Small Scale Military Headquarters

norman888 wrote:

f56tbird wrote:Gentlemen,
...before skyworks totally disappears like cockroches in a housing project.

A bit harsh I think, especially if you did not personally deal with him and lose any money or property (ahem, Pickel). He is no better or worse than the so-called professional 1/18th scale companies that are/were around.

Making these custom 1/18th offerings for the public is no way to make a real living, but more of a glorified hobby/passion. Luckily I got a FW-190A nose and a KI-61 Tony from Skyworks that both still need to be made before he shut down. You could see that these molds had some hours put into them by looking at the fit and detail involved...these were not just basic shape-ok detail kind of models. The way I could justify the cost of these was by selling some of my stash of Wal-Mart finds that were purchased for $39.84 and sold for >$150

yep

dcway wrote:i'm probably the biggest fan of the warthog and now ........No words can say how i feel !!!!!!!!

Oh, I don't know about that..... ......I think I can give you a big run for your money in the A-10 fan department ........you don't want to even know my feelings right now. A bunch of $h!t if you ask me.

I'm not giving up on seeing an A-10 in 1/18 scale yet. There's still hope........

for those looking for F-14 pilots there are quite a few auctions from a seller in MI who posted this description. It may add another supporting fact to some of your theories......

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-18-Pilots-JSI-F-1 ... 1c1d5034aa

"Up for auction is a PAIR of pilots designed, and hand painted for the 1/18 JSI F-14. These are the exact same as the ones sold by SkyWorksToys, and I know since I made, and painted every pilot they sold. Due to their unwillingness to pay for any of the work, I am selling the remainder of my stock here. I have 20 ready for sale, and another 20 in production. This auction is for a pair of the pilots, each different, but both will fit in the plane. Watch for other auctions for singles, and pairs of these great pilots. I can also do custom work such as a Thunderbird pilot with a blue uniform, and an authentic helmet in red, or different decals. Just let me know if you are interested. This auction is for a pair of the older Jolly Roger pilots, both with the visors down. This one of my favorite pairs, with the visors down"

"Up for auction is a PAIR of pilots designed, and hand painted for the 1/18 JSI F-14. These are the exact same as the ones sold by SkyWorksToys, and I know since I made, and painted every pilot they sold. Due to their unwillingness to pay for any of the work, I am selling the remainder of my stock here.

Shame to hear yet another story of unsavory business practices by Skyworks.

They did bring some very nice stuff to 1/18 scale, and I bought a couple of their F-16 exhaust nozzles, which were well done. And I have a Skyworks 1/18 F-16 done in the desert "Aggressors" scheme. Bought off Ebay.

But there were always stories of missing planes, pieces, etc, that were not addressed by Skyworks, and left you wondering. And now this "employee" claims he was never paid for his work.

Just more evidence that Skyworks could not be trusted.

Not sure if it is due to lack of funds, or just that Jack from Skyworks can be a real A-hole.

I applaud both PH, and Corey for not "dancing on the grave" of what could have been a great customizing company for 1/18.

Can't say that I'm surprised. I think now is a good time for me to tell you all about my experience with Skyworks... how they threatened to sue me because of this board, and how I basically told them off.

A few years ago, I got a call from an unknown number at work, and I let it go to voicemail. Basically, it was from the head of Skyworks wanting to talk to me about a potential lawsuit against me. I immediately called them back curious how I'd warranted a lawsuit and what the heck for. Basically, back when Pickel was having his issues with skyworks (and rightfully so) and was airing out a warning to everyone on the boards, Skyworks go all upset and decided that it was bad press and they didn't want it appearing on this board. So, Jack decided to call me up and threaten me with a bogus lawsuit saying I was 'hurting his name' and 'business' by allowing these posts to be on the boards, and since I'm the forum admin, I can be sued for the defamatory remarks towards Skyworks. Basically trying to cover himself and bully me into removing the posts, I basically told him off telling him that he had no grounds to sue me, and that he was trying to blackmail me. On the phone he tried to explain his grounds, but I could tell he was covering for his mistakes and bad press. I had no sympathy for him in the LEAST, and I almost made a decision to ban him along with any mention of his company for that reason. I decided to let him stay, only because a lot of you did deal with him... and I decided to let all the bad press from his practices stay on the boards as a sincere warning. I'm not about to let some bully try and manipulate this board. I had a similar issue with Bad Cat a number of years ago. At any rate, I did nothing and left the posts up (even made them a sticky for a time as I recall) and as I figured, he realized there was no grounds to sue me and I called his bluff. I consulted lawyers as well about the matter, all of which laughed and said any suit like that would be thrown out of court. After going back and forth with him on email a couple of times and him threatening me, I basically said he has no grounds to come after me, and it just died out from there.

So, I honestly can't say I'm sorry to see the company go. I feel bad for those who now have to try and deal with getting either their money back or trying to recover their aircraft. Best of luck to you all.

First off, I have never done business with Skyworks, I did think they had some really nice models and had considered buying from them, but then negative posts started showing up on the forum and then there was a out and out rant from who I believe was Jack from Skyworks.

I started to watch after that to see where this company was going, things had quieted down and then they talked about their alliance with Al-go to produce the A-10 and it seemed they were going somewhere with this project, slowly showing some pictures of work done and then nothing.

I'm not here to bash them, but from a consumer point of view I would not do business with them, too many negatives for me, I hope that anyone who had a deposit or waiting for a product gets his return or product, but it sounds like its not going to happen.

Gentlemen,
let me echo Sir P-51's comments and situations that has has mentioned. These are the acts of a complete erratic and impulsive rank amateur. No thought or logic only the motivation of how much I can get and from who with the least amount of effort. For those members that have had nominal success and some level of satisfaction dealing with skyworks, I congratulate you. However the episodes that I have read over the past and how he has treated customers who have honestly tried to do business with him along with threats, lies, underhanded business practices and so on, greatly out number the customers that have really had any success or satisfaction. Skyworks will dissapear quickly over the next few weeks or most likely days and will leave nothing only the exception of those who will never get what they have been waiting for.

These are the only remaining photos of the $700 custom I'd received from Skyworks. The photos don't do it justice, it was much worse.

I'd sent this to one of the members of the board looking for a basket case to work on. If you're here, where you able to do anything with it?

I'm unable to reconcile this with what he had shown and claimed as his. I'm hoping that, with the guy making the pilots now on ebay, all the good stuff came from others and they might start selling directly also.

P.S.
Patrick from Airstrike mentioned to me that he was receiving alotta grief and threats from another "unnamed" customizer just before he went offline. With any luck that "unnamed" customizer was Slyworks and he might come back.

--just hoping

Buckyroo wrote:for those looking for F-14 pilots there are quite a few auctions from a seller in MI who posted this description. It may add another supporting fact to some of your theories......

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-18-Pilots-JSI-F-1 ... 1c1d5034aa

Think its a good idea to contact and invite this seller here to the board? He has skills to build and paint these and having another customizer onboard here wouldnt hurt. At the least, having another member here to shoot the breeze and share the interest in this hobby of ours. Maybe even getting stories on the inner workings of skyworks from another point of view.

As for the probable demise of the A-10...

I'll just crawl into bed now and cry myself to sleep

Maybe some day, I hope to hear BBI say "We'll take it from here..."

pickelhaube wrote:I can think of a thousand things to say about this subject.

All of them unkind maybe even nasty.

But I wont.

I'm glad I never did any business with them.

dcway wrote:I wounder if we'll ever find out the true story behind this ????? the thing that pisses me off is that we'll probably never get an A-10 now !!!!i'm probably the biggest fan of the warthog and now ........No words can say how i feel !!!!!!!!

I am a big fan too of the A-10.Now i will be stock with my power team elite A-10 for more years.I can not believe they will go trough the large amount of work of making the A-10,and give UP!! I wonder what is going to happen with the prototype.

In 2006 or 07 I approached Jack and wanted to buy 10+ FW-190A cowlings to do customs with them and sell them on eBay, he said he was the only one he wanted selling his product. Were "other"customizes using his kits to do there own customs? like the above P-51B? $700? really? was it advertised as made by Skyworks toys? I always thought his prices were insane but I thought the quality was ok, though I had to put in about 20-30hrs of work to make the Sturmtiger I bought from him actually look good.

Before


After

Not only was it advertised as made by Skyworks, I bought it from him and he sent it to me. Yeah, it was on ebay, the bids went as high (no problem there, I've bid more on other stuff) as they did since he was using it as an example of the work he was well known for and proud of. He even included showing other examples of his work in the listing. He even included this P-51 on his webpage with the others he was show casing. Great photos, carefully posed.

Great job on the Sturmtiger!!

...for orders placed through Pay Pal please contact Pay Pal for refunds .

What?

is that what it says on skywork's website? If so, that means Jack ran off with the money and it will be up to paypal to give refunds out of their own pocket. A much tougher and lengthier task for the buyer as a result.

It also means Jack better hide. Paypal will be coming after him like he has no idea...they are merciless in cases like this. They will prosecute in both civil and criminal court.

chunks wrote:Not only was it advertised as made by Skyworks, I bought it from him and he sent it to me

Wow, really shocked by the finish of your P-51B. This is not what i would expect from Skyworks or from a $700 price tag. I guess I was buying from him before he got too "big" and started to use outside help to complete his models. I only purchased unfinished models/conversions from him that were quite good.

This whole thing is really bazaar, but he always had a really bad attitude towards me and other customizers, I guess he was mad that he did not have the market cornered. I always wanted a Tony kit and a Typhoon kit but owell, if hes really out of the picture for good someone skilled should really try to get their hands on one of those kits or a Komet kit and make new molds and start producing them.

Jnewboy wrote:...if hes really out of the picture for good someone skilled should really try to get their hands on one of those kits or a Komet kit and make new molds and start producing them.

I've got one of his Komet kits... only partially built, that I'd be willing to sell to someone for just that purpose

PH are you listening?

tmanthegreat wrote:

Jnewboy wrote:...if hes really out of the picture for good someone skilled should really try to get their hands on one of those kits or a Komet kit and make new molds and start producing them.

I've got one of his Komet kits... only partially built, that I'd be willing to sell to someone for just that purpose

PH are you listening?

By copywrite it has to be %80 (The new owners) before he can legally cast and sell it. AFAIK.

I was wondering about copyrights as well. It doesn't sound right that you can make molds from items you purchased with intent to sell them unless you can prove you heavily modified them first, even if the company goes under. I would proceed with caution if that is your intent.

Airacobra wrote:I was wondering about copyrights as well. It doesn't sound right that you can make molds from items you purchased with intent to sell them unless you can prove you heavily modified them first, even if the company goes under. I would proceed with caution if that is your intent.

Well, since a Komet is a Komet no matter who makes the mold, if you make a new set of molds from the Skyworks parts and spruce them up a tad - who would know they are originals? How different must they be to determine that 80% mark?

Not sure... But knowing JACK I would be careful!

It's not like Skyworks didn't heist someone else's work here. Then suddenly he's offering it. Copyright shmopyright.

Are you guys joking? copyright laws do not cover crap like this, think about all the model companies would always be suing each other. No one is paying royalties to Germany for using Luftwaffe designs are they? a copy is a copy in any scale. Jack does not own anything but HIS molds, if he sold the parts they belong to someone else and they can do anything they want with it.

Im right, I worked for a lawyer at one time and considered being one but enjoyed Real estate Appraisal more.

A good example is the LCD HD TV, Sony makes a very good one, so every time they release a new one Wal-mart buys it and takes it apart and makes an exact copy of it and sells it under their brand Sanyo. Its perfectly legal and there is nothing Sony can do. Car companies do it also. A feature appears on the S-Class and a few years latter its on BMW's, Lexus and a few years after that its on a Ford and a Hyundai...