price of any of

these items not including shipping and handling. The sale ends

December 7, 2008. Why so short? Well this year we are

shutting down on December 15th for the rest of the year to

do several things including inventory, entertaining our family

for Christmas, and getting ready for the tax man. This is

normally not a busy time for us and frankly I want to spend time

with my family without the interruption of the business. Since

 all of our business is mail order it any orders come in during

this time they will be filled after the first week of January.

The inventory will take a good deal of the time as I plan to go

through my entire basement and get rid of stuff I no longer

need. So look for some stuff to appear on the Misc For Sale

page later in January.

As you know unless you are either dead or in a coma the

economy stinks right now and I am now planning on

accelerating my phaseout of many of my lesser selling kits.

So if you been thinking of getting some but putting it off

you may soon be out of luck. My cash flow is such that

I will not reorder many of the kits when current stock runs

out. And that applies to some later kits that are slow sellers.

Well that's all for now. If you have any questions e-mail me

at the above link and I'll try to answer them.

Thanks again for your support.

Dave Diels

September 22, 2008

Hello again,

Just thought I'd let you all know that I just added a new Misc. For Sale page

in the Product news section. I have listed some model magazines that I

no longer want or need but am too cheap to just give them away. I have

gone through them and there is some really good stuff in some of them

and they are all kind of fun to look through. Most are from the 70's and 80's

but the Air Trails go back to my high school days in the 1950's. Frankly

I am running out of storage space and need to get rid of them.

I plan to add a list of Plastic Kit models that I have purchased over the

last 25 or 30 years as potential or actual subjects for my plans and/or kits.

That will come as I get time or when my wife decides I need to really clean

house. Seriously, I have probably a couple hundred kits that I no longer need.

It will take time to go through all of them and I will probably post a few at a

time. Pricing them will take the most time as they were bought mostly before

the rising price of plastic took off.

Let me know if you are looking for something special. I might have it.

Dave Diels

September 10, 2008

Hi All,

Well I finally got the PayPal Payments buttons to work after working with

suggestions from the PayPal folks I finally was able to go into the code

behind these pages and correct the problems which may have happened

when the old web host had their server hacked into. I made what I think

was the final correction about 11:30 last night.

Current Stock News:

I wanted to cover some of the current stock issues with you to explain why

some items are out of stock or will shortly be out of stock or why some are

being retired when they run out of stock.

First, if you go to the current product news page you can see that several

items are either out of stock or in short supply. Here is why. First of all last

May I retired the Globe Swift kit # LEK-101. It was origninally a 1 in 500

limited edition kit and it finally ran through all the original order of decals.

So it has been retired. I do still have printwood available so I still have short

kits SK-LEK-101 in stock until such time as the printwood runs out. The

printwood set is also available separately as PW-LEK-101 until the

printwood runs out.

Next on the list is the Hawker Typhoon Kit # 29. It is now out of stock. I am

out of decals and printwood for this kit and it will not be back in stock soon.

You may or may not want to know why but I will tell you anyway. The Typhoon

has not been a good seller. It was first produced back in 1997. It has taken

that long to run out of my original supply of decals. I don't recall how many

sets of decals I ordered but it was probably 500 sets and for those of you

who have the kit you will note it has about 5 or 6 colors and is a big sheet.

I cannot order less than 150 to 200 sets of decals to get a good price on

them. I haven't sold more than 10 to 15 kits a year for the past 5 or 6 years.

So it just isn't practical to order more parts that I can sell in the next 10 years.

My options are to revise the decal sheet to make it less expensive. That

takes time and frankly this kit isn't worth the effort at this time.

Next is the Bf-109E kit # 21. This one is down to 1 kit left after current

commitments are filled. I will probably buy more printwood for this one as I

still have decals left to cover at least one more run of printwood. However,

the source for this kits printwood has recently supplied me with crap wood

on a couple other kits which I did not discover until running some kits recently

so I will have to go to my preferred supplier with new artwork and that takes

time. I the mean time this kit has never sold well. If I sell 10 a year its a lot.

So when the last one is gone it will be sometime next year when I restock

for it if then. The short kit is out of stock also.

Next are the P-39 Kit # 36 and the Ki-84 Frank Kit # 43. The parts are

being made and they will be back in stock hopefully by the end of September.

Not that they are big sellers, nothing is a big seller this year, but they are

newer kits and have sufficients sales to justify reordering parts.

Next is the J2M3 Jack jit # 41. I have one kit left on the shelf and am out of

printwood. This one has not been a big seller but it is one the I like. I will not

reorder parts until next year. The short kit is out of stock.

The Near Future:

Because of the recent slow downs in the hobby industry in general and

because my sales are down about 50% from last year I am planning on

retiring several of my older kits when I use up printwood and/or decals.

Those that sell well I will keep in stock. I can no longer afford to keep poor

sellers in the line just because I like them. If they don't sell they will be retired

when materials run out. Here are the kits with the poorest sales other than

those mentioned above. Kit # 1, Kit # 2, Kit #3, Kit # 5, Kit # 10, Kit #14,

Kit # 17, Kit #18, Kit #24, Kit #26, Kit #32, Kit #37. The only reason some

of these are not yet retired is I still have parts for them. So if you are missing

some from your collection you might want to consider getting them before

they are gone.

I have given a lot of thought in the last year about laser cut kits. And, I have

had some sample sheets cut for a few of my current kits and some have been

or are being built to test the fit of the parts. The results so far have been good.

However, the cost of laser cut parts is at least twice the price of printwood parts. 

So I have put the project on hold for now. However, I have started adding some

laser cut parts to some kits to replace turned wheels which I no longer use due

to tripling of the cost of turnings in recent years. As turned parts run out I will

replace some of them with laser cut parts.

New Products:

Many of you have asked when I will be coming out with something new? Well,

I planned on coming out with two new kits this year but I just haven't been able

to concentrate on them due to a whole host of problems such as getting the

web site up and running. Also family activities have increased as our grand

children continue to grow up and recent slow downs in the economy have also

had an effect. I finally have been able to get back to the designs of the next two

kits and should be ready to start on one of the prototypes by the end of the

month but it will be next year before I will be ready to get them into production.

As for what they will be you will have to wait for the announcement. Both

subjects are American. That should narrow it down a bit.

All for now.

Dave

September 5, 2008

Hi Gang,

Well it have been one heck of a month since I last wrote. Hopefully you

have had a good summer. Mine has been spent mostly in trying to get this

web site built. I know it will continue to be under construction for a while,

or maybe even forever. But I think it is ready to use now.

You will notice many changes in the way it is organized. It isn't like I had

before but it will due for now. I also solicit your comments and suggestions.

However, take it easy as I am using the software from the host and there

are some limits to what I can do with arrangement. Any way this new site

can incorporate eventually a complete E-shopping option which I plan to

get eventually.

That's all for now.