Hi Wayne - I'm not taking any new orders at the moment I'm sorry. I have taken all the pages of the website down except for the home page.

The pilot making is actually quite a complex operation involving, and needing, all 3 of us - Katherine, Richard and myself. Katherine has recently signed up for university and starts in July which means I lose my sewer. The sewing and painting is very time consuming and I cannot find anyone who wants to help, or is able to. As I mentioned in post #457 I've been putting together a P-47 from our own moulds and it is so exciting to see it come together so quickly I've become a bit of a plane tragic! I love going out and being part of the flying and I love the art side of painting and weathering the planes especially now that all the panel and rivet detail is moulded in. I'm not a builder but this method of making a mould and being able to quickly reproduce them has completely sucked me in

Richard has always been a builder and flyer and the pilots started from his need so he's still wanting to spend his time building planes rather than pilots, other than for his own needs. We all work full time as well so there just isn't the time to do it all. I've agonized over the decision for weeks but since Katherine's change in direction that was really the final straw. I think we're all a little burnt out as well.

I understand the need for pilots but the need is so varied - different scales, uniforms, nationalities, eras - it's never ending which is wonderful in the variety but a lot of time spent developing new and different things that may or may not be used again for a long time. I'm currently working through and filling my orders but after that I'm very much looking forward to helping develop new plugs and moulds for a list of exciting plane projects.

Kelly, George has been a great customer - very patient I still have a 1/4 scale head of him to paint for his Mustang. He has terrific looking models.

I've had an amazing time making the pilots and I can't say that I wont go back to it sometime in the future - maybe when I retire! But for the meantime I'm looking forward to my own flying projects.

cheers
Patti