Absolutely outrageous. There is no pattern plane made anywhere by ANYONE that is worth that kind of money. There is absolutely nothing special about them. Simple wood roaches. But that's just my opinion.... Kinda heavy too...
This is the one thing among several that irritate me about the high cost pattern planes. They are wood models and are simply finished nicely. There is no innovation in them that can begin to warrant the price tag. BEM's post was particularly enlightening since his landing gear blocks are poorly made and tail wheel is poor quality. And the other relatively poor quality components BEM mentioned. So I ask, why do some think these models are worth the price? The finish alone?
To me, the price tag is only driving up the price tags of all the other composite offerings. To me, it's bad for Pattern. Keep in mind that modelers are not building the available composite models but hourly wage people are. So you get what you get. good. bad or ugly. I know that Bryan Hebert is in constant communication with the factory to do a better job with his designs.
On the other hand, we have Andrew Jesky and his new Pattern releases which are all wood and at less than 1000$ US, more in line with other all wood offerings (Vanquish). Andrew's plane is a fine flier from the various reports Ive read. If you want a fine painted finish on one of them, you would have to do it yourself of course, but that's no big deal. Pat Harris has showed how to apply a great paint finish on a model. superior to anything available from Japan. And I have shown how to apply the light covering underlayment for Pat's paint that is the same as that used by the Japanese... All the tools are there so it's laziness or simply afraid to learn new skills.
I don't buy the argument that one has no time. Thirty years ago we all built and finished our own. Has available time really gotten that short in thirty years? I don't think so.
If you don't have the knowledge to create a fine painted finish and don't want to put in the effort to learn from available sources, then I guess you would pay through the nose.
OFF the Soap Box