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PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:06 pm 
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Since Alan is interested, I will continue posting my findings.
I mentioned a wrong part count last night. Here it is:
Attachment:
boat windows2.jpg
boat windows2.jpg [ 81.13 KiB | Viewed 1637 times ]

As you can see, there are 5 parts 571 called for on each side of this lifeboat. Total 10 per boat. There are 2 of these boats. For a total of 20 parts.
This is what is supplied:
Attachment:
boat windows.jpg
boat windows.jpg [ 84.27 KiB | Viewed 1637 times ]

As you can see, there are only 18 of these parts supplied. So one of the boats will be short 2.
The error I mentioned is here:
Attachment:
bridge.jpg
bridge.jpg [ 143.14 KiB | Viewed 1637 times ]

There are 2 bridges on the Mikasa, referred to Pontos as the Front Bridge and the Back Bridge. Each bridge has its own picture page for assembly. In this picture you can see at the very top that this is the page for the REAR BRIDGE. The problem is that the small picture included on this page that has the red arrow pointing to it, is from the Front Bridge. While assembling the Front Bridge, I never saw that parts 302 and 303 went where indicated on this picture. I had to rip off the top of the bridge in order to be able to place those parts. VERY bad error.
I don't expect any comment by Pontos, much less fixes anymore.


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:20 pm 
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I've been concentrating on just getting the ship built and have not documented all the problems I keep running into, but this one really bugged me because it makes assembly very hard.
There are vertical seams that run all over the ship's hull. Pontos supplies you with a type of platform that goes around most of the ship. It is made out of stainless steel. Very nice looking. Very detailed.
The problem is, Pontos did not add "notches" in the platform to allow it to make contact with the hull. Instead, the only contact it makes is along this tiny seams. Most of the platform is left "floating" with gap between it and the hull. And since the part is made out of stainless steel, it is impossible to bend laterally without it distorting. Pontos makes some incredibly detailed parts, with all sorts of accommodations for the way the model is molded. I'm really bummed that they did not do this with these parts. It not only made the assembly very fragile in how it is glued, but also caused the brackets that support the platform to be useless since they cannot reach the hull without again, deforming them. Very bad oversight.
The picture shows just one of the many vertical seams, red arrows. The platform is marked with a black arrow.


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seams.jpg
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:10 pm 
Why not just cut some narrow slots in the seams? This is what modelling is about, problem solving.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:59 pm 
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Guest wrote:
Why not just cut some narrow slots in the seams? This is what modelling is about, problem solving.

First of all, you pay big bucks for these sets for a reason.
Second, you try cutting a notch on this part without destroying it. It can barely be handled without it bending all over the place.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 5:49 am 
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Why not notch the protruding line on the plastic then? TBH I'd have just done that without a second thought.

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http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=167151


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 11:06 am 
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I find it sad the way some members of this board are picking on PONTOS.
Since PONTOS arrived on the scene it has been a constant drip drip of negative outbursts with very little merit. I do not remember this kind of bile when there was only one or two companies on the market, producing product , product light years inferior to what Korea is producing for us today.
It must be very difficult for PONTOS to stay cool and reply in a very polite way to some of the accusation flying . I know their livelihood depends on it, that's why it is up to us to stop this barrage .

All you have to do is to read the pages and pages of their Bismarck set to get the idea here . This hurts the hobby and us all , I am really to old to still tinker with PE but I remember life before .
.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 11:40 am 
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bielingg wrote:
I find it sad the way some members of this board are picking on PONTOS.
Since PONTOS arrived on the scene it has been a constant drip drip of negative outbursts with very little merit. I do not remember this kind of bile when there was only one or two companies on the market, producing product , product light years inferior to what Korea is producing for us today.
It must be very difficult for PONTOS to stay cool and reply in a very polite way to some of the accusation flying . I know their livelihood depends on it, that's why it is up to us to stop this barrage .

All you have to do is to read the pages and pages of their Bismarck set to get the idea here . This hurts the hobby and us all , I am really to old to still tinker with PE but I remember life before .
.


I'll be accused of bias no doubt, but I think people need a reality check.

The product is priced at a level a little above the competition, and the product is quite a bit more comprehensive. Nobody forces anyone to buy it. It's a lot of work. The amount of brass colour in the photographs gives a good hint at that.

To expect not to have to use any skills is a bit naive in my honest opinion. If a modeller thinks the quality is not up to standard then don't buy another and see how you prefer the competition or see how you get on scratchbuilding.

When parts are missing or damaged, Pontos replace. Where parts simply don't fit, Pontos make correction parts.

On this forum I've seen a lot of people giving Kim a hard time for not spending all his time answering a lot of useless questions (which first he has to translate - and Korean is not a particularly compatible language with English as far as syntax and sentence structure goes) and usually just to ask "when will you release <whatever I fancy building next>?"
I've seen someone upset because they'd have to transpose positioning information given on the instructions to the model manually. I've seen someone insisting that an assembly was IMPOSSIBLE to build despite it being assembled right there on the photographic instructions.

He's running a business and like many small companies there isn't a staff sitting waiting to answer stupid questions and surf foreign language forums looking for mentions to react to. And to say what? "Yes, that was a typo. Well spotted"?

Anyone who remembers the early GMM or WEM days with black sketches suggesting a part was attached 'roughly there' doesn't complain too much about Pontos instructions.

So, again, reality check.

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Sovereign Hobbies Ltd
http://www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk

Current build:
HMS Imperial D09 1/350
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=167151


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PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2018 6:25 am 
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SovereignHobbies wrote:
When parts are missing or damaged, Pontos replace. Where parts simply don't fit, Pontos make correction parts.


I've PM them and emailed them at least 10 times already about replacement parts. I never got any reply from them. The customer service in Pontos is very poor imho.


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PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2018 8:27 am 
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SovereignHobbies
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kruker wrote:
SovereignHobbies wrote:
When parts are missing or damaged, Pontos replace. Where parts simply don't fit, Pontos make correction parts.


I've PM them and emailed them at least 10 times already about replacement parts. I never got any reply from them. The customer service in Pontos is very poor imho.


When I last spoke with Kim, he acknowledged that he struggles with this but I personally think a part of it is because of the vastly different sentence structures etc between Latin based languages like English and Korean. Despite the brand's popularity it's still a very small business and like all small businesses, Kim is trying to juggle many things at once.

In the UK I am responsible for making good defects etc when I sell to UK customers due to our laws. The inability to get spares quickly was something I had to speak to Kim about and to be fair to him, he was pretty straight with me and didn't try any BS excuses. We agreed that for our customers the best way to get spares is to go direct but to limit text to the very basics. Of course, you may have already tried this one of the 10 times but if you did try to write nice emails, then I suggest one more try direct to Pontos using something like this - PM me with your email address if you want the native Excel file to fill in. :thumbs_up_1:

Attachment:
PontosSpares.jpg
PontosSpares.jpg [ 220.61 KiB | Viewed 1243 times ]


Kim and I agreed that sending one of these with subject heading as above is the best way to get spares, so I created the template to include in boxes we already have - he planned to include them in future shipments to try to improve the spares/replacements situation. He can just pass this on to packing staff to deal with and minimal translation etc is required. I try to help another Korean company with English regularly and have to admit the two languages do not mesh well at all. Using Google Translate or similar gives some utterly bizarre results!

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Sovereign Hobbies Ltd
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Current build:
HMS Imperial D09 1/350
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=167151


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PostPosted: Thu May 03, 2018 9:27 am 
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First allow me to indicate that I have found the attention to detail and precision engineering incorporated in the Pontos Detail Up sets is exceptional and unmatched by any other company’s products I have had the occasion to work with. Their instruction format does require careful study on occasion which in most cases can be resolved by enlarging the online copy to 400% (or greater). The builder's integration of the Pontos instructions with the kit instructions is probably a greater challenge.
To date, I have acquired both the 1/200 Bismarck and Hood sets and have completed the lion's share of the work in both kits (below). In the case of the Hood Detail Up set, it contains 20 photo etch sheets incorporating thousands of parts and 307 scribed brass components, so the chance of a part or parts being rendered unusable or lost by the builder is probably quite high. Pontos does provide extra parts in their sets in some cases but covering all eventualities in such a manner is impractical. So, I would hope that Pontos product support would/should offer replacement parts at fair market value plus postage. In that regard, I currently have placed and paid for an order for replacement parts with Pontos to address three parts I messed up (the pompom gun sights) and two brass parts I have lost. This order dates back a number of months now but fully understand that due to staffing and production considerations, orders such as mine take time. Now that a standard order form has been developed, I have since resubmitted my request. Hopefully the required parts will be provided in due course.ImageImage


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PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2018 10:10 pm 
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Since I might be looked at as one of those "picking" on Pontos, I am the first person to compliment Pontos on the incredible sets that they sell. I have said it several times. When I "pick" on Pontos, it's because Mr. Park listens to us and improves the kits and even modifies them according to some of the feedback that is voiced in these forums. So when I "pick" on Pontos, it's to notify them of the errors that I found and hope that they can fix them and IMPROVE their product to increase their sales and amazing quality. When you consider the amount of parts involved, the errors that I found were very minimal, and I appreciate that. I don't see my reporting errors as "picking" on Pontos, rather than "sharing" my experience and findings during the assembly of these kits. Isn't this what these forum are ultimately for?


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PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2018 10:12 pm 
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kruker wrote:
SovereignHobbies wrote:
When parts are missing or damaged, Pontos replace. Where parts simply don't fit, Pontos make correction parts.


I've PM them and emailed them at least 10 times already about replacement parts. I never got any reply from them. The customer service in Pontos is very poor imho.


I too have tried contacting them several times and get absolutely no response. Language barriers are one thing, but by totally ignoring a message, rather than acknowledging it, at least for clarification is another.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:37 pm 
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To all who has this 1/200 Mikasa detail set.
Some received sets might be missed correction fret.
If your set has following correction fret , please send me an email with Postal address and receiver name.
Image
And I am arranging some manual pages where Tobori noted.
You can download with PDF form from each modified page.

Thank you
Keumho Kim

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